LSPC AGM 2006 President's Report to Members
May 31, 2006

Your Lakehead Social Planning Council’s Board of Directors has represented its members over the last twelve months by focusing its efforts on: advancing community-building projects; developing alliances, and; stabilizing the operations of our organization. Advancements towards these general directions have been achieved with a view towards ensuring that the LSPC is positioned to provide a strong voice for social policy in our community, and to facilitate communication among like-minded agencies. By retaining its long-standing goals and strong values, the LSPC will continue to succeed in delivering sound programs and activities, some of which are described in this report to members.

Highlights of our community-building projects include our Social and Economic Inclusion Initiative which has led to the development of a high school level curriculum for addressing racism as it relates to Aboriginal youth. In addition, we will use the vehicle of theatre to engage aboriginal youth and communicate the impacts of racism to our community. Our Homelessness Initiative has brought together various like-minded agencies through the organization of a community forum and the development of an advocacy toolkit to equip agencies and homeless people to work together towards eliminating homelessness.

The success of the LSPC over the years can be largely attributed to its success in forging alliances. This past year we were part of a community-wide Homelessness Coalition focused on solving homelessness problems, and worked alongside the Thunder Bay Economic Justice Committee to organize a forum to develop advocacy skills and tools in our community to eliminate poverty and homelessness. In addition, we partnered with the United Way to raise funds for our 211 project and have joined the Thunder Bay Aboriginal Interagency Council as an associate member. Our Social and Economic Inclusion Initiative provided us with a platform to engage, for the first time in the history of the LSPC, the Lakehead Public Schools, the Thunder Bay District Catholic School Board and Magnus Theatre. These new partnerships will complement long-standing local and province-wide partnerships to ensure that the LSPC remains firmly established as an enabler for regional social policy activities.

During this past year, the Board of Directors focused on stabilizing the operations of the Lakehead Social Planning Council to meet the challenges of our community. An Effectiveness Task Force reviewed the operating model of the organization and established a range of skills, experiences and backgrounds that will be used to recruit Directors for future LSPC Boards. The revisiting of the Board’s composition model was the key element in our plans to rejuvenate the organization to its proud historic status. From that strong foundation, the LSPC is poised for ongoing future successes in research-based, social issue analysis and action.

An effective and highly-regarded LSPC can serve as a meaningful transitional vehicle within our community. All pillars of our community are under pressures – economic, environmental, health and sociological. The scope and rate of change of our economic base is unprecedented for our region, while the need for culturally-sensitive community services increases as aboriginal people move from remote reserves to urban communities. These challenges can best be met if our community’s agents of change recognize the need for balanced issue analysis and innovative, solution-based approaches to community building. As in its rich history, the LSPC is positioned to serve as a community-building catalyst by researching service gaps, engaging publics, and collaborating with partners within the social services sector and throughout the community as a whole.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bruno Carella
President of the LSPC Board

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