First Impressions Community Exchange Pilot Evaluation

The First Impressions Community Exchange (FICE) is a program in which a participating community is matched with another that shares similar demographics and has similar challenges and aspirations. These municipalities send exchange teams to each others’ communities to look for strengths and shortcomings as seen through the eyes of a first time visitor. The benefit of FICE is that it provides communities with a fresh perspective that is delivered by a fellow community which likely has a good understanding of the barriers to community development, and may have some firsthand, practical ideas of how to overcome them. Another aspect of the FICE exchange is the opportunity for municipalities to partner with local businesses and other organizations to develop and champion action plans that address areas of need and opportunity.

On this page you will find links to evaluation reports for both the the 2008 and 2009 pilot communities. The results of the evaluation showed that in all cases, the host community was already aware of at least some of the areas identified as strengths or weaknesses by the visiting community. Asked to identify essential elements, other than funding, needed to complete top priorities in their actions plans, responding communities identified the importance of community involvement and input, and a need for community members to be educated on what actions are possible and plausible. Depending on the community and content of the action plan, anywhere from 25% to 100% of the action plan will be implemented. Community coordinators from both years felt FICE was valuable and worth the investment. Coordinators are interested in seeing the program continue for the benefit of other communities. They also see merit in repeating the process in the future to establish how actions have made a difference in the eyes of outsiders.

Click here for a pdf of the full 2008 report.
Click here for a pdf of the full 2009 report.

Click here to see a video of the town of Westlock's experience with FICE.

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