Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

Working Together

While Lambton County Council was responsible for preparing and adopting the Plan, the Plan was developed, with, by and for the community. Over 1,150 Lambton County residents and 25 stakeholders were consulted through community consultations in 2020 and 2021. Their input helped clarify the top five priorities for Lambton County.

Partners in government, health, social, policing and justice services, recognized early on the need to work together and focus both on prevention and intervention in a balance approach.

Guiding Community Work

Identified initiatives and strategies, which align with community safety and well-being planning, have provided Lambton’s CSWB Plan with predetermined actions based on current and future needs, best practices and insights from our community. From the large number of plans and strategies identified in the Asset Map section of the Data Report, the following were specifically used in identifying the priorities and the specifics for each priority, such as indicators:

• Canadian Community Health Survey (2017-2018);

• Lambton County Emergency Response Plan (2022);

• Housing & Homelessness Plan (2020-2024);

• Lambton County Drug & Alcohol Strategy (Draft Version)

• Lambton Detachment OPP Action Plan (2020-2022);

• Mental Health Profile, Lambton County (2018);

• Ontario Health Team Full Application Submission - “Innovating Together for  Better Health*”;

• Petrolia Community Well-Being Master Plan (2018);

• Sarnia Police Service Business Plan (2020-2022)

* In November 2020, the provincial government approved the Sarnia-Lambton Ontario Health Team as an official Ontario Health Team.

It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list of initiatives and strategies related to the identified five priorities; other plans and community initiatives that support community safety and well-being will be identified to support future iterations of the plan.

Stakeholder Collaboration

Stakeholder conversations gathered input from organizations, coalitions and other entities with connections to diverse groups within the community and supported the identification of leadership roles for future CSWB Plan actions.

To provide guidance and oversight to the development of the plan, an Oversight Committee including community organizations, local municipalities, and police were accountable to County Council to ensure the Ministry requirements were met and made the decisions regarding the components of the CSWB Plan.

The larger Advisory Committee, consisting of 16 community partners, was created to represent the broader community sectors required through the Ministry of the Solicitor General for this CSWB planning process.

Community Consultation

Ensuring the community's voice and experiences are reflected in the plan was a priority.

Opportunities for discussion, engagement and learning were a crucial component to the development of the CSWB Plan. The engagement process provided an opportunity for the community to ensure that the plan focuses on identified priorities of Lambton County residents.

A large amount of community feedback was obtained:

• 802 Lambton County residents completed an online survey in March 2021;

• 275 individuals with lived/living experience shared their stories through a priority survey. The stories were insightful, passionate and profound;

• 5 working groups were established to assist in identifying gaps in the community and identified effective strategies and initiatives that would enhance the safety and well-being of Lambton County; and

Access the following resources:

• Lambton County Community Safety and Well-Being Survey

• Priority Population Survey for Community Safety and Well-Being Plan

• Both the Priority Population Report and the Community Safety & Well-Being Data Report serve as a summary report of data accumulated regarding the plan and was developed with the intention to be used by the project’s Advisory Committee as they worked to establish Lambton County’s recommended priorities. 

Lambton County’s CSWB Plan consists of strategies and actions that fall within the four levels of intervention identified in the Ministry framework while focusing our efforts on social development and prevention. While the plan recognizes there are many topics that impact community safety and well-being, 5 priority areas of focus have been identified locally:

• Community Safety;

• Housing and Homelessness;

• Mental Health and Addictions;

• Poverty; and

• Systemic Racism

Learn more about these priority areas on our Priority Areas of Focus page.

There is an important transition period pending as the group responsible for the CSWB planning process evolves into the group that will provide leadership to the Implementation Phase. Partners are working together to develop a detailed implementation plan which includes outlining key activities and working groups, establishing performance measures and ongoing community engagement. As we move into implementation, we will track our progress with monitoring and evaluation through robust data collection and data sharing.

The Oversight Committee has identified the following next steps that will assist with the implementation of the plan:

• Recruit the Leadership Team for the Implementation Phase;
• Identify leadership capacity for both the Community Safety and Poverty groups and build on those who have come together during the CSWB planning process;
• Determine what the accountability requirements will be for the CSWB Plan (e.g., annual update to County Council, progress reports to the Ministry as required (i.e., every 3-5 years);
• Develop an Evaluation Framework for the overall plan;
• Ensure there is a designated work group for each of the five CSWB priorities;
• Meaningfully engage the populations with lived/living experience and build their experiences into the development of new strategies; and
• Undertake community-wide awareness/education efforts to increase the understanding of the need for the CSWB initiatives overall.