Official Community Plan

D

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2 COMMUNITY EDUCATION, ENGAGEMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS The OCP is a comprehensive policy document established by and for the community. Therefore, all members of the community have roles to play in its implementation. Ongoing community engagement will be critical to the success of this Plan. Part A – How We Work Together – establishes the policies directing the City’s approach to public engagement which reflects and builds upon the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) best practices. These policies shall be followed whenever engaging on specific projects to ensure the appropriate engagement, partnership approaches, and methods are used for the task at hand. Partnerships are a critically important consideration in which the City must invest in order to achieve a number of the OCP’s most ambitious goals. These partnerships include with neighbouring jurisdictions, with other levels of government including K’ómoks First Nation, youth, with stakeholders, academic institutions, and with private and non-profit organizations. As a defining principle of OCP implementation, partnerships will be explored wherever opportunity exists to make maximum use of existing capacity, coordination opportunities, and social capital.

Public education and communications will be an essential component to all public engagement to ensure that the OCP directions, vision and goals are guiding, and are reflected in, community decision making. This means that more opportunities for community conversations will be required as the community works together in determining the most locally appropriate implementation considerations. To support the OCP goal of 'Investing in Relationships', creativity and additional resourcing in public education and engagement will form a foundation to the implementation of the OCP.

PART D Implementation