Stephanie Slater holding up the iPads for the winners of the CCP Survey.
Congratulations to Band members Paige Drake and Zandra Paul, each the new owner of an iPad – the grand prize in our draws among those who responded to our Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP) survey.
Of the 608 Band members age 18 and older, there were 241 respondents. That’s a response rate of just under 40 per cent, which is considered excellent. What’s more, the survey mirrors the demographics of the nation in terms of ages and the proportion of members who live on and off reserve. The full survey report will be released with the other CCP documents, however here is a snapshot of responses:
Personal Satisfaction
The majority of respondents reported satisfaction with personal aspects of their lives. Nearly 80 per cent said they agreed (58%) or strongly agreed (21%) they were satisfied with their quality of life. On health and wellbeing, 70 per cent agreed (55%) or strongly agreed (14.5%) that they were satisfied.
The Nation
Respondents who had an opinion were almost equally divided as to whether they were satisfied with the financial well-being of the nation (just over and under 38% respectively). Just over half of the respondents (51%) said they were not satisfied with the governance of the nation while 27% said they were (20% of respondents said they didn’t know or weren’t sure or each of these two questions).
Culture
A significant number of respondents participate in cultural activities, with traditional food preparation (44%) and resource harvesting (41%) being the top two. Respondents expressed a strong interest in being more active in cultural activities, with learning or speaking the language ranked as the top priority (55.5%).
Health
When asked if they need support for any chronic health concerns, nearly 40 per cent of the 139 people who answered this question cited a need for support for mental illness of some kind. More women than men cited mental health (44% of female respondents to this question versus 24% of men). More men cited physical disability (29% of men versus 19% of women).
Of the 88 respondents who said they had received support for chronic health issues in the past three years, the majority said that support did not meet their needs “at all.”
Top Priorities
When asked to select three top priorities for the Nation for the next three to five years, housing options on reserve was rated the top priority. Responses were quite evenly divided among the other top five priorities.
1) Housing – 40.5%
2) Business development (projects that generate revenue for the nation); Governance of the Nation; and Seniors’ Well-being (each selected by approximately 30% of respondents)
3) Opportunities for Education / Job Training, and Well-being of Children and Youth (just over 25% each).
Communications Coordinator and CCP Facilitator Stephanie Slater wraps up her contract with the Band Aug. 31 and has this message for the membership:
I’d like to thank the Band Council for the opportunity to work on communications and community planning – and other special projects over the past two years. My role was initially created in large part because Council placed a high priority on improving communications with the membership. I hope I’ve been able to contribute to that goal through my work on newsletter design and content, the website re-design, report writing, special reports like Year in Review, and introducing various activities and tools for seeking member input, including off-reserve meetings, Open Space Technology, and Survey Monkey.
I’m particularly proud that the nation’s members who live off the reserve are now included in the weekly newsletter via the e-news digest introduced a year ago. In fact, 83.5% of the off-reserve membership who responded to the CCP survey said they read the e-news. I think that’s an important step to forging better connections to this group that makes up more than half the membership.
I feel particularly privileged to have had a role in revising the Nation’s Comprehensive Community Plan. This plan lays out a long-term vision for the Wei Wai Kum community as shaped by the input of a broad cross-section of the membership and informed by equally wide-ranging research. Thank you to all who contributed – I hope you feel your aspirations are articulated in the plan. If not, know that it is a starting point and is intended to be a living tool that each one of you may use.
Comprehensive Community Planning is like a funnel in that the plan lays out the big picture or long-term vision and then the Nation develops action plans that carry the planning process from vision to specific outcomes. And then it’s time to review the vision again. So the work is never done! But that’s a good thing for a healthy Nation that needs to respond to changes in its environment and to the needs and aspirations of its membership.
This plan was developed during a challenging period for this Nation however I hope the positive and forward-looking approach the CCP articulates will help serve the goal we all share: of creating a healthy community that draws on the strength and wisdom of our culture to enrich the lives of each member -economically, intellectually, physically, socially and spiritually.
Gilakas’la!
Stephanie Slater