Evaluation Report: 2010-2015 Social Development Strategy

Abstract

In 2010, Centraide of Greater Montreal adopted a strategy to fight poverty and social exclusion that was firmly grounded in a territorial approach.The hypothesis: Centraide could generate better outcomes by prioritizing investment targets and applying strategic and proactive investment approaches across a neighbourhood instead of considering agencies in isolation.Five years later, an evaluation was conducted in six communities to observe changes and draw lessons from this approach.Instead of just increasing resources so that agencies can do more, the territorial approach helped Centraide create a plan for each neighbourhood and use available vectors to support the desired improvements. These vectors include: * Support for solid and dynamic agencies that provide leadership in their communities. * Support for multi-network and intersectoral coordination so that communities can implement solutions that have the greatest chance of reducing and mitigating the impact of poverty and social exclusion. * Reinforcement of agency skills and leadership. * Ongoing relationships between organizations, mobilization initiatives and Centraid