Strategic Plan
Strategic Planning Retreat November 3&4, 2006
Executive Summary
Kootenay Family Place held its first agency wide, strategic planning retreat on November 3&4, 2006. Over thirty staff, management and board members gathered to reflect, share, plan and celebrate together. The event produced a great deal of conversation, reflection, and engagement by all participants. This document captures the relevant decisions, discussions, and strategies produced during the retreat.
The experience of the two month long strategic planning process made clear that the work of creating the future of Kootenay Family Place has only begun with this retreat. The “strategic” level of thinking that began to emerge from the entire process produced clear values and goals, as well as strategies for enabling these to guide the future direction of the agency.
This document describes the values and goals listed, along with brief supporting contexts for them. It also conveys the decision to create action committees to carry out the ongoing work of putting the strategy developed into action. Finally, it lays out some orientation to the kinds of process that are seen as important for the work of these committees.
The values expressed by many who participated evolved into a kind of motto, intuitive belief, or “felt sense” of the underlying motivation felt by all our staff. This was a “commitment to quality service.” This commitment was evident not only in the number of staff attending, but also in the level and quality of engagement in the process of strategic planning. As well, the value of collaboration was evident as a theme throughout the retreat and entire strategic planning process.
The goals were clear and succinct.
• Work together to take KFP to the next level of service through piloting a Hub model to enhance the integration of service delivery including early childhood and youth and family,
• Collaborate on many levels to develop an early learning/child development approach for Child Care services,
• Generate sufficient revenue to make all of this sustainable, and
• Make KFP known to everyone in the community and region.
• Work together to take KFP to the next level of service through piloting a Hub model to enhance the integration of service delivery including early childhood and youth and family,
• Collaborate on many levels to develop an early learning/child development approach for Child Care services,
• Generate sufficient revenue to make all of this sustainable, and
• Make KFP known to everyone in the community and region.
The strategies were internalized by staff when they created mandates for five action committees who will carry forward this level of strategic thinking about how to best realize these goals. The capacity to take action informed by research, best practices, and the core values of the agency is firmly in place within KFP, and the next few years will be very exciting!
Values, Goals and Strategies
After welcoming statements from the chair of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, the Executive Director and an orientation to the retreat, participants were shown the culture survey results for each program area. This led into the first major activity of the retreat, which was to generate a list of values, goals and strategies for the agency. The list below is a synthesis of the comprehensive list generated at the retreat.
Values
o Commitment to quality service delivery
o Accessibility of services (physical and socio-economic)
o Collaboration – within society, with community, across region
o Family focus
o Giving
o Balance
o Trust
o Respect
o Open communication
o Ethical foundation
o Life long learning
o Accessibility of services (physical and socio-economic)
o Collaboration – within society, with community, across region
o Family focus
o Giving
o Balance
o Trust
o Respect
o Open communication
o Ethical foundation
o Life long learning
Goals
o KFP known by all families in the community and region
o Operating from a “Hub” model
o Sustainable revenue for all programs
o Healthy recruitment and retention capacity
o Appropriate space for service delivery
o Promoting “early learning” child development approach for child care
o Operating from a “Hub” model
o Sustainable revenue for all programs
o Healthy recruitment and retention capacity
o Appropriate space for service delivery
o Promoting “early learning” child development approach for child care
Strategies
o Create in-house think tank
o Comprehensive integration of and effective collaboration between services
o Maintaining core values
o Research and evidence based practices supporting outcomes
o Increase marketing capacity
o Branding KFP
o Expansion of services within our mandate/continuum
o Comprehensive integration of and effective collaboration between services
o Maintaining core values
o Research and evidence based practices supporting outcomes
o Increase marketing capacity
o Branding KFP
o Expansion of services within our mandate/continuum
From these lists, agency staff went through a process of identifying high level, comprehensive priorities for the agency. These conversations about the lists above boiled all of the above down to identify collaboration and marketing as the two key areas of focus, or themes for the agency over the upcoming years.