Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan
As of November 17, 2021, the councils of the City of Windsor and Essex County as well as the seven lower-tier municipalities of the County of Essex have endorsed the Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan (the Plan).
Executive Summary
A summary of the Plan is available in multiple languages.
About the Project
The City of Windsor and the municipalities of the County of Essex, in partnership with agencies and organizations from many sectors, have developed a plan to support the safety and well-being of communities within Windsor and Essex County.
The Plan seeks to understand, respect and support the community contexts of each partner municipality by using principles that align with the provincial community safety and well-being (CSWB) planning framework. These types of plans recognize that complex social issues cannot be addressed in isolation or solely on an incident-response basis. Instead, CSWB planning strives, through collaboration and consultation, to leverage existing strengths, resources and best practices to establish proactive approaches to counter identified local risks.
Ultimately, the goal of the Plan is to create a community where everyone feels safe, has a sense of belonging, has access to services and opportunities, and can have their needs met across Windsor and the County of Essex..
Benefits
The Ministry of the Solicitor General has identified a range of benefits for local agencies, organizations, frontline service providers and residents, related to CSWB planning efforts, including:
- Enhanced communication and collaboration among agencies and organizations
- Increased understanding of local risks and vulnerable groups
- Ensuring services are provided to individuals with complex needs
- Increased awareness, coordination and access to services for community members and vulnerable groups
Mandate
As of January 1, 2019, The Safer Ontario Act, 2018 requires municipalities to prepare and adopt community safety and well-being plans in partnership with a multi-sectoral advisory committee. The City of Windsor and the County of Essex must prepare a draft CSWB plan and seek approval from their respective councils. The report must be submitted and endorsed by City and County councils by December 31, 2021.
The Windsor Essex Regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan has identified and prioritized regional and local risk factors and strives to enhance collaboration across multiple sectors by strengthening how our communities collectively coordinate services on issues related to safety and well-being.
The Provincial Community Safety and Well Being (CSWB) Planning Framework
The CSWB Planning Framework consists of the following four areas of intervention:
Social Development: Promoting and maintaining community safety and well-being.
Prevention: Proactively reducing identified risks.
Risk Intervention: Mitigating situations of elevated risk.
Incident Response: Critical and non-critical incident response.
While community safety and well-being planning needs to occur in all four areas of the framework, the majority of investments, time and resources should be spent on developing and/or enhancing social development, prevention and risk intervention strategies to reduce the number of individuals, families and communities that reach the point of requiring an incident response.
Developing strategies that are preventative as opposed to reactive will ensure efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of safety and well-being service delivery across Ontario. It is also important to explore more efficient and effective ways of delivering services, including frontline incident response, to ensure those in crisis are receiving the proper supports from the most appropriate service provider.
For more information on the project background and mandate, please watch our series of short informational videos found on our Resources page.