NEIGHBOURHOOD DECISION MAKING

Presentation to Ontario Parks Association

What is Neighbourhood Decision Making?

• A specific type of engagement process where residents

propose and vote on how to spend a pre-determined portion of

the municipal budget

• It is used across a range of international jurisdictions although

the scale, level of funding and program design varies greatly.

• It is also known as Participatory Budgeting

Purpose:

The purpose of this program is to engage, empower, and

connect residents by bringing neighbours together around

community-driven projects that enhance and strengthen

their neighbourhoods.

Background

• 2008 City of London staff (Neighbourhood Children and Fire Services

lead) engaged over 100 residents on a task force to define “Strong

Neighbourhoods”

• The belief behind this work was that “residents are the heart of

change in neighbourhoods”

• Developed the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy and

Implementation Plan of collective ideas for stakeholders including

London residents for creating the best city they can imagine

• The Strategy contained action steps under People and Place and how

they interact together

• City staff and residents worked together to manage expectations…

residents developed a document that was achievable!

• This document was a vehicle for collective action

Background

• In 2015 we celebrated the conclusion of the Strategy and began

work on the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy 2.0

• The legacy of the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy

1.0 included many tools, resources and programs for residents

that increase the activities happening in neighbourhoods found on

Neighbourgoodlondon.ca

• SPARKS! Neighbourhood Matching Fund • Residents apply for up to $5000 funding for Neighbourhood Projects

• Total amount of funding $50,000

• Residents must match the amount with in-kind resources, raised funds,

sponsorship, volunteer hours (at a rate of $15/hr)

City of London Strategic Plan

Background, 2015 – 2019

Where our work fits:

City of London Strategic Plan

Strengthening our Community

1. Vibrant, connected and engaged neighbourhoods

Strategy

What are we doing? How are we doing it?

A Support neighbourhood driven

activities and decision making

• London Strengthening Neighbourhoods

Strategy 2015-2020

• Great Near Campus Neighbourhood Strategy

B Fund and partner with the London

Public Library to support people and

neighbourhoods

• London Public Library 2014-2017 Strategic

Plan

C Work with our partners in Education to

help keep neighbourhood schools

open and use former school sites

effectively

• The London Plan

• Neighbourhood School Strategy - new

Background

• During the 2016-2019 Multi-year Budget process, Council

committed one-time funding of $30,000 in 2016 to two

neighbourhoods to pilot a neighbourhood decision making project

through an expanded SPARKS! program.

• This was an effort to increase decision making by residents in their

neighbourhoods hence the name “Neighbourhood Decision

Making Program”

• Was promoted and supported by one City Councillor in particular

who worked with us to build the program – made it somewhat

political

• Neighbourhoods may use funds to plant public gardens, restore

environmental resources, create public art, pilot a community

program, host a neighbourhood event, document a

neighbourhood’s history, or enhance a park or playground, to

name just a few potential ideas.

Why Neighbourhood Decision Making?

• Greater transparency in government

• Increased civic participation of residents, particularly residents

under-represented in civic affairs

• Strengthened and empowered communities

• Improved local budget decisions

• Increased community capacity and leadership

Neighbourhood Decision Making -2016 Pilot

• Council directed – surprise motion in a council meeting in

spring 2016

• Two neighbourhoods

• Two approaches

• $15,000 in each neighbourhood

• Less than a year to complete the allocation of funds with a

promise to implement within the following years time frame

• Increased workload during the process and during

implementation with no operational $$

• Recipe for grumpy corporate staff

How does it work?

How do we get buy in from internal staff?

Building Relationships Key

• Internal partners - feasibility work up front

• Previously worked together on other neighbourhood programs which helped speed up the trust and relationship with staff

• Buy in and help determine process

• Technology training

• Technology use to track projects

• Idea bank creation with costs created and shared

Who was involved

• Parks Planning

• Parks Operations

• Roads and Transportation

• Culture Office

• Environmental and Engineering

• Facilities and Building

• By-law office

• Social Services

• Recreation Area Services

• Clerks Office

• Corporate Communications

Parks Relationship

• Rocky start – Council directed program with no opportunity to

shape the timeline or scope of the work

• Most affected Service Areas - Parks Operations and Parks

Planning

• Involvement from these staff from the beginning

• Top down – Directors Table, Bottom up – Managers

• Why hesitant – projects that create work – maintenance, funding

model doesn’t consider life cycle and annual maintenance

• All levels of staff involved- Give presentation to staff at spring

training to explain new projects popping up in their districts

• Relationships - Supervisors work with Neighbourhood Staff on

events like Movie Nights and Neighbourhood Safety Audits

2016 Successful Projects

Medway

• Polar Express ($2500)

• Little Libraries ($800)

• Nature in Medway ($11,700)

Ward 13

• Gleaning Food Forest ($5,000)

• Kindness Meters ($1,500)

• Art on Utility Boxes ($4,250)

• New Play Equipment ($4,250)

Results of Pilot

Lessons Learned

Evaluation Recommendations (Resident Feedback)

• When assessing the feasibility of projects submitted through the

NDM process, the rationale for inclusion on the ballot should be

made clearly understandable to the resident.

• Based on learnings from this pilot, explore an adequate level of

funding for communications, especially in consideration of the

number of neighbourhoods in which the program will run.

• Implement online voting for future neighbourhood decision making

initiatives.

• Build a standardized FAQ/idea bank based on ideas submitted to

the program and common themes to provide information to

residents about ideas that have been put forward in the past. This

bank should be built upon each year the program is run.

2017 – Rolling it out City Wide

• Council approved the Roll Out strategy, some support for dividing the city by wards (increasing political involvement)

• The city was divided into 5 areas

• Residents submit ideas (identifying the area), which may cost from $0 to $50,000, to enhance their neighbourhood(s).

• Total of $250,000 for the whole city

• Still no communication budget

• Still no operational budget

• Still an added responsibility for staff who are already busy and we are asking them to deem ideas feasible which makes even more work for them

Londoner Involvement

• Over 300 ideas were submitted and 148 were determined

feasible

• An explanation was provided to the 152 idea submitters why

their idea could not be on the ballot – educating Londoners

• Neighbourhoods rallied over some ideas creating the

beginnings of Neighbourhood Associations or at minimum,

neighbourhood networks

• Almost 5000 Londoners voted in person or online on one

day - November 18th

• In person – all London Libraries

The 5 Geographic Areas

• A total of $250,000 is available

annually to the whole city

• The city and funding is divided into

5 (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast,

Southwest and Central)

• Each geographic area of the city

gets $50,000

Promotion

Technology

• Getinvolved.London.ca • Idea bank providing examples and costs

• Smart Simple • Platform that stores all data and can create reports

such as a list of all parks ideas

Idea Bank

Engagement Committees

• Each geographic area had an Engagement Committee

• Members representing harder to engage Londoners i.e.

cultural leaders, youth, older adults, resource centre orgs,

the Library

• The committees supported the engagement and

empowerment of residents of all the neighbourhoods and

diverse communities

• These people were our social media staff, our legs on the

ground and offered advice and support to get the word out

Library Partnership

• 15 Libraries located throughout the city

• Headquarters for information

• All Engagement Committee meetings booked here

• Idea Cafés here

• Spot for people to pick up more posters and postcards

• VOTE LOCATIONS

Ballots

Parks!!

• Overwhelmingly Park focused

• Only about 30 that don’t happen in a park or involve Parks Staff

90% are in Parks

Role of Parks - Volunteers

• In person vote day – parks staff helped to work at the poles (Libraries)

• Great place for people to ask parks staff questions or for rationale on decision, make suggestions or complain

• New information gained through the process of suggested programs and infrastructure – a great feedback/input opportunity

• Discussion between staff and residents at the poles – example – need for signage at a park that warning of coyotes in the area

Results of the Vote

• 14 projects with 5 parks projects and two park located ice rinks

• Total money transferred to Parks Planning for the 5 projects = $136,700

North West London

Ninja Warrior Course in a Park - $50,000

North East London

Outdoor Ice Rink - $2,300

Playground Park Improvements - $30,000

Stoney Creek Nature Trails - $17,700

Central London

Clay Mosaics Business District Street - $15,000

Fruit Trees Planted near Community Gardens - $4,000

Outdoor Piano in Market Lane - $1,000

Community Garden Gathering Space at Church - $30,000

South West London

Outdoor Education Centre at School - $30,000

Outdoor Ice Rink in Park - $6,000

Save the Bee Pollinator Garden - $3,000

South London Canada Day - $1,000

South East London

Natural Landscape Playground – $35,000

Community Movie Theatre - $15,000

Ninja Warrior Course

Nature Trail Improvement

Park Playground Upgrade

Fruit Tree Planting at Community Garden Sites (9)

Natural Playground Install

Bee Pollinator Garden

2 Outdoor Skating Rinks

Benefits

• Increased neighbourhood networks and activities

• Increased feelings of pride and ownership in neighbourhoods

• New ideas

• Opportunity to enhance existing projects

• Desires of Londoners feeds into Parks Master Plan

• More educated Londoners so better able to understand rationale and accept decisions

• Involvement of Schools

• Involvement of Council

More Benefits

• Other service areas adopted the 5 areas – used the map and the rationale for the division to assign staff from Recreation Area Services, Parks Operations staff assignments

• Positive relationships developed between the City staff and residents

• Opportunity to increase the quality of life for Londoners

Challenges

• Neighbourhood Associations like the SPARKS! Program

• Park projects can vary in costs greatly – we didn’t accurately predict the pricing of projects

• Priorities and promises to residents can break trust and damage relationships

• Resident expectations, still want to get their projects implemented even if they don’t win

• Ongoing - Parks Planning has to take new projects and put them into an existing priority list with public and political pressures

• Timeline overall is very tight – Spend within the following year

• Turn around time also tight, starting process again in April because it’s a yearly program and election year

Political Challenges

• Councillors want projects to happen in their wards

• Councillors want changes to the program that increase the number of projects which in turn increases the amount of work to manage relationships and the projects

• Our boundaries include multiple wards or parts of wards which means councillors overlap

• Normally Councillors help us promote and this is a great program for them to champion…. When the project wins in their ward

Implementation

• Each park project has a Parks Planner staff, Parks Operations Staff and Neighbourhood Development and Support Staff

• Residents kept in the loop and consulted when appropriate

• Manage expectations

• Is there an additional process that we have to include – a public meeting, send letters etc.

• New discoveries once the project becomes real – i.e. invasive species along a trail, archeological site, added costs, neighbours not wanting the project implemented

Neighbourhood Decision Making 2018

• Implementation of projects from 2017 has begun

• Evaluation just completed for 2017

• 2018 idea submission begins April 20th

• Vote day June 16th

• No real changes to the program so we can continue our evaluation

More Information

Getinvolved.london.ca/NDM

www.london.ca/neighbourhoods

neighbourgood@london.ca

koldham@London.ca

519-661-5336