Over the past year, the Roulant team has been developing the 2024-2028 strategic plan. The social context of recent years (Covid-19 pandemic, rising cost of living, housing crisis, Montreal’s aging population, increased homelessness in the neighbourhood, etc.) has brought about important changes in the needs of Montrealers. These changes have prompted reflection on who our services currently benefit and what should be prioritized in the coming years.
The Roulant partnered with an external consultant, Marianne Simard-Veillet from Pair, to assist the strategic planning committee in guiding the process. Together, they held full-day visioning sessions with both the Roulant staff and board of directors centered around clarifying our role within the larger community and identifying priority beneficiaries. The committee also held consultations about the Roulant’s trajectory with eight partner organizations, as well as invited all members to share their perspectives during the AGM in March. The takeaways from these visioning sessions and consultations have formed the basis for the new strategic plan.
Consulting the Roulant’s partners:
Being connected to the Montreal community involves more than being connected to the Roulant membership. As an organization with one foot in social services and the other foot in social change, Santropol Roulant belongs to a network of actors collaborating to create a culture of community care, tackling the intersecting social issues of poverty, social isolation, food insecurity and physical and mental health. These issues impact people who often live with multiple intersecting identities that have historically been marginalized, including seniors, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness or financial precarity, and more. Because of this complicated reality, the Roulant intentionally consulted partner organizations, who are best placed to provide their perspectives on big-picture topics like those at the centre of the 2024-2028 strategic plan.
Consulting the Roulant’s membership:
In the face of limited capacity in both time and budget, the strategic planning committee decided to hold a community consultation during the AGM in March to take advantage of the high member turnout already expected for the event. The goal was to confirm that the vision of the staff,board, and partners aligned with those of the Roulant’s membership. The consultation was made available to those who attended both in person or online, where respondents were presented with one question:
“In the coming three years, what are the needs of the community that Santropol Roulant could address?“
While this approach simplified the consultation process and allowed members freedom in their responses, there were also some drawbacks: the consultation was held in competition with the voting period and the snack break at the AGM, likely limiting the number of responses. Some members also expressed that they would have liked more notice to reflect on the consultation question to be better-equipped to provide a thoughtful response. These teaching moments will be front of mind when consulting the Roulant community moving forward.
Results
The community consultation collected 28 responses, 10 responses from the online survey and 18 responses from the in-person consultation at the AGM. Broadly speaking, members see the Roulant as having the potential to create a community where:
- healthy food is accessible to all people at all times in a context where food insecurity is on the rise;
- Indigenous peoples and their knowledge are uplifted in a context where Indigenous peoples comprise a disproportionate percentage of the homeless population in Montreal;
- community life is dynamic and inclusive;
- the health of the environment is preserved;
- citizens’ rights are defended and social injustices, such as gentrification, are combated.
Throughout the month of April, eight partner organizations generously lent their knowledge and experience to the development of the new strategic plan through one-on-one interviews with Marianne from Pair. We are deeply grateful to Centraide, Comm-Un, the Conseillère d’Arrondissement du Plateau-Mont-Royal, The Depot, Médecins du Monde, Plein milieu, CDC Plateau-Mont-Royal’s Projet Salade, and the Regroupement des Popotes Roulantes du Québec for being generous with their time and expertise. Their feedback was rich and detailed, but for the sake of brevity, we’ve listed below their general impressions:
Overall, our society needs to:
- strengthen its social fabric with strong, well-anchored public and community services;
- act preventatively rather than curatively, by creating supportive community spaces that offer resources and support, empowering people to have secure living conditions and prevent existing situations from deteriorating;
- develop cross-functional actions that address multiple, interrelated issues (avoid silos);
- find ways to reach disaffiliated and isolated people;
- take invisible poverty into account;
- while helping vulnerable people, continue to work towards transforming the system to act on the root causes of inequality (beyond social assistance and social action).
In response, Santropol Roulant should:
- participate in consultation;
- share its expertise with others;
- maintain its involvement with organizations dealing with unhoused populations.
Takeaways for the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan & action plan
The 2024-2028 strategic plan being an evolution of the previous strategic plan, the strategic planning team’s task was to take into account these different stakeholders’ perspectives and integrate them in a way that leans into the Roulant’s strengths and that is manageable with current resources. Upon its release in the coming months, you will find many of the elements that were raised during the consultations reflected in the new plan’s pillars and objectives. Santropol Roulant will then look towards the new action plan, which will turn strategic objectives into concrete activities.
We are grateful to each partner and community member who took the time to share their visions for the Roulant throughout the consultation process. If you would like more information about the past consultations or the next steps in the strategic planning process, don’t hesitate to give us a call at (514) 284-9335 or send Kate an email.
Kate and the strategic planning committee