NCLB home

keeping people safe and well

No Community Left Behind
is a vehicle to show that we can create neighborhoods
that are outstanding places to live.

Introduction

A documentary film, covering of NCLB's journey from 2004 to 2009.

City of Ottawa
Communty Development Framework (CDF)
pdf version

Intro to CDF.

Key Milestones

Why NCLB matters?

Day of Caring 2008

Banff, Sept. 29, 2007
For more reports CLICK pictures

No Comunity Left Behind was launched in 2005 a social development initiative with the objective to prevent crime and address social determinants of health through a collaborative approach and integration of services at the neighbourhood level.

Over the past three years, No Community Left Behind has become a strategy development process at the neighbourhood level in which community development specialists, community policing professionals and neighbourhood activists and almost all concerned service providers collaborate to address factors that lead to communities' volunerability, crime, victimization, fear of safety, and social exclusion.

The NCLB strategy development process leads to strategic action vis-a-vis community development, community-partners engagement, exploring opportunities for local development and adopting new ways to building stronger, heathier and safer communities.

Working in close partnership with various other agencies, South East Ottawa Community Health Centre (SEOCHC) has effectively engaged and supported communities to restore their sense of safety and pave the way for effective service delivery. NCLB has now become a core component of the City of Ottawa's Community Development Frameword (CDF) for community engagement at the grassroots level.

Vision

The vision of No Community Left Behind is to keep people well; to enable them to live, work, and raise their families in a safe and prosperous environment.

This vision is achieved through:

Developing a comprehensive community-based strategy for addressing social determinants of health, while working to address major risk factors that lead to fear, isolation and crime;

Mobilizing community members and service providers to assist each other in addressing the community identified and prioritized problems;

Assisting concerned service agencies to respond to social/community/health service needs; and

Engaging and supporting community members to participate more fully in neighborhood planning and decision making processes.

Determinants of health are addressed at the neighbourhood level. The positive outcomes of this initiative highlight the impact of holistic community based initiative that include multiple partnerships and a balance between broad based and neighbourhood specific planning.

Program Area

For a quick overview, please watch this short intro to NCLB.

The pilot phase of NCLB was successfully completed in Banff Avenue community in 2006. Since August 1, 2006, the program has been extended to three neighboring communities in Heatherington, Confederation Court and Russell Heights. Under the broader umbrella of City's Communtiy Development Frameworkd, other neighbourhoods will be identified inthe fall of 2008 and the NCLB strategy will be extended to those neighbourhoods for implementation.

Funders and partners

No Community Left Behind is a collaborative effort among organizations, agencies and community members who care about the neighborhoods selected for this program. This collaboration is demonstrated in the work of the Steering Committee, which provides a structure for building a commitment to the process that works beyond the life span of short term projects.

- View latest newsletter March 08.

The Steering Committee coordinates programs and services for local community members and ensures stakeholder’s involvement in working towards the same goals.

The most basic objective is to avoid duplication of services, working in isolation from other complementary services, and maximizing the return on each investment made in this community.

In the South East Ottawa, the program was initially funded by National Crime Prevention Centre. Presently SEOCHC, The City of Ottawa and United Way are providing coordination and program support. Ottawa Police Service has assigned two police officers to specifically work on this initiative. Ottawa Community Housing (OCH) Tenants and Community Workers (TCWs) of South District are closely working with the staff assigned to this initiative. House directors in three community houses are actively engaged in program implementation.

Strategy and approach

No Community Left Behind helps communities in getting consistently engaged in planning and implementation for local development with the help of all service providers.

The NCLB approch and process strengthen community capacity to increase the quality of life, and promote long-term community health and resilience.

In communities where crime is a major issue of concern, the strategy involves a two-pronged approach: law enforcement agencies and partner agencies cooperate in removing criminal elements and public agencies and community-based organizations collaborate to invest in much-needed human services, including prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood restoration programs. A community-oriented policing component bridges these two prongs of the approach.

Communities are always different and dynamic. Major issues of concern vary from community to community. The NCLB strategy helps the community put an ongoing process inplace, whereby they come up with a community action plan every year after a thorough assessment. The plan is approved by the Steering comittee and a ssytematic review takes place after implementation of identified activities for addressing the prioritised problems.

In short, the purpose of No Community Left Behind is to implement a comprehensive approach towards social development approach at local level which also helps in crime prevention where crime is the major concern. This approach is being successfully applied to address the roots of the problems in the partner communities and improve community members’ overall quality of life.

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The NCLB approach

Click here to view Presentation on the NCLB process and components

Larger Image

Steps for implementing
each NCLB phase in the above graphic.

The initial core support for this initiative was received under the National Crime Prevention Strategy of the Government of Canada from June 2005 to july 2006.

THE INITIATIVE

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