Ingrid Clark,
First Impressions Community Exchange
reveals the first impressions a town or city conveys to visitors - tourists,
potential investors and residents. The program invites fresh eyes in to explore
the community's appearance, services and infrastructure through an assessment
process. It involves an exchange between two communities who send volunteer
teams equipped with helpful resources to conduct a comprehensive,
secret-shopper type review of each other.
Sometimes we get complacent about all
the good things because we take them for granted. I look out at the river
over here and I look at it everyday. Someone else may come and say: "Oh,
how wonderful" and they may like fly-fishing or they may like the view
so it's very restful for them. It's more a spiritual experience, which I living
here and getting so used to it take it for granted.
Rhoda Lipton, Business Owner Elora
It's like you saying to your family "this
has to change" and everybody goes "yeah, yeah, yeah" and somebody
else comes in and says "this has to change" and everybody goes "YES",
so that's terrific.
Ingrid Clark
The First Impressions program offers a
model for teams to follow in planning and conducting a visit to a community.
The most effective exchanges have occurred where the exchange communities
have similar characteristics or face similar development issues.
Ralph Laviolette -
Economic Development Officer - Huron East
Many retailers in a small town like Seaforth
and so on don't get much opportunity to see other towns and how retailers
offer their services to other towns. And when we had feedback from Petrolia,
a town very much like this, with the same kind of retailing and so on done,
it was positive feedback, and businesses felt better for their offerings,
and how they presented themselves.
Ingrid Clark
Visiting teams are comprised of 5 to 6
community residents with a mix of demographics.
Anne Goddard, Van Kleek
Hill Business & Merchants Assoc.
We had a town counsellor; we had the
owner of the local newspaper, myself, the coordinator.
We had a resident of the town who is also a former OPP officer, and a local
shop owner who has been in the business for over 15 years.
Ingrid Clark
Members of the visiting team can take
on different roles, representing differing perspectives during each visit.
It's important to practice these roles and be familiar with the assessment
questions prior to the visit.
Using senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and even touch
allows intake of information at all levels; a crucial approach when providing
constructive critique of the exchange community. The visiting team takes a
holistic look at the community including the downtown, industrial area, residential
areas, tourist attractions, and retail businesses throughout the community,
to assess local services, appearance and amenities.
Chris Ten Pas, First Impressions Volunteer
I got to travel around in the car and
see what was needed in the community as far as for youth and young families,
for seniors and also visited the restaurants.
Ingrid Clark
Each team prepares a report for
presentation to the community visited. This may include a written summary or
PowerPoint presentation with some pictures taken during the experience.
Rhoda Lipton
I think that you've got to be extremely
sensitive to the community's needs and awareness but I think that you really
need to tell them what you see and with the understanding that what you're
doing is going to help them.
Michael Hennessy, First Impressions Coordinator
Ingersoll
It is relaying those impressions to other
people and giving them the opportunity to address those impressions and some
are good, some are not so good but I think that it helps both sides.
Ingrid Clark
Each Exchange forms the basis for positive
community action, centred around downtown revitalization, tourism development,
investment attraction, quality services improvement, and broader community
strategic planning efforts.
Jamie Smyth
I think they really identified a few
opportunities that we knew, we knew existed, but again, it gives it more clout
or credibility that we can use as justification to go to Council and to go to
the Economic Development Committee and say, you know: "This is coming from
the outside, looking in at us here."
James Timlin, CAO Ingersoll
It's definitely value-added and as we
told Council and Council understands strategic planning is that the plan is
not fixed. And by doing a review each year you can implement or add or delete
new things and now that we have new information we will amend the plan accordingly.
Suzanne Ainley
It is really the beginning of a relationship.
I know with Ingersoll and Alliston there's been
a lot of communication since then with the planning departments about programs
that they're both doing, and kind of moving things along. Having somebody
else that you can call and say, 'how did you that?' right?
Ingrid Clark
Staff with the Ministry of Agriculture,
Food and Rural Affairs, and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
are available to provide resource materials: guides, questionnaires, recording
booklets, and report templates.
Anne Miskovsky
We've actually thought this is a great tool to replicate
a number of times each year. Every community you visit regardless of the size
has something wonderful to offer.
Anne Goddard
We would not have been able to do this on our own.
The materials were very, very well put together. The follow up, the support was
excellent, and I would recommend this project to any community which would like
to see what its all about.