Welcome to Your Kamloops!

BANANA to NIMBY to YIMBY...

Was just reminded of these wonderful acronyms while talking to a friend about community building and particularly the building of stuff people sometimes don't like:

BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard

YIMBY = Yes In My Back Yard

These might be helpful next time you are conversing with a community planning expert - either to understand him/her or to impress him/her.

Looking at Youth Voter Turnout...!

As part of my MA in Professional Communications studies, I am going to be doing a substantial piece of research. I'm hoping I get approved for a thesis (which allows more research time and the ability to conduct interviews / surveys).

What I am planning to research is what voting outreach messages work best to build trust in non voting youth so that they are encouraged to vote.

With voter turnout in Kamloops under 30% in the 2008 civic election, I hope this study will have some relevance to local voter outreach efforts. I think we miss out on so much community wisdom when people are so disengaged from the electoral process. I also think groups who don't vote in great numbers, such as youth, may not see their priorities well reflected in government.

As some may know, I've long been interested in increasing voter turnout at all levels of government. I am hoping my thesis will have national relevance and generally trying to frame the research that way thus far.

Still, I'm also really hoping the work will help increase voter turnout in Kamloops.

My Most Favourite Community Volunteers in 2010...

It was totally wonderful to watch 5 very deserving people receive community service awards from City Hall. Kamloops is a community of amazing volunteers. I remember a lot of apprehension close to the start of the BC Summer Games in 2006 when there were a couple thousand volunteer spots still to fill.  The word was put out and people stepped up. (We have also have a reputation for being kind of a last minute town as well!)

Next time these awards are advertised, I would highly recommend nominating a great community volunteer who you know. I did this year, and I was so gratified to see someone for who I have such respect and admiration be recognized for countless years of service to Kamloops. 

Congratulations to 5 amazing Kamloopsians - Ron Maguire, Sue Adams, Jan Cook, Liz Lyne, Izzy McQueen.

A totally cool fact about Izzy: For the past 24 years, she has replied to "Dear Santa" letters for Canada Post. I asked her how many replies she has written, and it was somewhere in the tens of thousands!

More info on these amazing people from City Hall.

Adventures at Royal Inland Hospital...

It's actually my father, as mentioned below, who is on a hospital adventure with his knee replacement surgery. I have just been visiting. With all the brouhaha over our local and/versus regional health services, it has been interesting to visit Royal Inland over the past few days.

First, the physical structures in our hospital seem to be showing their age. I noticed  wear and tear in the wards, masking tape directioals arrows, and a lot of stuff parked in hallways. I am not sure how this impacts the quality of care, though, as the nurses and doctors seem excellent and caring.

The parking maching for the parkade is not winning a lot of friends. I am not sure how new the system is, but most of the people waiting in line with me were really grumbling. I personally found the machines not too bad but then I am a bit of a geek.

Short Recap of the City Sustainability Plan Public Forum on Saturday

Promises to be a very busy next couple of weeks. My father just had knee replacement surgery and I've got a MA thesis proposal to write (a couple of weeks earlier than I had thought due to my own error). Spent a lot of today by a hospital bed, studying.

So, short and snappy posts here will featured for the next while.

How was the City Sustainability Plan Public Forum?

In my view, not was as well attended as I had hoped. This, however, allowed people who did attend a real chance to give feedback. Meeting did allow a lot of time for discussion. I commented that I hope all the feedback will be made public and that some response will be made for the various ideas offered - we did this, we could'nt do this/ didn't do this because...

As is now often the case, my friends on Facebook had a great discussion - this time, about the attendance / lack of attendance at the forum. Hans Peter Meyer even wrote a blog post.

Full page of Sustainable Kamloops Information Packages...

It is becoming pretty clear to me (crystal clear, in fact) that I am not going to be able to summarize all the Sustainable Kamloops information packages before Saturday's forum. Lot's of stuff going on - if you know anybody who is looking for a good apartment, for example, my paying job might help.

I will keep beavering away on summarizing the info packages but, just to make the information as web accessible as possible, here are all the information packages grouped together and displayed in handy dandy viewers.

More Info on the Sustainable Kamloops Forum Agenda...

When I posted the draft agenda for the Sustainable Kamloops forum this weekend, I also wondered how much time there would be allotted for feedback and discussion. Over on facebook, Dylan Houlihan, who is one of the key consultants on the Sustainable Kamloops plan, responded:

Arjun, there's going to be tons of time for discussion and feedback. Each one hour block will be about 10 minutes of presentation and 30 - 40 minutes of discussion with time for some wiggle room logistics. Each person will have the opportunity to go to focus group tables and discuss the topic at hand in-depth - they'll get a chance for 5 topics areas given the format of the day ... if they can't make it to a focus group table then     they can provide comments in one of a bunch of other ways.

Newish Local Media Blogs and Podcasts...CFJC and Radio NL

I've been a little remiss on noting the entrance of some promising new social media offerings from the local media.

First, Doug Collins and James Peters are now publishing the text of their One Man's Opinion CFJC TV new segments on a blog. With comments! - so much better than talking to the TV.

Second, Radio NL has posted a podcast page. My favourite podcast offers segments of the Jim Harrison show with extended discussions on various issues of the day. I am not such a big fan of NL Editorials - which don't often make a lot of sense to me in content or tone. No comments here either.

TRU Tourism School Continues to Innovate...

Good folks at TRU Tourism are examining promising ways to diversify our region's economy through rural tourism, especially with the devastation wrought by the Mountain Pine Beetle and the associated impacts on traditional industries. Here is the REDTREE information and information on the rural tourism conference just held.

Very Promising Community Plan to End Homelessness....Forum Last Night

Volunteers at the 2008 Kamloops Homeless Count

A lot of great work has been put into a process to develop a plan to end homelessness in Kamloops. Sponsored by Changing the Face of Poverty  and coordinated through the United Way, the plan development involved many community representatives from virtually all areas. 

The plan can be viewed here (web viewer) and here (pdf link). At the end of this post, I will also quote a good summary of the 6 goals in the Kamloops Daily News article by Mike Youds.

A lot of people attended the forum on the plan last night. I was really heartened to see Jason Fawcett from the Kelson Group, the city's largest landlord, speak about the innovating programs and the challenges in housing people who are formely homeless and may have addiction and mental health issues. A great number of city councillors and staff attended, as well as representatives from our MLAs and MP.

It was also wonderful to see a recognition from social agencies that they should be cooperating more and better sharing information. I think this situation has improved over the 4 or 5 years I have been paying attention, so there already good partnerships upon which to build.

Kamloops Daily News summary of the plan:

1. Establish a local housing board to assess the problem, enhance the stock of acceptable housing and respond to market changes.

2. Provide greater housing stability and reduce evictions through housing support agreements and a homeless resident program.

3. Connect people with the help they need (improve outreach and adopt a network approach to support services).

4. Build basic skills needed to maintain housing and financial independence (improve access to life skills coaching).

5. Improve fairness, accessibility and responsiveness (create changes to laws, procedures, regulations and protocols).

6. Help people find and maintain employment.