1. Methodology
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Vitality is a collective aspiration as well as the product of individual activity. The study of the English-speaking community of Québec City followed a participatory approach by giving community leaders and stakeholders an opportunity to influence the design and implementation of the study. As in previous community studies engaging three French-speaking communities outside Quebec,8 we relied heavily on active community participation in the study to describe the target sectors. A provincial steering committee composed of eight leading community stakeholders (two from each region), representatives of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and the Qu’anglo Communications consulting team was created.
An orientation session with the steering committee was held to present an overview of the project, invite general input from each of the communities and determine the timing and manner through which the consultations would be completed in each of the communities. During this orientation session, the steering committee members selected four sectors to best reflect the priorities of their respective communities, and these became the focus of consultation in each community. The steering committee was also asked to participate in the creation of task forces for each of the chosen sectors, specifically in developing selection criteria for the task force members and in the identification of potential candidates.
This study provided each of the three English-speaking communities with the opportunity to choose its own four priority sectors. It was therefore possible to see how the process and resulting logic model are adapted to different community circumstances. In Québec City, members of the steering committee chose the following sectors of activity:
| Sectors selected for study – Québec City |
|---|
| Youth – create the conditions conducive to attracting young people to remain in or return to the Québec City area to pursue their career and family aspirations. |
| Health and social services – provide essential health care and social services in the English language that contribute to the overall well-being of the community by promoting and supporting a healthy lifestyle. |
| Leadership and visibility – The English-speaking community of Québec City has demonstrated effective leadership but also recognizes that with an aging and declining population it needs to create the conditions for leadership renewal. In addition, as a contribution to long-term vitality, the community needs to become more visible and engaged within the majority French-speaking community of the region. |
| Arts and culture – this sector is seen as an expression of the community's identity, and a valuable contributor to a community space, particularly as part of the education sector. |
For the community consultation in Québec City, a task force of leading community stakeholders was created, composed of 12 participants who were active community members or experts in a certain sector. These individuals were selected for their ability to describe the community development activities, short- and long-term results, best practices and needs of their community.
The community task force session was held at Champlain College, St-Lawrence Campus in Québec City on May 17, 2007. The session was in workshop format and included a general discussion on the concept of vitality as well as a structured discussion on the main elements of vitality and indicators and how they apply to the activity sectors identified by the community. The community task force session was followed by a validation session held at the Jeffery Hale Centre in Québec City on September 4, 2007, and was supplemented by e-mail and telephone contributions to the session findings.
Notes
8 Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Vitality Indicators for Official Language Communities 1: Francophones in Urban Settings, Ottawa, 2007.
