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Brandon Recreation Master Plan

Date: October 2018 - April 2019

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba. Canada

Client: Prepared by HTFC Planning & Design for the City of Brandon

Role: Public engagement workshop design and facilitation, analysis and synthesis of final recommendations, writing and layout 

Working in collaboration with the Planning and Public Engagement teams, I played a leading role in the delivery of a comprehensive Recreation Master Plan for the City of Brandon. This was the first recreation planning exercise Brandon had undertaken in nearly 20 years and involved extensive public engagement, stakeholder workshops, asset inventories and trends analysis. 

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Stakeholder Engagement

I was responsible for designing and co-facilitating two public engagement open houses and one workshop with City counsellors and senior Municipal leaders.

The first open house was about gathering public input and priorities for recreation services. I structured the open house into five discussion zones focusing on different aspects of the recreation puzzle such as "health and wellness", "infrastructure", "access and equity", etc. Each zone was supported by a display board (see right) with key information, facts and quotes. In addition, each zone included an activity and/or discussion questions.

Design Your Own Recreation Complex

This activity was designed to determine what mix of facilities were desired by the public for a proposed future multi-purpose recreation complex. People were invited to mix and match (scaled) paper icons representing different facility types such as a field house, indoor pool, yoga studio or multi-purpose room, etc. onto an A3 grid representing the building footprint.

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Municipal Priority Barometer

This activity was designed to gauge the the "appetite for change" among senior municipal leaders and City counsellors with respect to the delivery of recreation programs, services and facilities. Each participant was asked to place two dots: a blue dot representing the current state, and a green dots represent the future. 

The left side of the scale represents a scenario where recreation is solely funded and delivered by the City. The right side of the scale represents the other extreme where the City relies entirely on the private sector and third-parties to deliver recreation programs and services. 

The activity was helpful on a number of fronts. First, it helped us as consultants better understand our client's appetite for change so that we could frame our recommendations accordingly. Second, the activity helped decision makers identify there areas where there was general consensus and opportunity to move forward.

Recommendations

I was also responsible for analyzing and synthesizing all available information into a new Recreation Master Plan for the City that defined a new vision for the provision of recreation services, guiding principles for service delivery, strategic directions and priorities for the next 10-15 years.

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