Building a Successful Community
There are many communities around the world that apply to ICF to become recognized as Intelligent Communities. But not every community that applies is able to succeed at attaining a SMART21 level recognition or later achieve a TOP7 win. Some have applied for several years and may not have achieved the entry level as a SMART21 Community. They may have a strength in one of the six ICF Indicators but may be weak in the other five. But there is a way to ensure that your community is on the right track. ICF developed an approach over the last two decades to assist communities on taking a holistic view of their community. ICF calls it the ICF Method. Click here to read more about the ICF Method. To help the communities to apply the ICF Method, ICF created a “Community Accelerator” program. Click here to learn more about Community Accelerators.
Later, you will read about Abbotsford, British Columbia, a community that has many of the elements of a smart city, but is it an Intelligent Community? Thanks to the leadership of the City of Abbotsford Council and their Economic Development office, we have a wonderful opportunity to follow the process that Abbotsford will be going through to become a SMART21 Community. The City of Abbotsford decided to pursue the Intelligent Community Awards program and learn more about itself through the ICF Method by undertaking an ICF Community Accelerator.
While there is no guarantee that a community that undertakes a Community Accelerator will be able to achieve receiving SMART21 recognition, the community will benefit from the process in many ways. The Community Accelerator program provides a set of development tools to improve competitiveness, deepen social inclusion and enhance a community’s ability to adapt in these fast-moving times with great disruptions. Based on years of research, the Community Accelerator aims to educate, engage and energize key stakeholders in the community development process to take leadership roles in undertaking the progress of creating a successful community.
During a visit to Abbotsford to undertake the first phase of the Accelerator Program, ICF’s Co-Founder Robert Bell gave a keynote address and followed with an all-day workshop that covered the key elements of the ICF Method. Abbotsford has the tools to be able to nominate their community for the ICF Awards program. Should Abbotsford win a spot in the SMART21 for 2019, it will need to better understand its competition to move to the next level. What are its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)? As part of the Community Accelerator program, ICF would provide a metrics report (also known as a Report Card) that would compare Abbotsford with its competition. The Report Card provides benchmarking analysis that identifies where the community stands and offers specific guidance on where to focus efforts in the future. It would identify key gaps that it would need to fix.
Many communities around the world have benefitted from these report cards. Combined with the Report Card and a local Task Force that was committed to better understanding what it would take to become a better community for their citizens, recent Canadian communities such as Hamilton and the Regional Municipality of York have been able to achieve a great deal for their communities as a result. Abbotsford is following in their steps. The Regional Municipality of York became a 2018 SMART21 Community and Hamilton reached to become a 2018 TOP7 Intelligent Community.
The Community Accelerator is not a consulting service; it delivers education and analysis that the community itself uses to plan and execute their future as an Intelligent Community, and through extended mentorship, helps guide the community to better understand its global context for action including preparing itself to attract and retain investment. For additional information or to undertake a Community Accelerator, contact Michael at [email protected] .
Image: ICF Community Accelerator banner
Want to have a voice in iCommunity.ca, the official newsletter of ICF Canada? Please send your blogs, announcements and other interesting content to John G. Jung at [email protected]
ICF Canada 1310-20 Bay Street Toronto, Ontario M5J 2N8 www.icf-canada.com
Contact: John G. Jung at [email protected] 1-647-801-4238 cell
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