Prince George Social Plan

The Community Planning Council of Prince George was organized in 1996. Its initial objective was to create a social plan for a community in order to guide a social development. The Social Plan was presented by the Community Planning Council of Prince George in 2002 as an addition to the Official Community Plan. The Official Community Plan investigates the City of Prince George considering it as a diverse community that gives opportunities for everyone for housing, employment, education, health, quality of life, welfare and the cultural life of Prince George residents. The Prince George Social Plan is an additional document for the OCP. It gives the strategy of city policies and bylaw review. The City has many ongoing efforts that are fulfilled by the Social Plan. They are the following:

Greening of the downtown;

Economic growth;

Safety improvement in the downtown;

Housing strategy;

Neighborhood plan development;

Residential development;

Social service provision in the downtown;

Improvement of recreational opportunities for young and elderly people.

Social Plan helps to guarantee that social factors are regarded at the period of decision-making. A good example can be that during report and bylaw preparation for land use modifications, the social influences can be regarded together with land use effects. This data can be given to Council who will make the final decision. More than that, when principal bylaw revisions take place, Social Plan initiatives can guide the form and content of the bylaw. Prince George Social Plan contains the following aspects:

1. Housing. The Rental Assistance Program helps low-income families to rent from any landlord with rental assistance administered by the Prince George's County. It has the opportunities for families to live outside of areas of poverty or racial concentration.

2. The Welfare Programs. The Welfare Program gives Housing Choice Vouchers to families who have a critical housing need to get employment. Housing assistance is added with other resources such as job training or childcare.

3. Rental Allowance Program. The Rental Allowance Program is a program that gives rental assistance payments to lower income homeless people. The goal of the Rental Allowance Program is to demonstrate that these families can return to long-term housing self-sufficiency following a short-term period of subsidy payments.

4. Health. The purposes of the Social Plan in the aspect of health are to educate the community in family health issues that promotes healthier children, adults and communities; to give educational chance that will help individual, family, and community health, and others.

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