Our Social Development Process
Our goal is to improve the quality of life of the citizens of the southern West Island and to promote social development. Social development enables us to establish and promote opportunities for citizens and communities to develop their potential, actively participate in social life and to take their fair share of the collective wealth. It allows the community to progress socially, culturally and economically within the context of sustainable development and in connection with principles of social justice.
This is accomplished through the creation of spaces for collaboration between local citizens, businesses, organisations, elected officials and institutions. The aim is to identify the needs of the community, to discuss possible solutions and to implement action plans to address select priorities. The TQSOI facilitates the entire process, in which the participation of the citizens and the mobilisation of the community are essential elements.
The TQSOI uses a five step process to put social development into action in its territory. This methodology ensures that citizens and local actors are actively involved in every phase of social development, meaning that it is a democratic and collaborative approach through each of the following steps:
Phase 1: Assessment of the situation
During this phase, the TQSOI’s goal is to understand the state of affairs in its community by directly involving individual citizens and the community in diagnostics of community needs. To accomplish this, the TQSOI collects information on the quality of life through the organisation of citizen’s forums and focus groups, which is combined with an analysis of surveys and statistical information. This phase allows to build a global portrait of the southern West Island.
Phase 2: Creation of a shared vision and prioritization of the citizens’ needs
The TQSOI helps build a shared vision for collective action in addressing some pressing priorities.
Phase 3: Identification of strategies and actions in order to achieve the established objectives
The TQSOI forms committees to address each of the priorities identified by members of the community. These committees include representatives from institutions, community organisations, municipalities, as well as citizens. The committees discuss and make decisions on the actions, strategies and exact steps that must be taken to make improvements in the specific dimension of the quality of life that they focus on. Consult our current social development action plan (2016-2021) for more information.
Phase 4: Implementation
The implementation of the social development action plan described above takes place over the span of five years. In order to assure a successful implementation, each action goes through an assessment process to identify its feasibility, desirability and sustainability.
Phase 5: Evaluation
Although the evaluation of actions and strategies implemented by the TQSOI is an ongoing process, this final phase is a comprehensive evaluation of the social development action plan at the close of its five-year implementation. Consult the results of our evaluation of our social development action plan (2016-2021) for more information.
