• A high level of demand by communities and individuals to meet basic developmental needs warrants the extension of the CLN program by HRDC. The CLN program can be used as a key community resource for the Skills and Learning Agenda. If the goals of the skills, training and access agendas are to lead to social inclusion, citizen engagement, skills portability and flexibility for individuals and, development opportunities for communities, than a range of community organizations and institutions, and businesses need to be involved. A broad-based, integrated community approach will facilitate the needs of service organizations, and address the wide range of needs of individuals. HRDC’s CLN program is ideally suited to act as a catalyst to facilitate greater coordination and delivery of services at the community level. It is also a useful model that could help coordinate and link various federal resources and other forms of support for more effective access and use by community organizations.
  • HRDC’s CLN program should consider establishing Community Assistance Teams at the regional or provincial levels. These teams could help community organizations through sharing expertise on strategies and activities to address issues related to developing CLNs, access, training, partnerships, capacity development and resources. Such teams should be made up from a pool of individuals from community organizations in a province or region. These individuals should have had success and developed expertise in these different activities. To be effective, such teams would need to work closely with HRDC regional and national personnel.