In 2010, Public Interest worked with the South Riverdale Community Health Centre to undergo a literature review of best practices in peer outreach strategies regarding chronic disease, an evaluation plan regarding their Bangladeshi-Canadian Peer Outreach Project and the development of indicators reflecting improvement in health beliefs and self-care practices.
When the Maytree Foundation released their Building Blocks program, a civic literacy primer in communities across the Greater Toronto Area, they chose Public Interest to develop the curriculum and facilitate the trainings. The program has been hugely successful in demystifying how governments make decisions and working with residents to develop their community’s voice and identify opportunities to work towards local change, progress and inclusion.
During this major revitalization of a large social housing community more than 50 years old, Public Interest developed a unique community engagement model that is now the standard for community work in Regent Park. This model has been used for two years to involve the community in all aspects of the redevelopment and has consistently produced participation from about 1,000 Regent Park residents (10–12% of the population).
Public Interest responded to concerns about the difficulties in many communities in Scarborough and developed the Scarborough Community Summit process. This community-based planning process has brought together residents, community groups, small business owners, service providers and community leaders to determine appropriate formats for the community summit, identify community priorities, and develop strategies to address these priorities.
Public Interest worked with the City of Kingston, the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way, Kingston Community Health Centers and the Community Response to Neighbourhood Concerns and Youth Diversion to help one of the city's most distressed communities develop a community hub and create programs and networks to help make Rideau Heights a healthier, stronger neighbourhood. Public Interest developed the strategies for outreach as well as for long-term community engagement.
As part of the United Way’s national strategy to strengthen neighbourhoods facing significant challenges, Public Interest was chosen to deliver a two-year pilot program called Action for Neighbourhoood Change (ANC) in Toronto’s Scarborough Village community.
A national program located in five Canadian cities, ANC is designed to increase the involvement and connectedness of community members to help identify locally relevant ways to revitalize neighbourhoods. The program approach involves:
Public Interest has teamed up with Yip Management to support the development of a patient-centred health care program called Health Access St. James Town (HASJT). HASJT is an example of how local residents can work with local service providers to identify the health service needs and gaps in their neighbourhood to shape the creation of accessible and responsive health services. Through the initial phases of HASJT, a mobile dental bus and senior’s mental health program have been implemented in response to needs identified by St. James Town residents.
In 2012, Public Interest worked with the York Region Local Immigration Partnership to facilitate a community consultation process to identify the multilingual communication barriers and needs of York Region newcomers to access health care services. The consultation process included conducting focus groups and key informant interviews to gather qualitative and quantitative data, in addition to hiring and training community animators to implement an extensive survey in 10 languages including Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Farsi, Tamil, Korean, Spanish, Urdu, Punjabi and Hindi.
In September 2012, Public Interest teamed up with Tim Welch Consulting to develop Peterborough’s 10-Year Housing and Homelessness Plan. In an active community like Peterborough, a planning process would have to involve a multitude of perspectives.
To get a full picture of the present housing and homelessness landscape in Peterborough, Public Interest used multiple engagement methods to reach a diversity of participants.
In order to develop a Neighbourhood Engagement Framework for the City of Guelph, Public Interest undertook the development of a model for the establishment, support, and evaluation of neighbourhood groups. This included determining the role of the City with neighbourhood engagement and neighbourhood groups, the role of other stakeholders and community partners in supporting established and emerging groups, and a plan for implementation.
