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CONFERENCE EVALUATION

and

COMMENTS

July 11 - 12, 2005

Hosted by

Community Living Brant

Brantford, Ontario

Do you have a better understanding about the strategies to learn about community through CQL Canada's Community Life^SM Measures?

How effective would this conference have been without the field exercise?

Would you highly recommend a conference to others if it includes a field exercise?

How can we improve on the Community Life^SM field exercise?

• Make it longer

• More times needs to be allotted for the field exercises and the break away groups.  I would have preferred extending the conference another 1/2 day rather than having to deal with the after 4pm traffic to get home

• Wow!!!!  It was a lot of info for 2 days,  maybe 2.5 or 3 days????

• More time to talk to people,

• Extend the time allocated for the field exercise

• Helping people to relate issues back to their own communities, a bit more focus on the strengths of a community

• Have more enthusiastic facilitators

• Provide participants with some more preparation time and strategies around how to approach people. Provide a little participation gift to people from the community

• Day Two should of had a broader range of topics. It seemed to be a rerun of Day one

• Have a longer time period for this exercise

• More time to go find info

• Assign field placements to avoid duplication

• Provide 2 opportunities for field exercise so that every participant has an opportunity to go outside the building and experience the community

• Offer something to give out when talking to people in the community from Community Living, pamphlet, pen for example to raise awareness.

• More of a marketing opportunity if we were able to hand participants something (brochure) for their help in answering questions

• More time

• Need more time in the community.

• Needed to be longer and I was confused in regards to questions asked for data collection. Needed more direct questions.

• Specify that people should be interviewed in different areas of the city.

• Maybe different times of day to get a more overall sense of community. I understand the logistics of how difficult this could be

• Divide the group up so the whole city was represented north, south, east, south.

• It would be difficult to improve as you must work within a short time frame. It's important to stress that information gathered may not be reflective of the true picture of the community but can be used to learn from. Since I only did computer research I didn't get a good feel for the community part. Having members of the community present was a good idea though as they would be providing accurate information.

Did you feel...

The field exercise helped you begin to understand how to build community relationships.  (Not at all 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Understood very well)   Rating % 1 0 2 0 3 19 4 58 5 19 No Response 4

Would you recommend this exercise if it were offered as a training workshop?

How will you share your experiences from having participated in CQL Canada's Community Life^SM Conference?

• I now know who to go to if I have any issues about accessibility and the Brantford Tourism Centre is a good resource.

• The information will be presented to our Senior Management team and it will be incorporated into our strategic plan which will be developed after the Basic Assurances workshop in September.

• Within my own agency and in partnership with others.

• Too many ways to convey.

• As an update at meetings.

• I was so excited I'm telling all staff who will listen.  I want to get out there and spread the knowledge.

• Encourage people to ask other organizations what they need and then we can see where we can help and fit in to improve our city.

• Team meetings, mentoring at individual meetings, etc.

• Verbally to other managers and supervisor. Will also write a summary.

• I will implement some of the information into my work life and make others aware of what I learned at the conference.  Also I will use strategies to incorporate into my community.

• This is what I am struggling with at the moment.  I need to ruminate on how I will share this experience in a way that will make sense to people who didn't actually participate.

• I will provide input on different ways we can create reciprocal relationships with the community - blood donor clinic, individuals involved with fundraisers, provide space for events, etc.

• I will discuss ideas with staff teams and use some ideas to connect people we support within the agency.

• We hope to bring this to our organization

• I've already shared that the experience was a good one and that it might be in our best interest to host another training event in our community.  The brainstorming at the end could have huge benefit to the community.

• Offer an event similar in our community.

• Discuss the experience with co-workers, colleagues and friends in the community. I will also share the participant binder with my co-workers to help them learn what I learned.

• In my role as team lead for Community Partnerships and Social Capital, I will be taking the lessons learned and bringing them to my team.  I am going to start by downloading the community strategic plan and looking for matching priorities.  I am also going to pursue a community leisure position within our community and providing our own paid staff support.  I am really excited about growth in these areas and where we might be in six months to one year's time!

• Utilize in my position as Community Inclusion Worker.

• The three staff who attended from the agency are going to put notes together to take to management.

• Make recommendation for further action at SCS.

Do you find the conference book binder to be a valuable resource that you may use in your own organization?

	Did the speakers present the material in a way that was clear and easy to understand?   Response % Yes 92 No 4 No Response 4
	Where the speakers knowledgeable about their topics?   Response % Yes 92 No 0 No Response 8
	Were the speaker's sessions relevant to the field exercise?   Response % Yes 88 No 4 No Response 8

Were there other speaker topics that would have added to your understanding of Community Life^SM?

• Needed to be longer and I was confused in regards to questions asked for data collection. Needed more direct questions.

• No.

• Having speakers from within the community that are looking to network with other agencies would have given us some ideas as to where we could start networking

• What every citizen should know, "how to find information", i.e. strategic plans, free events etc and how to volunteer or join committees.

• Not sure.

• More participation from the self advocates of Community Living Brant so that additional information could be shared in regards to their needs from community.

• More social roles, shared successes of self advocates

• The speaker from Inclusive Communities had a lot of information but did not present it well, especially at the end of the conference when we were all quite tired already. The speakers from the city of Brantford were very beneficial, especially before the field exercise.

• I would have liked to hear Bill Allerton speak on what stories have inspired him the most and also how these stories happened.  I find it gives me the "gas" to make it up those difficult "hills" and reach for the top.

• None.

• Last speaker was not effective, less government politics and more practical application is necessary.

How would you rate your overall conference experience?

 (Poor   1. 2. 3. 4. 5.  Excellent)

Additional comments, likes, dislikes, suggestions.

• I think the field exercise could be longer and a survey done up with more direct questions asked.

• The way the groups were designed and assigned was good. It provided each participant with the opportunity to dig into one specific year but as well to hear about all of the others.  The groups at the end were a little large so not everyone participated, although they may have been ones that don't participate anyway. The "concept" of Community Life and how it impacts on everyone was demonstrated very well. It was also tied to people with disabilities in a more specific way so that was good. I found it a little long at the end as people were repeating the same information. Overall it was very worthwhile and I hate participatory workshops!!!  I usually only enjoy those that have professional speakers who deliver information while I sit there and listen !!

• I would have enjoyed hearing more regarding inclusive cities as it relates to community life.

• Better accommodations.

• I liked the personal success stories and having the self advocates there to let us know what they need.  I liked talking with people in the community.  The final speaker had lots of good info but it was hard to focus on more data information after 2 days of intense research and discussion.  Great conference and a real eye opener!  Can't wait to start the work now!  Thanks for the opportunity.

• Suggestions ~ offer info package to participants (free pen, key chain), having package prior to conference to organize ourselves  Like how you mixed groups (usually people that know each other cling together), also it was good to see the involvement and commitment of the host Executive Director from Brant  Dislike ~ timeframe for being out collecting data and combining lunch too short.

• I would suggest that more networking between the agencies involved over a meal or lunch if it was provided. This would have given opportunity for social capital with peers in the same fields, learning from each other.

• Felt very rushed, in some ways felt that some material was repetitive.

• If lunch were provided it would of been easier for participants to network.

•  I did like the community field exercise.  It was a unique way of getting to understand the people’s perspectives around issues.

• I really liked the field exercise.  I thought my particular facilitator was dominating the group and used her ideas.

• The speakers where great, however I found it a little dry.

• Very much liked the field exercise.

• Really enjoyed the opportunities to network and the social times.  It would be fun to make plans for everyone after the first day, to have dinner together.

• I did not like having a keynote presentation at the end.  I fell this would have been better accepted by participants if it was at the beginning.

• The last speaker at the conference could have been at the start of the day as some people said they were starting to lose focus.

• I didn't get a lot from the last speaker of the second day- maybe tired? Not sure.  I liked that people had to be mixed up.  It would be helpful to know what is done from the info or is planning to be done with the info presented by CL Brant now.

• Shorten day 2 stuff, small group-big group back and forth, lengthen day one exercises.