A month ago I wrote
about the
Rural
Voices Network and the efforts to to understand
why and how people participate in the common life o
f
their communities. With all but one of the public forums now behind
them they have published the list of questions on which these forums
were based at their On
Line Forum. Unfortunately
these are not publicly viewable unless one registers and logs on
(something which I urge rural ontarian's interested in community
building to do), however in the interests of creating a little more
response to this initiative than currently seems to be the case I
have published those questions and my responses to them below.
Not you typical
response I would suggest, are you more involved or have a differing
opinion? Why not register and have your say. Or, of you prefer let
us know your thoughts in my comments section!
Important note:- Since
writing this piece the questionnaire has been removed from the forum,
no response has been received from RVN as to why this is so or if it
will be reinstated. Never-the-less I will publish it here along with
my intended responses for the readers interest.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE
TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PUBLIC FORUM?
I am deeply
concerned with the viability of rural communities, family farms and
other rural enterprises across Ontario & Canada.
WHAT ARE TWO
DIFFERENT WAYS YOU ARE ENGAGED IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
Almost none
physically, I try (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep up with local
issues and maintain a blog about local & rural issues.
Imagine you are in
an empty room, and the closer you stand to the middle represents
more active participation in your community. Standing by the outer
periphery represents less active participation. Your can also move
around the room if you choose. WHERE WOULD YOU STAND TO REPRESENT
YOUR CURRENT LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION, AND WHY?
I have my back
against the wall, most probably near the corner! Why? Lack of
alternate methods of participation.
Now move to where
your desired level of participation is, given all limits of your
current circumstances were removed. WHERE ARE YOU STANDING AND WHY?
About half way
towards the center of the room with occasional forays to the center..
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
TO BE INVOLVED IN THE COMMON LIFE OF YOUR COMMUNITY?
Maintaining local
services both governmental and commercial, protecting the rural
lifestyle, protecting land use & stopping misuse.
WHAT ENABLES YOU
TO BE ENGAGED IN THE COMMON LIFE OF YOUR COMMUNITY?
WHAT BARRIERS
PREVENT YOU FROM BEING ENGAGED IN THE COMMON LIFE OF YOUR COMMUNITY?
Enabled by knowledge
of local issues via radio, newspaper, mailed flyer or internet.
Barriers many, include-
No local newspaper (or news sheet) reporting
council or social meetings or issues
Minimal local information available via
internet
High speed internet either unavailable or very
expensive in many rural areas.
Minimal feedback mechanisms except by travel to
meetings.
Reluctance to travel to meetings, particularly
evenings and nights.
Few means to communicate easily with other
residents on common issues.
Personal reluctance to leave our rural
'retreat' for anything less than really good reasons.
NOTE (Armchair critic? But does that make my
input less valid to the community? Catch 22 – you cannot be
involved in the community if you do not know what is going on and you
cannot know what is going on unless you are involved with the
community!)
7.
Identify an issue, enabler/barrier, or theme that is affecting your
community and/or interests you personally.
WHAT DO YOU THINK COULD
BE DONE TO MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE/CHANGE?
Not being one to
join clubs, socialize outside of close friend and family or attend
meetings it is difficult to even hear about things or organizations
that may increase my participation. As one who obtains 90% of his
information either via local radio (from city 25 miles away) or the
internet (very little LOCAL information available) I feel
communication is the key to involvement in rural areas (particularly
outside of settlements or villages) where one rarely meets other than
ones close neighbors informally. I strongly believe that rural
communities can be brought much closer and lively discussions, notice
of social and community meetings, local governance issues etc can be
greatly enhanced by the increased use of internet tools. The use of a
local web site / forum / blog / public space where residents can both
read and opine about local issues would in my opinion then foster
more face to face meetings, be they formal at one of the ever
decreasing 'parish halls' or informal at local residences. Many
citizens seen reluctant to embrace this method of communications, why
is that?
In my view we need a common platform 'one stop'
web site for both individual communities and rural communities in
general where communities and rural individuals can interact without
the need to travel (in this riding) 50km or more to attend meetings
of interest.
Unfortunately this
project in and of itself is demonstrating all to well the
difficulties of communicating with rural citizens, with a google news
search turning up but one news item on the recent public forums and
with the online forum seeing but 2 or 3 citizens participating thus
far. This is hardly unexpected but is a great disappointment to me, I
do hope that the mail out survey which this initial process is
intended to produce receives more attention.