Volunteer street teams will be stationed across the Windsor-Essex County area over the next two weeks, gathering the public’s views on how to better support children in our community.
The community consultations are part of the Cradle to Career Strategy recently announced by ProsperUs, a collective of local stakeholders with a shared vision of a prosperous Windsor and Essex County. The purpose of the community consultations is to collect insights from different groups of people. The results will inform the work of ProsperUs, as it strives to build out a strategy to help children succeed, from cradle to career.
Between October 30 and November 6, volunteers will be conducting short Street Team interviews in various locations across Windsor and the County. The following week, from November 7 to 18, an online survey will launch. In combination with community and census data, the results of these two engagement activities will be used to inform the ProsperUs Leadership Council as to which neighbourhoods are a priority for the Cradle to Career Strategy.
The community consultations are being conducted by Overlap, a Canadian consulting firm that specializes in human-centred design. Human-centred design research seeks to gather input from the people who know the problems best, to draw out insights, generate relevant ideas, and road-test practical solutions.
ProsperUs would like the community to seek out one of the street team locations or take the online survey to let their voice be heard. The link to the survey will be available online on November 7. Follow ProsperUs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more information or visit the ProsperUs website.
Street Team volunteers have been recruited from various ProsperUs partner organizations and will be stationed in a variety of locations across city wards and county municipalities. Fourteen locations have been confirmed, including but not limited to:
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- Capri Pizza Recreation Complex
- Wyandotte Street (where students walk to UWindsor)
- Pitt/Ferry Street (between UWindsor/St. Clair campuses)
- Addie Knox Community Centre
- West End Bus Terminal
- Downtown Bus Terminal
- Windsor International Film Festival
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- Tecumseh Road between Jackson Park and Howard Ave.
- Forest Glade Community Centre
- Uptown Leamington
- Oak Street in Leamington
- Essex Arena
- Harrow Arena
- Kingsville Recreation Complex
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“We want to hear directly from the community on how we can improve outcomes for children and families,” says ProsperUs Co-Chair Janice Kaffer. “We invite the WHOLE community but particularly young people and resident families, to step forward and get involved because only by working together and streamlining services can we make our community stronger.”
In addition to the wider community outreach, Overlap will also be leading efforts to do in-depth interviews and observational studies with youth, service users, service providers, and vulnerable populations to round out the qualitative research. These individuals are being identified in consultation with Overlap and ProsperUs stakeholders, as well as other community partners
The results of the qualitative research will be combined with community data and expert research to help ProsperUs begin to narrow in on the key milestones it will focus on and measure over time, and the target neighbourhoods where the interventions will be launched. A community report with these results will be presented to the community next spring.
“It’s important for us to level the playing field for children across neighbourhoods in our community,” says Co-Chair Noah Tepperman. “The reality is that some kids need a head start to reach the finish line.”
ProsperUs is a collective of non-profit, government, health care, education, labour, business, and inspired residents with a shared vision of a prosperous Windsor-Essex County where every young person has the opportunity and support to succeed from cradle to career.
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Media Contact:
Karen Brady, Marketing & Communications Manager
United Way/Centraide Windsor-Essex County – Backbone Organization Partner of ProsperUs
Work: 519-258-0000 x 1213 | Mobile: 519-564-8554
General Inquiries: info@weunlockpotential.com or visit www.weunlockpotential.com
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