Community & Stakeholder Engagement
Community engagement and stakeholder consultation is central to the delivery of many of Vink Consulting’s projects. We regularly engage with a wide range of groups and individuals; from government, community agencies, the private sector, individuals from diverse and marginalized population groups, to the wider community. As part of our commitment to collaborative planning, Vink Consulting creates proactive and inclusive opportunities for stakeholders and the public to engage in the plans and strategies it prepares. In addition to conducting community engagement and stakeholder consultation as part of our wider projects, Vink Consulting also designs and implements engagement and consultation programs as a stand-alone service. We use a wide range of both traditional and innovative qualitative and quantitative techniques, tailored to suit the needs of the particular group.
We can assist with:
- Stakeholder identification and mapping
- Design and implementation of community engagement and stakeholder consultation plans
- Facilitation, planning and management of all types of stakeholder and public engagement events (workshops, forums, open houses, focus groups, interviews, etc.)
- Development of tools to support consultation and engagement processes (surveys, discussion guides, display boards, etc.)
RECENT EXAMPLES
The Scarborough Housing Stabilization Planning Network (SHSPN) engaged Vink Consulting to conduct a research project to explore homelessness and housing insecurity in Scarborough. Through a review of existing literature and extensive primary research and community consultations, the report examined:
- The demographic make-up of Scarborough and policies that impact housing issues in Scarborough
- The nature of Scarborough’s homeless and at-risk populations, their experiences of homelessness and housing insecurity, barriers they face in finding and maintaining housing, as well as service gaps and needs
- The services offered in Scarborough, service use patterns, networks and partnerships between services providers.
Community consultations included: surveys, short-interviews, and focus groups with individuals with a lived experience of homelessness or housing instability; a survey of service providers; focus groups with service providers; and a community workshop.
As part of the City of Peterborough’s 10-year Housing and Homelessness Plan, the City committed to developing a Strategic Plan for Social Housing that guides the City as the Service Manager in decisions about the future of existing social housing. As an initial step in the development of the Strategic Plan for Social Housing, the City of Peterborough retained Vink Consulting to consult with key stakeholders about the process of developing the Strategic Plan. As part of the work, Vink Consulting planned and facilitated discussions with key stakeholders on the purpose, focus areas, and approach to the Strategic Plan, as well as the suggested process and roles and responsibilities for the Strategic Plan.
One of the Ontario Non Profit Housing Association’s (ONPHA’s) cornerstone annual publications was its Waiting List Survey Report, which provides one measure of the need for affordable housing in Ontario. This report is used widely by housing advocates, politicians, and policy makers. In 2014-2015 and again in 2015-2016 ONPHA retained Vink Consulting to conduct and analyze the annual waiting list survey which collects information on the number of households waiting for rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing in Ontario from all 47 municipal service managers who are responsible for maintaining a waiting list of applicant households for RGI housing. The survey includes questions to obtain information on waiting list activity from the previous year and an understanding of the criteria that service managers use for evaluating applications. Read ONPHA’s 2015 and 2016 waiting list reports.