Courtenay Annual Report 2025 draft

Pride crosswalk at 5th Street and Duncan Avenue

Community and Social Development framework

Better Together Strategy: highlights

The City of Courtenay continued advancing its long-term Community and Social Development (CSD) Framework and Action Plan, following Council direction endorsed in July 2024. The framework aligns with the Official Community Plan and the Comox Valley Regional District’s Regional Growth Strategy, and provides a coordinated, equity informed approach to addressing complex social issues. Work is progressing through a phased approach spanning 2024 to 2027. In 2025, the discovery phase was completed, with a focus on research, sector mapping and relationship-building across community organizations, service providers and local government. The planning phase also began, and consultants were brought on board to advance the work through its next phases, including implementation planning and evaluation. Two complementary strategies guide this work: Better Together, which focuses on strengthening partnerships and coordinated, systems-level action; and Neighbourhood Networks, which supports place-based community development and neighbourhood-level resilience. Together, these strategies advance the City’s social infrastructure priority by supporting equitable access to services, collaboration across sectors and community-led solutions. A mid-term progress update is anticipated in 2026, with a finalized CSD framework targeted for completion in 2027.

The City advanced the Better Together Strategy by strengthening collaboration and building a shared foundation for community well-being work. A full-day orientation and partner engagement session brought together 35 representatives from local government and community organizations to establish common values, principles and priorities for working together. This session marked an important step toward more coordinated, upstream approaches to systems change. Foundational research was also launched to map existing community and social development efforts across Courtenay, including initiatives addressing the determinants of health. This work will inform the development of a digital map highlighting areas of alignment, overlap and opportunity. Additional workshops are planned in 2026 to validate findings and identify next steps. courtenay.ca/better-together-strategy

64 | City of Courtenay