Facilitating and Supporting Development of a New Strategic Plan

Covenant House Vancouver uplifts youth in Canada who are facing homelessness by providing both intangible support of unconditional love and absolute respect, and tangible support of programs and resources that foster learning, self-improvement and all-round development. 

In recent years, the social services sector has weathered an unprecedented housing crisis, a rapidly worsening opioid crisis, and demands on resources from an increasing number of vulnerable youths from diverse backgrounds. Vulnerable youth in Metro Vancouver face multiple, complicated barriers to care and quality of life and are at increased risk of depression, aggression, substance abuse, delinquency and homelessness.

Junxion Strategy was engaged by Covenant House Vancouver (CHV) to facilitate and support development of CHV’s new strategic plan. Forefront in leaders’ minds was how to find, recruit, and on-board 40% more staff as the agency occupies its two new buildings in Vancouver.

How We Helped

Junxion delivered a comprehensive TurningPoint Strategy engagement with the team at Covenant House. This included an extensive market and industry exploration; interviews with dozens of managers and senior leaders; a two-pronged survey that reached out to staff and youth and multiple focus groups with staff across the organization. This cross-sectional analysis provided rich insights, which informed the strategy phase of our work.

We convened board members, senior leaders, and representatives of partner organizations for a pair of full-day workshops. Participants worked on a capabilities-focused, collaborative activity that helped them create and prioritize time-bound goals for each area of strategic focus. This deliberate and structured format yielded a wealth of material that Junxion distilled to develop early drafts of the strategic plan, which were then refined in collaboration with management, senior leadership, and the board.

The final plan contains key capability areas chosen as building blocks for the next decade of change and growth and the specific, measurable initiatives within each area to achieve that growth. The final result is crisp, but comprehensive ten-page plan that cements CHV’s core tenets of youth focus, employee engagement and organizational culture, while embracing new initiatives such as thoughtful partnerships and amplified advocacy. A graphic one-page, infographic version conveys the plan to stakeholders such as youth, staff, and online audiences.

Measuring Success

Junxion’s meticulous and thorough approach to collecting, consolidating and conveying the views and opinions of key stakeholders ensured that everyone had the opportunity and satisfaction of contributing to the plan. Facilitation ensured that opinions and dialogue flowed organically, different departments connected under the umbrella of a shared vision, and everyone felt engaged. Despite the wide scope and long duration of the project, there was a consistent thread of communication, which ensured that the project aims stayed top of mind for everyone involved. The result is a compelling strategic plan that everyone can stand behind.