Building Our Future Together: Social Development Strategy (2025–2035)

November 21, 2025 -4- Analysis Since Council's adoption of the previous Social Development Strategy (2013-2022) in September 2013, communities across Canada, including Richmond, have faced a broad range of economic, environmental, health and social challenges. These overlapping pressures have contributed to declining social outcomes and have impacted the quality of life for many residents. Key challenges include housing affordability and increasing homelessness, rising living costs and growing income inequality, the toxic drug crisis, climate change and extreme weather events, deteriorating mental health and growing social isolation. Together, these factors have intensified the complexity of social issues, requiring more time, resources and cross- sectoral collaboration to respond effectively. The Social Development Strategy (2025-2035) (the Strategy) reaffirms the City's long-standing commitment to planning for and responding to the evolving social needs of the community. The Strategy was developed using a multi-stage process that included a jurisdictional scan of best practices, in-depth analysis of Canadian Census and community-level data, and a comprehensive community engagement process. Two rounds of engagement were conducted with community organizations, public partners and the broader community to help shape a shared vision for a more inclusive and thriving Richmond. A Council appointed committee, the Social Development Strategy Advisory Committee, comprising of representatives from key City departments and local social service organizations provided valuable insights throughout the development of the draft Strategy. Community Engagement Community engagement was central to the development of the Strategy, which was canied out in two distinct phases. Phase One was conducted to inform the development of the draft Strategy that was endorsed by Council on September 8, 2025. This phase helped to identify and deepen an understanding of the social issues faced by community members and gained insights into their hopes for the future. Phase Two took place following the development of the draft Strategy with the purpose of validating and refining the Strategy. During this phase, the draft strategic directions and priority actions, shaped by insights from the initial round of community engagement, were shared with community members to gather feedback and ensure the Strategy addressed identified community needs. Both phases of engagement provided community members with a range of opportunities to share their feedback, including surveys, community pop-up events, targeted outreach with equity- deserving groups as well as presentations and discussions with community partners. The engagement processes included one-on-one survey suppmi, language interpretation and translation services and accessible feedback materials. In total, more than 1,200 responses were received for the two phases of engagement, demonstrating a strong and diverse community commitment to addressing social issues in Richmond. Table 1 provides an overview of community engagement activities during the two phases. 8214348 GP - 8

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