Sustainability Matters & Mid July Wrap Up

The last few weeks have been busy in the bustling village of Hay Lakes. The village office was working overtime to get all the tax assessments out on time, as well we finished our final census summary and submitted it. When I am not helping out around the office doing day to day projects I have been busy researching topics around sustainability.

My research stems from a project that I am working on for the village of Hay Lakes which involves doing a viability assessment on the village and from there, beginning to create a workable action plan that will bring awareness to topics surrounding sustainability. One of the major components of my research is discovering what other municipalities are doing in this area as a way to better direct me towards an effective plan for Hay Lakes. My goal is to create a document that is interactive, and allows for council or administration to check in on village goals, and projects and easily identify success or progress in the way of achieving viability landmarks and goals.

To achieve this I have been reading alot about appreciative inquiry and asset mapping as a way to direct this kind of planning in the village. These strategies suggest that when looking at susatinability planning it is productive to identify the strengths and assets that already exist within a community. It states that instead of focusing on challenges and weaknesses within a community, this kind of framework allows the focus to be positive and begin to generate new kinds of ideas and solutions. Focusing on things that are working and then moving forth and beginning to envision new kinds of understanding and knowledge is the foundation of Appreciative Inquiry. My hope is that this framework will be the base for creating an action plan for the village of Hay Lakes.

Wrap-up....
As of now I have had my hands full in the Village of Hay Lakes conducting a village census, creating new policy documents, working on a safety manual and pitching in with day to day community inquiries and projects. What does the rest of the summer hold for me?! My focus will now go towards researching, working on an assessment and beginning work on a viability action plan. Although there are still alot of unknowns with this project, it really excites me to think of the experience I will acquire working on something like this, and what my work around this topic area will offer the village. Even if what I end up with is just awareness raising in the village then I believe I will have accomplished something.

 When I am not working on this I will still have many things to keep me occupied in the village. These things include working on organizing a few events for prairie fun days in August, maybe hanging out with the summer in the park crew who offer summer activities to youth in the village and finishing up any of the loose ends of the documents I was apart of creating / finishing this summer. When I type it out like this, the question is not how will I fill my time this summer, but instead how will I find more time this summer?!