THUNDER BAY – Community organizations are looking to give people input on how to make changes in the city.
United Way Thunder Bay is launching their Thunder Bay Counts initiative, which is designed to combine members of the public with community organizations to create solutions to social issues and obstacles.
Sandra Albertson, United Way Thunder Bay’s director of community impact, said the issues facing the community are already fairly well-known.
“The needs aren’t new to Thunder Bay. I think what we need to do is look at a new way of helping people who are working and living with those needs in our community and then working at a new way of collective impact,” Albertson said
“Areas that have been identified are areas like housing, mental health needs, needs around addictions and transportation.”
Albertson acknowledged there already a significant number of different groups working to address the issues, each with their own plans and strategies.
What makes Thunder Bay Counts different is that it plans to utilize all of those existing tools and bring them together in an efficient manner.
“It’s working in many sectors, bringing many groups together who may not normally partner together but who are working for the same kind of goals,” she said.
“Once we have the community goals established we’re going to be talking to different partners and also to the city. We have the Thunder Bay Counts roundtable which is a grouping of the 20 or so key organizations that are the backbone organizations of the city.”
The initiative is a two-year pilot project that is being run in collaboration with the Northwest Innovation Centre.
The first community discussion was held Tuesday afternoon at the Lakehead Labour Centre with smaller focus group studies also taking place.
A second one will be taking place on Thursday from 6 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. at the Labour Centre.
“This is one of our many efforts to engage the community and get them thinking about what they would like to see Thunder Bay look like in the future,” Albertson said.
There is also a survey, which can be completed online.
