With a rating of five on the socio-economic scale, West Centretown is a high-risk neighbourhood for the community and protective services committee and, starting in 2009, the community will see a new plan to improve its quality of life.
Neighbourhoods with a socio-economic rating of five are the highest priority for the committee, which oversees community services, including community health, safety, and recreation.
One of the most troubling problems facing West Centretown is the low number of children who are actually ready to start kindergarten.
Early development index measures the number of children who score below the tenth percentile in at least one of the categories of physical health, social competence, emotional maturity, language development and general knowledge.
An ongoing study of Ottawa neighbourhoods showed West Centretown was in the lowest 10th percentile in terms of school readiness.
There is no definitive cause for low school readiness, however West Centretown suffers from a number of socio-economic problems that may contribute to it.
Economically, West Centretown has an average income of $24,360, well below the city average.
The area has a high percentage of residents who speak a mother tongue other than French or English. In terms of health, there aren’t many grocery stores and healthy food choices in the area. There is also limited access to year-round recreation and green space. This is a major concern of Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes.
“We need to get free recreation services to families in this area who can’t afford regular city services,” says Holmes.
These factors were crucial for the committee's decision on which neighbourhoods would see the new framework first.
However the situation is not all bleak for West Centretown. Elizabeth Kristjansson, lead investigator for the neighbourhood study says West Centretown has a lot to offer. “There is wonderful diversity in the area, some of the best authentic restaurants and it has a hugely enthusiastic community association.”
The committee’s plan for new Community Development Framework was approved in June 2008 and after researching the four neighbourhoods further, the committee hopes to be working in the communities by January 2009.
“I see this as an exciting opportunity to re-tool community development in Ottawa,” says Bay Coun. Alex Cullen.
The framework hones in on the issues of a specific community and attempts to improve the quality of life and deliver services better with a strategy tailored for that community.
The ongoing Ottawa neighbourhood study shows that the current approach to community development does not represent the needs of each specific community, and that many community services are not working together as well as they could.
The study has Ottawa divided into 96 neighbourhoods to enable identification of issues affecting each area. Centretown’s neighbourhoods of West Centretown, Centretown-Downtown, LeBreton Development and Byward Market-Parliament Hill were all included.
As city authorities grapple with how the framework will operate, budgetary constraints are noted as a potential problem. However, Steve Kanellakos, deputy city manager and member of the Community Development Roundtable, says that many of the changes will not require more funding.
“The genius of this framework is that we are actually harnessing the resources together and looking at issues in the community,” said Kanellakos. “A lot of the movement forward on this is not going to be about more money in the communities, really it is about how we solve some of the problems by working better together and aligning our services.”
The other three neighbourhoods that will see a new framework in 2009 are Bayshore, Carlington and Overbrook-McArthur, though the committee hopes to change the framework city wide in the future.