Community Development

Executive Summary

Askatoon is a fantastically vibrant city struggling with and fighting against many social and economic issues; homelessness, family violence, drug addiction, and mental health (O'Reilly & Gray, 2014). As a result, I have been hired by a local school district to be the new community outreach coordinator through my agency called Self-Care. In response to these inequalities, Self-Care will offer support services for the whole family by providing education on health and wellness. The goal will be to promote well-being where people are experiencing pain or illness in their lives by fostering healthy food systems, physical activity; restful practices like yoga; volunteering opportunities for their kids and families to give back to the community.

In addition, Self-Care is a community-based organization that will work in Askatoon. The self-Care initiative has developed a vision and mission to create programs, services, and activities that promote health and well-being for people in Askatoon. It will provide access to healthy food systems, physical activity; restful practices like yoga; volunteering opportunities for their kids and families to give back to the community. Self-Care is located in Askatoon, and its program will be offered within the community to connect, organize and build self-confidence for all community members. Its purpose is to involve everyone to have access to these programs. These programs will be accessible without being excluded from other programs. The community member's needs, desires, and attitudes shape our practice. Self-Care's future vision is to challenge these norms by assisting people who do not have access to or cannot afford programs like support groups (for instance) or therapy. The Self-Care committee will explore what can be done to change these norms.

Statement of Need

The askatoon Self-Care project under my coordination will commence because there was a need in the community for increased access to mental health resources. The project's goals will be to decrease isolation and move people off of harm's way by providing basic self-care information about healthy living, tips for excellent nutrition, and treatment options around addiction. It will also offer spiritual care at different points in life and consultation on what might be causing symptoms like depression, anxiety, or PTSD and how these can best be addressed. The project began as a need from the local school district aided by a bonus, a generous, anonymous donor who contributed $100,000 to this initiative since many people could not access yoga classes and other healing modalities like art therapy, music therapy, etc. The local school district saw a need in the community so that they could begin outreach focused on those who could not afford or were not eligible for services. They saw many potential reasons that someone may not be eligible for benefits, such as an inability to pay fees or lack of appropriate diagnosis. Thus the need for accessible and affordable programming for the larger community became apparent.

Askatoon Self Care will be an outreach initiative that stands for self-care, community care, and care of the caregivers. The target areas for Askatoon Self Care will be people in crisis and at risk of harm or isolation. The people of Saskatoon Self Care will target those who have limited access or resources for support. It will include sex trade workers, people living with mental health issues and addictions, the working poor, especially Indigenous Canadians, refugees, and international students. The people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), individuals who are alone or without family/support networks, such as the homeless and incarcerated, are also included.

Mission Statement

There will be three objectives for Saskatoon Self-Care. The first will be to promote the idea of self-care and create a campaign that gets people talking about it. The second will be to create an introductory guide for people in Askatoon on how to practice self-care. The third objective will be to advertise the campaign in various areas around the city so that more people can talk about it and more organizations and companies will notice. The Askatoon Self-Care Project was born out of the idea that self-care needs to become a way of life in Askatoon through the local school district and proposed that I be the agency coordinator. Self-care has been defined by the World Health Organization as the management and prevention of illness, injury, and disability. Still, it also includes promoting optimum health and quality of life (WHO, 2014). It will be essential to the physical, mental, and emotional health of the Saskatoon residents. The majority of people in Askatoon do not know about self-care, nor do they practice it because they are unaware that it is something that can help improve their lives.

Self-care will bring benefits in many forms, such as better sleep, increased energy, and better mental health. Self-care is more than eating healthy food and getting enough exercise - to practice self-care, you have to evaluate yourself to understand...…for the Askatoon Self-Care project intervention:

$5,000 - three hours of therapy per week (low input)

$10,000 - weekly group therapy meeting for ten weeks ($50/hour) $10,000 - six months of physical therapy; one hour per week

$30,000 - two years of psychotherapy; one hour per week (low input)

$25,000 - 12 months supply of anti-depressant pills ($200/month)

$30,000 hire a full-time therapist or healer to provide intervention services to Askatoon residents at an hourly rate.

Evaluation Plan

The purpose of the Askatoon project will be to fill a gap in the needs of people living with chronic pain by providing localized and personalized services that empower individuals to find self-care resources. The project will reduce disability, prolong independence and quality of life, reduce social isolation, and promote self-reliance. The assessment will be carried out by an external evaluator (i.e., not an Askatoon staff member or participant) who will assess implementation activities (i.e., those undertaken during the project's implementation phase) according to five domains: process evaluation; impact assessment; outcome evaluation; sustainability assessment; and engagement/participation assessment.

Process evaluation refers to the activities askatoon needs to undertake to achieve its goals. The process evaluation will assess askatoon's ability to assess, plan and implement adequate self-care resources that can be used by individuals living with chronic pain. Impact assessment refers to how askatoon's activities impact the relevant askatoon target population (e.g., people living with chronic pain) and their families, direct interactions with participants, and service providers' business practices in rural communities across Canada. The final report on this evaluation will include an estimate of the size and demographic characteristics of the target population and an analysis of how successful the project is at reaching this population.

Outcome evaluation refers to the evidence (i.e., quantitative and qualitative) that can assess the impact of askatoon's activities on health status, physical function, quality of life, and social participation. This evaluation will also consider how askatoon objectives have been achieved and will include an analysis of how successful askatoon has achieved its goals. Sustainability assessment refers to whether the project can maintain its current level of services and continues to fulfill its project goals beyond 2008 (the project end date). The evaluation report will provide information on the resources and financial sustainability of the project over time. Engagement/participation assessment refers to how askatoon's target population is engaged in and participates in its activities. The evaluation will assess the level of participation by individuals living with chronic pain, family members,…