A partnership recently established among Perth County municipalities is trying to gather data and make communities safer.
Amy Gangl is the Director of Programs for North Perth.
She says after it was found that many of the communities in Perth County are facing similar challenges, it was decided that it was time to form a partnership to try and identify those issues and come up with ways to address them.
That's how the Community Safety and Well Being Partnership Council was formed. It's made up of the six municipalities within Perth County.
The council has a member from each municipality and is co-chaired by Stratford Police Chief Greg Skinner and Kim McElroy, the Director of Social Services for the City of Stratford.
Gangl says the issues the partnership is looking into are wide ranging.
"Everything from affordable housing, safety and security, identifications with healthcare, all of those things that, if you ask anyone 'How are you doing today, what are your problems?', we know there's something there that we need to address and work towards."
Gangl says roughly a year ago, the members of this partnership got some community surveys out and reviewed some of the strategic plans locally to try and establish the core issues that they want to try to improve on. Right now, she says the organization is trying to put together a road map for people in terms of identifying local organizations that offer different services.
"Right now we're in the collection phase of things. Just collecting whatever information is out there, such as what organizations and social services are out there, and what are they offering so that we can present to the public a platform of individual services and where they are."
With that in mind, Gangl notes that in terms of sharing all that information in an easy to find place, that might be on the county website, individual municipal sites or maybe partnering with an organization that has all that information in one convenient place already. When it comes to North Perth specifically, Gangl says she has a clear mandate in mind when it comes to the Community Safety and Well Being Partnership Council, which is shared by the other members.
"We want our North Perth citizens to have increased knowledge and awareness of existing programs, services and supports through improved communications. Also, we want increased collaboration so that providers can work together more effectively and be better equipped to guide individuals and families to the social, health, economic and educational supports that they need."
Gangl adds that the Community Safety and Well Being Partnership Council will be looking at more community outreach this year to gather even more information so they are addressing what the people are saying they need most.