Reflections from the St. Joseph Continuing Care Team

St. Joseph’s currently owns underutilized land and is interested in developing it into affordable housing for seniors. They are in the first stage of this project and working to build a case for developing seniors housing on this parcel of land.  

Hear Directly from Seniors: 

For St. Joseph’s, the stakeholder mapping exercise highlighted the importance of hearing directly from seniors themselves about their needs for housing in the community, recognizing they are the stakeholders most impacted by the project outcome. The team discussed the need to continue to engage and advocate for seniors throughout the process, and to ensure that their voice is central in the decision-making process.

Tap into Community Knowledge:  

The team also discussed the power of tapping into a broader range of community members, organizations, as well as all orders of government to learn from existing in-depth research on community need and potential gaps. They felt there were precedents to learn from and they wanted to capitalize upon all this community knowledge. Through analysis of the power/interest matrix, it was identified that several important stakeholders were external and there would need to be intentional effort required to reach out and build relationships with these folks.  

Need to be Proactive:  

The matrix also brought to the forefront that some of the stakeholders identified are not currently interested, but that they would be if the St. Joseph’s team could be proactive and engage them in the process.  

Overall, the team found the stakeholder mapping exercise to be an efficient tool as it helped set the framework for the path ahead. They reflected that sometimes the most difficult part of any project is knowing what step one is, and the exercise gave them a sense of where they are headed. The day following the session, the CEO declared, “We are truly energized and building on the momentum from yesterday's session. The team quickly assembled the names, and we are ready for the next phase.”

The St. Joseph’s team used the stakeholder mapping exercise to identify participants for future exploratory workshops as part of their early work to Build the Case for a new housing project for seniors in Cornwall.