Engaging with Multicultural Calgarians

(Brief) Scope of Project: ActionDignity is a community-based, not-for-profit organization that facilitates the collective voice of Calgary’s ethnocultural communities toward full civic participation and integration through collaborative action. ActionDignity’s service offerings aim to address systemic inequities in public institutions, government and service systems so members of ethnocultural communities can fully participate in economic, social and civic life. ActionDignity acts as a broker for the engagement services in Calgary’s ethnocultural communities. They hire engagement brokers and community leaders to gather feedback from community leaders and provide the City the opportunity to test and modify how questions are framed and worded to ensure that they are easily understood by the participants. Legal Name of firm: ActionDignity Society Description of service and goods: The scope of multicultural engagement services includes but is not limited to the following: • Consultation support for City Engage Team members to better understand ethnocultural communities and their unique experiences; • Recommendations on how to best word engagement questions to improve participant responses and overall response quality; • Improved access to communities that The City has not been successful at targeting using traditional engagement methods. This may include Calgarians who do not have English as their first language; • Engagement services in languages including, but not limited to Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Filipino, Spanish, and Arabic. Along with the translation skills required to convert the dialog into conversational English for reporting purposes; • An ethnocultural lens which will be used to ensure the experiences, perspectives and ideas of Calgary’s diverse communities are considered in decision making; and • Access to community brokers who have developed trusting relationships within their individual communities. It is the intent of The City to award this contract for the following reason(s): • Under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWTPA) exemption (b) “from a public body or non-profit organization”. • Under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWTPA) exemption (g) “where it can be demonstrated that only one supplier is able to meet the requirements of a procurement”. • The services outlined above need to be provided by a single vendor to ensure continuity and consistency in engagement and reporting of sensitive City matters. Furthermore, the use of one vendor is required to build relationships and promote trust amongst the ethnocultural community in Calgary. • ActionDignity utilizes brokers which have strong connections within Calgary’s ethnocultural communities to engage participants. This model is beneficial for The City as it improves both the quality and quantity of participant responses. ActionDignity has utilized the broker model for over 15 years and has experience engaging Vietnamese, Mongolian, Filipino, Eritriean, Somolian, El Salvadoran, Afghani, Pakistani, and Indian communities within Calgary