Prince George, B.C.- There’s a  special  free workshop slated for this evening in Prince George aimed at bringing together  those who  are dedicated to  addressing social needs  in the community.

“It’s an opportunity for us to bring stakeholders together  and in this  case, around the social development pillar of  myPG,  and just to get  information from the community on how we can work on certain ideas and issues collectively” says Mayor Lyn Hall.

The workshop is title “Achieving Large Scale Change Through Collective Impact”.  It’s an approach  based on the idea that communities are more effective when working together.

The  Mayor says the City could  be the group that brings the various  agencies together in an effort to address local social goals.

The session, which will take place  at the  Bob Harkins Branch of the Public Library  from 7-9 tonight,  will be facilitated by Liz Weaver, Vice President of  the Tamarack Learning Centre  which is dedicated to poverty reduction.

“All of these groups  in the community that are aligned to provide housing  at some level are all stakeholders” says Mayor Hall ” and the intent is to bring them together  and have that conversation about their needs and how  can we as a City and City Administration help deliver those needs in our City with their assistance.”

There have been  some gains in the community when it comes to  seniors housing,  most recently with the  development of the Riverbend Seniors  complex,  and Mayor Hall says BC Housing is also working  on some affordable housing issues, “I think the end game  will be for us to get an understanding as a  City operation, what the needs  are in the community around  housing,  whether its affordable, whether it’s market, or seniors, or subsidized.  What are the roadblocks, what are the  pit falls, what are the good things that are happening,  what are the models out there that are working, and how can we as a  City  help?

He says increasing the housing stock in Prince George is one of the things this Council has been committed to  doing “We’ve heard loud and clear from the community,  particularly seniors,  saying ‘look, there’s a lack of  adequate  seniors housing in our community’ so therefore  we see Riverbend and their construction, but we’re also hearing  about  non market housing  which is affordable  how can we  increase that stock and how can we work with those agencies, including BC Housing,  to provide that stock in our City?”

Bringing the stakeholders together  may also  help  break down the silos “I think we have a number of organizations that do great work, and we’re hoping to bring them into one room and have that discussion around housing.”

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