We asked. You answered!

At our Annual General Meeting we asked you to take a moment and answer the following:

What is the biggest question that we need to answer together as a community?

Over 150 of you from different sectors in the city responded.

We’ve grouped your responses into three themes:

Inclusion

Civic Leadership and

Sustainable and Healthy Communities. 

In the following weeks we will be bringing these questions to our internal meetings. Our Pillar staff and board of directors are in deep discussions about how can we continue to walk the walk and do even better. We will be sharing your responses in our Community Conversations on Inclusion and we will be holding on to these themes as we focus our work. Your questions further support our strategic priority around Be Inclusive. We prepared a brief video to describe our strategic planning process and how, after extensive consultation, we arrived to our top three strategic priorities, Be Focused, Be Ready, Be Inclusive. And as always, we welcome the opportunity to continue to engage in these conversations with you.

With gratitude,

Michelle

Michelle Baldwin

Executive Director


 Here’s the full list of your questions. We welcome any additional feedback or comments! We hope to keep asking important questions and challenging each other!

 What is the biggest question that we need to answer together as a community?

THEMES:

Inclusion

  • How do we ensure all voices are at the table to know what to focus on?

  • Engage those who don’t get engaged

  • How do we ensure all voices are at the table to know what to focus on?

  • How to better provide equality of opportunity?

  • How to authentically and consistently engage Indigenous people in community conversations, planning and action - to be truly inclusive

  • What’s really stopping us from creating equality and inclusion?

  • What does it take to be youth-led, but not youth alone?

  • How do we deconstruct the current “rules” and culture and co-create anew?

  • Indigenous initiatives

  • What does it look like to move beyond land acknowledgment toward true reconciliation with indigenous communities?

  • One common purpose… one common currency … humanity

  • How can we include everyone and keep it diverse to do this all together?

  • How can I help? What are our biggest issues and how can we help?

  • How does London move forward and still respect the past?

  • What is Diversity to Pillar Nonprofit? And what are they doing about it, how is this representing the community when it’s all white??

  • How does your work centre those furthest in the margins when those people are not on you your board or in this room? What does diversity really mean to you?

  • Trust + listen to young Londoners

  • Manage expectations

  • How can we address inequality in London?

 

Civic Leadership

  • How to be a walkable, cycle-friendly community?

  • What are our priorities rank as a community?

  • How do we really work together to have impact in a constantly changing environment?

  • Who will lead our city?

  • How can we work to raise each other up, not tear others down?

  • How do we encourage young bright people to run for municipal politics?

  • Why don’t more Londoners (such as my neighbour) care more about equity and inclusion?

  • How do we build an engaging, accessible community for our aging population?

  • Ensuring our youth are skilled in media/information literacy

  • Green transportation (Carpooling, biking, bus, etc). We can’t widen roads indefinitely!

  • How can we contribute to building community consensus? (promoting inclusion as a vital part of community building)

  • Urban sprawl clear cutting land for new houses is not sustainable

  • How do we innovate and build our city in a way that does not leave anyone behind?

  • How do we foster more collaboration between groups of differing industries and backgrounds?

  • How could Pillar be a force for changing the world? (beyond London… think global, act local)

  • If the government doesn’t reflect our values, how do we continue to make systematic change?

  • Who is accountable and who is charge of the change agreed upon?

  • How does London move forward and still respect the past?

  • How can I help? What are our biggest issues and how can we help

  • Can we rethink food production, consumption and waste in our community to be sustainable and integrated?

  • Targeted purposeful investment

  • How can we contribute to building community consensus?

  • Stronger connected city with excellent leadership at City Council, which has been missing. Pillar can help lead.

  • How can we create an idealization and manifestation of progress as defined by economic and social prosperity?

 

Sustainable and Healthy Communities

  • How to improve the situation of people suffering from mental health problems - housing, accessibility etc

  • What can we do to ensure that all children go to school fed, warm and have a place to go and speak if they do not feel safe?

  • Quality of life 1) Health 2) Shelter 3) Education 4) Safety

  • Is (are) the number of organizations, foci, etc actually creating inefficiencies in putting people at the centre?

  • How can we serve the growing need of people struggling with poverty and homelessness in the face of diminishing funds or limited funds?

  • How can we improve/stabilize the mental health of the individual … and not blame the social structure? … that doesn’t mean the social structure can’t improve

  • How we reduce/eliminate poverty?

  • Homelessness

  • How to measure the impact of the Socialpreneur chat?

  • Work on homelessness and addiction

  • What are we doing to improve access - dignified access -  to marginalized groups? (eg sex workers) and access meaning transport, safe locations, etc

Community members participating in the land acknowledgement led by Melanie Schambach during our AGMCommunity members participate in the land acknowledgment led by Melanie Schambach during our AGM

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