Thanks to the work of the members of the Waterloo Region Community Resilience Collective (WRCRC), a Children and Youth Planning Table (CYPT) working group, a real win for the work of community resilience building is moving forward.
As the work of the WRCRC has progressed, members have grown to appreciate that preventing early adversity and building community resilience goes beyond the parent/child dynamic. To be most impactful, this work needs to reach across the lifespan and be about the way “all” community supports and welcomes people. It requires systemic change and leadership.
To that end, the WRCRC has recommended that this work move to be situated within the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan (CSWP). The CYPT Steering Committee supports this change, and the CSWP Steering Committee has endorsed the recommendation to integrate the WRCRC strategic plan into the CSWP framework and implementation plan.
Over the course of January to April, backbone support from WRCRC and CSWP will collaborate to transition this work.
The transition plan will include addressing how to engage WRCRC members and best stay connected to CYPT. With members from CYPT already involved in the CSWP Core Support Team there are natural ways to foster connection.
With this transition, the WRCRC will no longer meet under the umbrella of CYPT.
We recommend that CYPT members subscribe to the CSWP newsletter and look out for opportunities to be involved in the action tables and community initiatives.
For questions about this transition, please connect with the WRCRC co-chairs, Deb Engel (DebEngel@caminowellbeing.ca) or Grace Bermingham (GBermingham@regionofwaterloo.ca).