MOOSE JAW - SOUTH CENTRAL
REGIONAL INTERSECTORAL COMMITTEE

COMMITTEES

The Moose Jaw-South Central RIC’s main direction is provided by a committee of human service leaders that serve the Moose Jaw region. This committee meets approximately six times per year to review current issue papers, discuss emerging human service trends, and evaluate the activities and priorities of the Moose Jaw-South Central RIC. In addition to the main committee, there are a series of sub-committees that meet as required, and are designated to research and report on more specific human services.

The Committee’s main purpose is to work toward removing barriers to interagency cooperation and collaboration at all levels. Much of this is accomplished through awareness and clarification of human service strengths and challenges, providing a focused response t identified human service needs, and engaging stakeholders in the decisions on integrating services.

The HSIF provides each RIC with a coordinator position. Although this position reports directly to the provincial government, the purpose is to provide support to the committee on a full-time basis.

Committee members consist of representatives from local, provincial and federal governments, health districts, school divisions, regional colleges, housing authorities, police, tribal councils, Metis organizations, and the voluntary sector.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Executive consists of five members representing Health, Education, Community Resources, and Justice. Both co-chairs are represented. The Executive is responsible for providing guidance to the Coordinator in the operational decisions of the RIC (resources, communication plans, reviewing agenda and reviewing issue papers). The Executive meets six times per year and as may be required.

GRANT REVIEW COMMITTEE

This sub-committee was created to review the applications for Prevention and Support Grants, Community Initiatives Funds, and Student Employment Experience funding. Members rank the applications according to standardized criteria, and recommendations are made whether to fund the application. The Grant Review Committee meets numerous times a year shortly after application deadlines for the grants has passed.

RIC COORDINATOR

The RIC Coordinator is a full-time employee of the RIC and is responsible for much of day-to-day organization of the committee. The Coordinator represents the RIC on a number of committees and working groups in the Moose Jaw-South Central Region, and is linked to the Human Services Integration Forum through the HSIF Executive Director and Co-chairs. Through this link with the Associate Deputy Ministers, the RIC Coordinator is a conduit for communicating provincial priorities to the RIC members while also bringing matters of local concern to the attention of those at the provincial level. These dual lines of communication assist in placing the issues facing the Moose Jaw South Central Region in context, enabling the province to appreciate these concerns, while also assisting the RIC members to better understand how to address issues of a provincial focus. In addition to these roles, the RIC Coordinator assists in RIC strategic planning related to government priorities and common goals, leveraging proposals linking provincial priorities and federal fund, monitoring and reporting program effectiveness, impacts and outcomes while developing evaluation capacity at the community level.

ADVISORY COMMITTEES & WORKING GROUPS

1. Youth Advisory Committee
2. Rural Integrated Services Community
3. Child Action Community (CAC)
The CAC is a broad-based, intersectoral structure that works with and through management and frontline partnerships to assist with the planning, developing, implementation and evaluation of an array of services and programs that require coordination in the Region. CAC members provide leadership on addressing emerging issues through shared resources and decision-making, support for existing initiatives, collaboration to develop linkages, integrating services to develop a seamless, comprehensive array of services, and provide for complex case resolution within the area.

Membership is local or program focused, flexible and reflects priorities. There is consistent representation of significant decision-makers from the following sectors and interests:
• K-12 Education, including each of the school divisions
• Five Hills Health Region
• Community Resources
• Municipal governments
• Corrections and Public Safety

4. Cognitive Disabilities Strategy Committee

Arising from community consultations conducted in 2003 to address the issue of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a provincial initiative was announced in the April 2004 budget, allocating funding for four communities, later expanding to include the Moose Jaw-South Central area. Consequently a committee consisting of the Department of Corrections and Public Safety – Young Offenders, Moose Jaw Public and Catholic School Divisions, Five Hills Health Region, and the Department of Community Resources and Employment (Child & Family and Community Living Divisions) was struck to create and implement a Cognitive Disability Strategy that would allow community members aged 6-24 with significant behavioral and developmental challenges and unmet needs to participate as full citizens in the community. A strategy has been created that is outcome oriented and designed to build on and complement existing community supports. The first Moose Jaw intake under this strategy occurred in April 2007 and a coordinator position created in late 2006. The committee is working toward full implementation of this strategy.

5. Program Management Committee (KidsFirst, etc.)

In response to a provincial initiative, an intersectoral committee led by the Five Hills Health Region was created in the fall of 2001 to develop and implement the KidsFirst program in Moose Jaw South Central area. An area was chosen based on high rates of poverty and single-parent families, high or low birth weights, and rate of hospital admissions in the first year of a child’s life. The RIC Coordinator and the Executive are members of the Management Committee and are responsible for ensuring that the programs are run in accordance with provincial program requirements.

6. Assiniboia Interagency Group

Comprised of health, education, church, Community Resources and the RCMP, the Assiniboia Interagency Group has been meeting for approximately a decade. Through collaboration it seeks to enhance the health of families in the community. The RIC Coordinator is an invited guest of this group.

7. Population Health Promotion Steering Group

The Population Health Promotion Steering Group was created by the Five Hills Health Region to create environments that support health and encourage communities that support healthy choices to take initiative on their own issues. Population Health Promotion is a prevention action plan to reduce substance abuse (Drug Strategy), promote physical well-being (In Motion), mental well-being, and access to nutritious foods (Community Food Network). This strategy is supported by the Health region and by the RIC with community coalitions providing leadership on some issues. An intersectoral working group was formed to set out an action plan that included F.H.H.R., school divisions, DCRE, Recreation Associations, Police, and appropriate community agencies. The group is accountable to the Health Region Population Health Leadership Group.

8. Drug Strategy

In 2003 RIC hosted the “Moose Jaw Forum on Alcohol and other Drug Addictions”. The participants discussed ways to enhance and improve alcohol and other drug related services in Moose Jaw and area. The response to a questionnaire determined a high level of interest in developing and implementing a drug strategy based on a four pillar approach involving treatment, prevention, enforcement and harm reduction. The development of this Drug Strategy occurred in 2005 and implementation is currently underway.

9. Building a Safe Community