Smart Cities Challenge Final Proposal


Winners will need to ensure that the primary beneficiaries of their projects—their residents—will continue to benefit from the outcomes and continually confirm that these remain the desired outcomes. Implementing change is difficult, and engaging residents and stakeholders is crucial in obtaining and maintaining their support. Your plans to sustain community engagement throughout implementation, as outlined in your application, should be your starting point. This chapter serves as a demonstration of your commitment to your residents and other stakeholders in maintaining the focus on their true needs and a preview of the engagement activities that they can expect to see during the implementation phase.

Appendix 1 (page 22) provides a detailed guidance on diversity and inclusion.

Provide an engagement plan for the implementation phase, including:

  • Approach to engaging with, gaining acceptance from, and onboarding residents and other stakeholders for projects that ensures ongoing alignment between the outcomes and their concerns and needs
  • Insights gained through previous engagement processes with residents that shaped the final proposal in a significant way
  • Tools used in past, planned, and ongoing engagement activities that are adapted to target different population groups and encourage ongoing, high participation
  • Efforts made to be inclusive and consider the diversity of residents, including the ways in which certain population groups could be positively/negatively and intentionally/unintentionally affected by projects
  • Experienced or expected reactions from residents and other stakeholders and approaches for managing potential issues
  • Identification of risks and development of appropriate mitigation strategies
  • Other details, as required

Evaluation criteria

  • Engagement to date and plans to engage residents and other stakeholders in the implementation phase are detailed, complete, inclusive, meaningful, and well-suited to achieve the outcomes
  • Plan supports the implementation of projects
  • Diversity and inclusion are reflected in project design, and facilitate the implementation of projects
  • Risk strategy is thorough and adequately addresses key risks

Chapter 6 – Engagement


Our engagement plan is built upon our fundamental belief as Nishnaabeg that everything is inter-related and inter-connected. We view the world as being in constant motion, made up of complex networks and long-term sustaining relationships. We understand the importance of developing and maintaining relationships and the goal of keeping balance and harmony. As a relationship based system, the principle of inclusion is foundational to how we live our lives. Hence, our approach to engagement is inherently inclusive in nature and facilitates high degrees of community participation in meaningful ways.

Our engagement plan, not only facilitates the involvement of our stakeholders, but it does so in a manner that supports the revitalization of our traditional ways in a modern world. Our engagement plan facilitates the coming together for a common vision and purpose. It supports the continuous development as individuals and as a community, as it affirms our common values, builds trust, strengthens relationships, fosters responsibility and accountability and facilitates community ownership.

The overall purpose of engagement is to create opportunities for our children, youth, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and all Biigtigong members, to embrace their responsibility for the well being of our community and future generations and become actively involved in creating a better world.

  1. To empower those affected by this proposal to be involved in the decision-making process and the creation of solutions to challenges and opportunities that are specific to stakeholder needs.
  2. To ensure the engagement processes are meaningful and seek out real contributions that influence the project design and implementation.
  3. To facilitate a learning environment, where the transfer of knowledge and skills encompasses everyone who is impacted by the project.
  4. To utilize cultural practices to ensure successful engagement and facilitate community pride.
  5. To document and share our experiences with engagement, in order to assist in making this project more scalable and replicable.

The following guiding principles form the basis of our engagement process and approach to ensure high-quality collaboration and meaningful active participation.

  1. 7th Generation Principle: We are responsible for the seven generations to come and to the seven generations that came before us. We will move forward embracing our past and future generations and remember the long-term impacts of our decisions.
  2. All My Relations: Our way of life is centered on the belief that we are all related and connected. Every decision impacts everything. We will seek out holistic approaches that honour all life and our complex networks.
  3. Relationships: Developing and maintaining relationships with all life is central to our Nishnaabe way of being, bringing rights, obligations and responsibilities that extend beyond self. We act accordingly, always striving for a state of balance and harmony, as we work collectively towards our vision
  4. Renewal and Transformation: The notions of renewal and embracing change are inherent in our worldview, as we view the world as in a state of constant flux and change. We will utilize approaches that respond to continuous change and implement on-going evaluation to ensure we are meeting our goals and the needs of the community.
  5. Process Focused: Comprised of approximately 70% verbs, the importance of process and actions are embedded in our language. Our approaches will be action-orientated, focusing not only on achieving results, but also on the journey and lessons that our journeys bring.
  6. Natural Laws: We learn about what our behaviour should be by observing Mother Earth and respecting the natural laws.

This proposal will change the essence of the social fabric of the community. From previous engagement experiences on other projects, we understand the importance of including the diverse groups that will be impacted and/or could impact the project. We understand that this journey, especially the reclamation of our language and aadsookaanan, will potentially stir emotions resulting from historical impacts from cultural genocide. We further understand, that it is necessary to walk through these hurts together in order to move forward, heal and reclaim our culture and identity. This proposal required the input of everyone, as it provided another opportunity to build stronger individuals, families, community and a Nation.

In identifying our stakeholders, we considered those who would be immediately impacted and those impacted according to our 7th generation principle. Various target groups were identified and strategies established to facilitate meaningful engagement. Evaluations of these approaches were conducted and necessary changes were implemented and/or noted to improve outcomes. As we move forward from development to implementation, we remain committed to developing effective engagement processes that build upon best-practices while creating new and innovative ways of engagement.

Efforts to ensure participation amongst the diverse groups within the community have provided valuable insights that have significantly improved the final proposal. Our engagement processes to date have resulted in obtaining a clearer understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist or could potentially exist throughout the life of the proposal implementation stage and beyond. It facilitated the development of creative mitigation risk strategies and creative means to grab the opportunities. Our engagement process has led to an excitement; it has provided a central rallying point. The following provides a list of primary stakeholders engaged to date, the methods used for engagement and the insights gained from the engagement that shaped our proposal.

Engagement with our elected leadership has reiterated their long-term commitment to the goals and the expected outcomes of this proposal. Council echoed the need to build everything in a manner that will lead to long-term sustainability. In order to ensure long-term success, the spirit of the proposal must become part of the DNA of the entire organization and community. Due to the nature and outcomes of the proposal, the entire organization and community, must strategically align resources in the collective pursuit of our vision.

Council understood the need to build STEM knowledge in order for the community to participate in the rapidly changing world. Additionally, that the creation of children who understand their traditional language, for the first time in centuries, will profoundly change the fabric of the community and our institutions. Council also restated their excitement that our proposal will impact people beyond our community. Direction was provided to our Senior Management Team to ensure our strategies align and support the specific goals and outcomes of the Smart Cities proposal.

Our Senior Management Team is constantly creating, evaluating and reimaging our vision, our strategies, successes and failures, in our efforts to build our Nation. Working towards a common vision, our education, health, social services, lands and resources, governance, economic development, housing, and public works team, collectively and strategically aim to address the needs of our community. Our engagement with Senior Managers allowed us to work towards a common vision and develop mutually supportive and attainable goals.

Language and aadsookaanan reconstruction and revitalization is an organization wide goal and will impact our existing service delivery models. For example, upon the completion of the aadsookaanan reconstruction work, our Social and Health Department, will utilize this work to reconstruct our rites of passage and develop a service model based on the rites of passage. Another example is the re-visioning of our dispute resolution policy and the alignment with the ancient teachings contained in our aadsookaanan. A review of our Human Resource Strategy will be conducted in light of the availability of immersion video that will create understanders.

As for STEM, our departments will be providing support, in terms of placements, special speakers, student co-op work opportunities, and STEM related summer employment. Our Senior Management Team are committed to creating the necessary supports, as per the findings of our on-going evaluation and project implementation, to ensure successful attainment of our goals.

The primary engagement tool we utilized with leadership was holding face-to-face meetings both collectively and individually. This method was selected in order to facilitate critical thinking and extensive discussion. Leadership was also represented at all of our other stakeholder engagement sessions. On-going engagement with this particular group is of extreme importance to the success and continuation and growth of our Smart Cities proposal.

Continued engagement will occur through the existing structures that will facilitate on-going connections between the proposal implementation team and the leadership. Senior Management will be responsible to engage their respective staff members. Regular meetings will occur throughout the life of the project, in addition to regular reporting and evaluation. The governing team responsible for the Smart Cities project will have a representative from Council and Senior Management appointed to ensure successful implementation and alignment of goals.

Our elders and traditional knowledge holders are considered major stakeholders in this project. Following our cultural protocols, these groups have been involved in the planning and development of our proposal, including our initial application. Our approach to engagement with our elders usually occurred in informal settings, not in a boardroom. We respected their approach in transferring knowledge and providing direction through the use of stories and personal accounts of life experiences. Individuals from this particular group have directly experienced the affects of residential and day school systems. They are able to speak first hand regarding the loss of language, the loss of their stories and methods of transferring cultural knowledge and the trials this has caused in their lives and those of their family. They are motivated to create opportunities to reconcile the impacts from this part of our history.

Through our engagement processes, these stakeholders provided strong support for the use of technology in the creation of understanders of Nishnaabemwin (our language) and the transfer of traditional knowledge contained in our Aadsookaanan (sacred stories). Many understood the power of technology due to their involvement in our language reconstruction and documentation project. From first hand experience, they saw the data that everyone contributed and the research data, along with technology, successfully aid in reconstructing our language. Most of our elders and knowledge keepers realize that language revitalization in our community is impossible without the use of technology. Additionally, they felt that making our language and stories available on-line, was the best means to reach our youth. With only one proficient speaker left in our community, taking the data available through our language and making this accessible for everyone, forever, and utilizing immersion, on-line, provided hope and reconciliation.

They also asserted the importance of having our youth and our elders/knowledge keepers interact in real- life experiences. Our elders reminded us that our way of life is tied inherently to the land and more to a specific place. In order for us to transform our youth into better-educated, more-employable, better- grounded and more holistically Nishnaabe, we must keep them connected to their territory and the teachings that can only come from intimate relationships with the trees, birds, fish, wind, rain, rocks and every part of existence. They stressed the importance of our land-based curriculum and the need to build their relationships with Mother Earth.

The primary engagement tool used to obtain input from this target group was the use of face-to-face informal meetings. We followed cultural protocols, with the passing of tobacco and observed the traditional methods of knowledge transmission. We smudged, sang, feasted, told stories, laughed, cried, talked, listened, remembered our ancestors, sat in silence, and together made decisions in the best interest of seven generations.

Our elders and traditional knowledge will continue to play an integral part of our Smart Cities proposal implementation. The role our elders play in our world is very explicit as defined by our cultural protocols. We are responsible to acknowledge their role and facilitate the inter-generational transfer of knowledge, in a culturally appropriate manner. Our proposal sets out formal and informal on-going space for the involvement of our elders and knowledge keepers. Cultural norms dictate that we are accountable to our elders and as just this guarantees that they will be meaningfully involved in this proposal.

Our youth are the center of this proposal and are the main beneficiaries and reasons for this proposal. Part of our engagement strategy for this group, included the examination of results and other engagement sessions held by other community projects. We utilized this information to augment the information we obtained through our engagement sessions.

Through surveys and personal interviews with our youth, they expressed the need to be better prepared for the technological world. Additionally, they felt it was important that having a strong sense of their Nishnaabe identity was essential to their success. Not having been exposed to their traditional language and what it contains, our youth do not understand the profound sense of loss that our culture has suffered or the depth of the benefits one can receive from acquiring their language. Our initial application failed to identify this as a potential drawback to achieving our outcomes. This is addressed in our final proposal by creating a series of videos that provides an inside look at the philosophy embedded in the language and how it expresses our unique worldview. It is our intention that these videos, along with teachings from our elders, will provide our youth and other community members with the motivation to begin their language acquisition journey.

We engaged the youth through some of their established groups. Additionally, we hosted special events at their local high school, sponsored community events, conducted a youth survey, and talked to them in various public functions and locations. Several new initiatives are currently underway with our departments that aim to increase youth involvement. Our Smart Cities team have provided input into the establishment of these new initiatives and will utilise these structures to increase youth engagement. The new approaches are youth-driven.

Projects aimed at our children will be more successful with the support of their parents. Our parental engagement findings showed an overall support of the proposal. Parents understood the importance of preparing our children and youth for the technological world. Additionally, they acknowledged the importance of language, culture and land to identity and how this was important to living good lives.

One of the biggest impacts resulting from our consultations with parents was their personal fear in not having knowledge of STEM or the language. This translated into building into our proposal strategies to help educate our parents and provide resources on how they can support their children’s language acquisition and STEM learning journeys. Including supports for parents has now become an important addition to our proposal. We will incorporate strategies that facilitate family learning. Overall, the parents were excited about the new possibilities for their children and several thought perhaps they should go back to kindergarten.

Parents understood that this proposal would produce understanders of the language. They wanted reassurance that the resources necessary to move from being an understander to becoming a speaker will be available. Our 2019 survey and 2006 survey clearly state that language revitalization is a community priority and creating speakers is our ultimate goal.

We utilized surveys, community meetings, and small group discussions, as the means to obtain parental engagement. Our education staff took opportunities inside their system to engage the parents and introduce them to STEM. We have strengthened our strategies to encourage and empower our parents as they support their children’s education journey. Continued parental engagement throughout the proposal implementation is important to achieving the outcomes for our children.

Biigtigong has a well-established, creative and results-driven Education team. Their participation in the development of the proposal has been important and has resulted in substantial contributions to ensuring the successful implementation of our proposal. They have identified solutions to potential problems and have substantially improved the quality of the proposal.

They have been extensively involved throughout the entire process, from visioning, to curriculum reviews and development, education philosophy and pedagogy reviews, assessment and evaluation development, privacy and data, student needs and support, student learning styles, immersion video production, professional development and capacity building, co-operative education models and re-imaging a new education model. The application of the resources developed through this proposal will be subject to the rules and regulations of the Education Department. The education department will maintain responsibility for the monitoring of individual student assessments and the overall education mandate.

Through pilot projects and professional development initiatives, the staff had the opportunity to facilitate student learning in the area of technology and engineering. This was particularly challenging, as the teachers had little to no knowledge of either fields or experience using on-line resources in these fields. This work resulted in wonderful lessons but the most important take away is the creation of a team excited to take on the world of technology, engineering and language acquisition. Our education department and our Smart Cities team has developed a training strategy to support teachers with STEM, language and and blended learning education.

One of the major changes resulting from the engagement with the education staff relates directly to our initial goals in the secondary school program. The staff highlighted the limitations of secondary level courses as it related to our initial vision. As a result, we had to go back to the drawing board and find other ways to implement our vision. This turned out to be such a wonderful problem, which initially seemed insurmountable. This led to the development of a much more supported and comprehensive high-school program. It now provides high-school credits, real technology and engineering co-ops, summer internships and employment, youth owned and run business, career support and mentorship.

Our engagement with our education staff has been extensive and will continue to be so. We have utilized surveys, focus group discussions, small group discussions, pilot projects, training sessions, staff meetings, on-line resources, collaborative tools, and cultural events to engage our education team. We have created an organizational culture that supports and empowers our staff. The success of our Smart Cities proposal is increased by meaningful engagement and empowerment of our Education team.

The Smart Cities proposal provides an opportunity to strengthen the community bonds between on- reserve and off-reserve members. Through our on-line platform, off-reserve members will have the opportunity to access important community data relating to their language and aadsookaanan. Additionally, they will have access to any programs developed by the community that support STEM on-line. The meet-up-app will also help facilitate opportunities to return home to their traditional territory and participate in person with the community.

Our off-reserve members indicated support for the proposal goals and were excited about the opportunity to acquire their language from the comforts of their home. Engagement results reiterated the need to more effectively utilize technology to build stronger relationships and inclusion of off-reserve members into the building of our Nation.

Our engagement with off-reserve members included a survey, a meeting in Thunder Bay, availability of live-streamed community meetings, conference call meetings and web-site information. Our plan moving forward includes strategies to increase off-reserve participation and engagement.

Various engagement activities were held for the general population. These events included, luncheon talks, large community presentations, small group sessions, social events, survey, live-streamed community meetings, newsletters, web sites, email and social media. We received tremendous support for the project through the high levels of participation in the engagement sessions. Our general sessions were well attended and our survey return rate was high. The responses shaped our proposal by confirming we are on the right path and the community is behind the goals set forth in our proposal. Community support is very important to the successful implementation of our proposal. It does take a whole community to raise a child.

In order to ensure our proposal is academically feasible and provides a solid foundation for entry into related post-secondary programs or employment fields, we engaged various STEM professionals from the business and academic sectors. The information and insights provided by this group has significantly impacted our proposal. They played instrumental roles in selecting the curriculum and developing a sequencing of skills and knowledge. Their expertise provided us with the guidance to develop a high level K-12 STEM program, with ambitious and achievable goals. Their continued involvement in the project will ensure our programs meet the needs of our students and the ever-changing needs of the industry.

A variety of methods were used during the proposal development stage to achieve high participation rates amongst the stakeholders. Upon the completion of stakeholder analysis, where a careful review of the potential risks, interests and benefits were identified, engagement strategies were designed to suit the specifics of each group. Engagement tools were purposely selected and customized for each of our stakeholder groups. In addition to selecting appropriate tools, the presentation itself was customized for the specific audiences.

Individuals who had experience working with each of the stakeholder groups were invited to assist in the design and the development of a best-suited approach to the consultations. Involving these individuals increased our efforts of engagement to produce meaningful results and strong community buy-in and support. A list of tools used is attached as Appendix Z.

Our engagement plans to date has resulted in the successful participation from our residents and the diverse stakeholders of the project. We believe our processes were meaningful and facilitated honest and open discussions. As a community, we explored the potential barriers and risks to our success and found creative solutions to address them. We embraced the opportunities and strategically developed a difficult but implementable proposal that will make profound impacts forever. We understand the importance of engagement and make this foundational to how we build our Nation.

We are building upon the successes of our engagement during the final proposal development phase. Our plans for engagement during the implementation stage are aimed to foster high levels of community engagement from the diverse stakeholders. The engagement processes are intended to ensure the needs of the community are being met and the program meets its expected outcomes. The engagement process will foster community development, inclusion and provide a rallying point for members to make meaningful contributions to helping transform our youth into better educated, more employable, better grounded and more holistically Nishnaabe people.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our formal leaders to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Smart Cities Executive Board: The Chief and Council and the Senior Management Team will each have a representative on the Smart Cities Executive Board. Each will be coordinate engagement with their respective group.
  2. Senior Management Team: An Executive Board representative will participate in quarterly meetings.
  3. Bi-monthly report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  4. Annual Report: Produce an annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.
  5. Ceremony: Elders will be invited to an annual ceremony where we honour the goals of our proposal and ask for help and guidance from our ancestors.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our elders to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Aadsookaanan Working Group: This group is comprised of elders, language carriers, traditional knowledge holders, youth, parents and technical personnel. They will work collectively with the aadsookaanan research and reconstruction team. They will act as the advisory body and assist in the decision-making process regarding aadsookaanan reconstruction. Additionally, they will report to the Executive Board who is responsible for the overall proposal. This group will remain in affect for the entire implementation stage and will meet no less than quarterly and more frequently when required. The group will coordinate community engagement sessions regarding the aadsookaanan project to keep the community informed and involved.
  2. 50+ Elders Group, TEK Working Group, Place-Name Reclamation Working Group: Bi-annual engagement events will be held specifically with each of these existing community elder groups.
  3. Pop-Up Engagement Sessions: We will host at minimum one pop-up Smart Cities fun and informative pop-up engagement session. These sessions will be held in support of existing annual community events, such as, moose-camp, addictions awareness week, fish-camp.
  4. Ceremony: Elders will be invited to an annual ceremony where we honour the goals of our proposal and ask for help and guidance from our ancestors.
  5. Bi-monthly Report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  6. Annual Report: Produce and annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our youth to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Executive Board Seats: Two seats on the Executive Board will be reserved for youth representation. The seats will hold the same responsibility and influence as all other seats on the committee. The youth representatives will be responsible for coordinating the youth engagement strategies.
  2. Biigtigong Youth Council: We will utilize the Youth Council to assist in the coordination of joint initiatives aimed at youth engagement.
  3. In-school Engagement: We will host one in-school engagement session per semester.
  4. Pop-Up Engagement Sessions: We will host at minimum one pop-up Smart Cities fun and informative pop-up engagement session. These sessions will be held in support of existing annual community events, such as, moose-camp, addictions awareness week, fish-camp.
  5. Formal Evaluation: Our youth will be involved in the evaluation of the proposal activities and in the development of strategies to strengthen the program.
  6. Celebration of Achievements: A celebration of student achievements as they r elated to the outcomes of this project will be planned each year.
  7. Bi-monthly report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  8. Annual Report: Produce and annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our parents to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Education Committee: An Executive Board member will work with the Education Committee to engage and inform parents.
  2. Child and Family Learning Centre Parent Committee: An Executive Board member will attend 1 parent meeting per year, or as requested.
  3. Existing In-School Parent Engagement Activities: Parents will be engaged through parent-teacher interviews, open-houses, progress reports, on-line media and other in-school engagement processes.
  4. Parent and Student Cohort Support Program: A special program will be set up for the parents and students for the 2019 cohort moving into the CompTIA A+ program. This program will provide various support services for the duration of the program. Parents will have an opportunity to help adapt the program in order to better serve youth success.
  5. On-line workshops for parents: A series of on-line interactive workshops will be held for parents to help them engage in the learning journey of their children.
  6. Formal Evaluation: Our parents will be involved in the evaluation of the proposal activities and in the development of strategies to strengthen the program.
  7. Bi-monthly report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  8. Annual Report: Produce and annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.
  9. Pop-up Engagement Session: We will host at minimum one pop-up Smart Cities fun and informative pop-up engagement session. These sessions will be held in support of existing annual community events, such as, moose-camp, addictions awareness week, fish-camp.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our off-reserve members to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Off-reserve meetings: A minimum of one in-person meeting will occur with off-reserve members.
  2. Live-stream video: All community meetings will be live-streamed to encourage off-reserve members.
  3. Webinars: Two Webinars will be held annually for post-secondary students and off-reserve members.
  4. Formal Evaluation: Our youth will be involved in the evaluation of the proposal activities and in the development of strategies to strengthen the program.
  5. Bi-monthly report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  6. Annual Report: Produce and annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.

The following will be implemented to ensure meaningful and continued engagement with our community to support the attainment of the proposal outcomes:

  1. Community Meeting: A minimum of one in person meeting will occur with on-reserve members.
  2. Live-stream video: All community meetings will be live-streamed to encourage off-reserve members.
  3. Nishnaabe Clan System: A new engagement system based on our clan system will be introduced for the first time. This is an extensive engagement process that is designed to include all sectors of the community. This system will be used as one of our primary methods of community engagement.
  4. Formal Evaluation: Our youth will be involved in the evaluation of the proposal activities and in the development of strategies to strengthen the program.
  5. Bi-monthly report: A video report will be made available to provide education, accountability and foster engagement on the project.
  6. Annual Report: Produce and annual report to Council, Senior Management and Community.

Reconstruction and reclamation of our ancient Nishnaabe ways is a central to our vision. In keeping with the spirit of our vision, we intend to utilize our traditional clan system as the primary method to our engagement strategy. The clan system is built upon principles that are foundational to our world-view and philosophical understanding of our world. These principles capture cultural values, such as, non- hierarchical structures, cooperation, collaboration, reciprocity, communal living and promotes the importance of relationships.

Our clan systems are reflective our cultural structures that emerges from our relationships with the land and a naturalistic cosmology. We look to the natural world and the laws that exist on the Earth, as our guiding principles for the development of our systems and structures. Our clan systems consist of seven primary clans: Loon, Crane, Fish, Bird, Bear, Marten and Deer, each having several sub-clans. Each clan has adopted a spirit animal as their totem and this animal is a symbol of how the members of each clan should conduct themselves and relate to the world.

This system organizes work and establishes responsibilities of individuals and the collective. Each clan holds specific duties and responsibilities to take care of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of the community. Some of these responsibilities include, philosophy, law making, decision- making and enforcement, governance, learning and teaching, communication, economics, trade, defense, child rearing, providing, conflict resolution, and strategy. The clan teachings are agreements that govern how individuals and families take care of each other and the community as a whole.

We are choosing to implement our clan system for the first time within a modern context. We will utilize the clan structure and protocols for the purpose of community engagement. Each clan will appoint a representative to the main clan body. The main body will work with the Executive Board, to determine the most effective and productive strategies to empower and engage our residents. Each clan leader reports directly to his/her clan and the clan determines how they will involve the members of their clan in the process. Clans determine their own internal methods of communication and decision-making. Individual clan decisions are brought back to the main clan and our consensus decision-making model and dispute resolution models will govern the process. This is the basis of our engagement plan.

Our approach to risk and how we determine and mitigate or avoid risk is discussed in Chapter 3. This table summarizes the risks associated with community engagement and the risk management approach and mitigating actions to be taken.