Our Approach to Engagement
Our basic premise is that social policy affects everyone. That is why we encourage as many people as possible to get involved.
The Speak.Share.Thrive. platform is a new and innovative approach to engagement. Through it, we asked Albertans to help us create the content for the Framework and to discuss how we can achieve better outcomes for Albertans. By doing this, our goal was to tap into the knowledge and experience of participants in order to make the Framework fit their needs.
How to Get Involved
While the conversations to create the Framework document have wrapped up, engagement continues on socialpolicy.alberta.ca. Your participation is important as we shift the conversation to ways that we can make our vision for a better Alberta reality. There are lots of ways to get involved. You can:
- Read relevant documents
- Contribute by writing a blog
- Contribute to comment boards on the site
- Engage your family, friends, and colleagues
- Send us your thoughts directly to hs.socialpolicy@gov.ab.ca.
Using the Site
While you can view the site content without registering, you must register if you want to post your thoughts or comments.
The views of this site are the views of the individual contributors, and they do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Alberta, the Ministry of Human Services, or the Minister of Human Services.
This site is not intended as a replacement for the help of a parent, emergency services, or professional counseling services. If you need immediate help or are in a life-threatening situation, please call 911. If you need information on how to access social programs or supports, please call Alberta Supports at 1-877-644-9992.
Rules
We hope to remove as little information as possible—this will help foster conversation while maintaining a productive and respectful forum. Below are a few guidelines that will ensure everyone is able to participate fully in the engagement process.
- Keep It Relevant
All posts should be specific to the development of a social policy framework for Alberta. We understand that social policy covers a broad range of issues, but for this conversation, social policy is defined as how Alberta and Albertans work together to meet individual needs, such as employment, child care, housing and general well-being. Spam or posts that are not relevant to social policy will be removed.
- Keep It Respectful
We will need many different perspectives offered as to how Alberta can improve social outcomes. As such we request that:
- Users do not engage in personal attacks.
- Participants criticize ideas not people.
- The discussion areas are designed to host conversations over relevant ideas and are used accordingly.
- Studies and intellectual property are attributed to their originator to their originator in order to avoid infringement concerns.
- Keep It Safe
This is a public forum. Users are asked to provide their real name when registering. This information will be used to contact a user if required. Your username does not have to be your real name, but you may not impersonate another person. Users are reminded that it is an offense under the Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act to disclose information that may reveal the identity of any child or youth involved with child intervention services.
- Keep It Clean
Any contributions that use offensive, hateful or racist language will be removed. Please represent yourself and your organization in an appropriate manner. If you see any content that is offensive or irrelevant, please remove it or notify the moderators so that they can handle the issue.
Who is Involved
- Elected Officials
Elected Officials of the provincial government participate in the creation of the Social Policy Framework by:
- Participation in the engagement process;
- Representing their constituent's perspectives; and
- Making the final decision on the contents of the Framework (Members of Cabinet only).
- Citizens
Citizens of Alberta help develop the Social Policy Framework by:
- Participating in the engagement process;
- Contributing their opinions and thoughts; and
- Spreading the word to their communities.
- Social Policy Project Team
As members of the Alberta Public Service, the Social Policy Project team:
- Moderates the site;
- Provides analysis of the feedback;
- Advises government on the content of the Framework.
- Moderators and Information Security
Staff from the Ministry of Human Services moderate the site. As moderators, we ensure that participants are following the ground rules. If a participant is found not to be following the ground rules, the moderator may do one or more of the following:
- Contact the participant directly using the participant’s e-mail address.
- Remove a participant’s post.
- Restrict the participant’s access to the site.
Disclaimer
The Ministry has established provisions for Speak. Share. Thrive. that are in accordance with relevant legislation and government policies for the security of personal information. If you have any questions regarding these security measures, please contact the Social Policy Project Team by email at hs.socialpolicy@gov.ab.ca, or by calling 780-903-8261 (to make a toll-free call, dial 310-0000 first).