The City of Prince George will be hosting an event to help social service providers in the community get together and better coordinate their efforts.
Prince George City Council discussed the event at this week’s meeting.
Councillor Kyle Sampson put forward the motion, after attending a meeting with several service providers.
“It was clear, there was a number of well-intentioned, committed, service providers, but they’re in silos still, some of these groups in this meeting had never met each other, even though they’re providing similar work,” Sampson said.
“The motion proposes that the City hosts a low-cost, one-time connector event, either later this summer or early fall that is likely an informal barbeque type event to bring together these NGOs, non-profits, government agencies, and our own city staff.”
Sampson said the goal is to build stronger relationships across these agencies, improve service coordination, reduce duplication, and to give City staff better insight to what these services are doing.
“This is about helping create conditions for better collaboration in our community, and particularly in the downtown,” he explained.
Sampson suggested a budget of up to $2,500, to come from the Council Contingency fund for the event.
Councillor Susan Scott said as someone who’s been a volunteer with many of these organizations, there’s more at play than most would understand.
“There is less and less staff available to do the jobs that they’re all doing,” she said.
“Not everybody has the resources within their local organization to be able to reach out and connect, and not every organization with an office here in Prince George supports their local office in reaching out and connecting. I think the City sponsoring an event of a social nature is brilliant.”
Council unanimously voted to host the event.
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