The City of Airdrie invests in social services to support our residents. We wish to recognize our strengths, understand the needs of our community, and identify any gaps we may have in social programs and services.
A Social Needs Assessment will help us determine the best way to direct our support to close identified gaps, and to respond to both opportunities and challenges within our community. This will help us ensure that our investments provide the greatest benefits to you, the residents of Airdrie. You will have a number of opportunities to have your say about social services and issues in our community.
We want to hear what you have to say about community social strengths, challenges and needs. The feedback you provide, along with what we've heard from social service providers and those they serve, will help shape the future of social service provision in our community.
We'd love to connect! Want to chat with City Staff about Social Needs in Airdrie? Come meet us for these kitchen-table-style informal conversations about social issues, needs, and strengths in Airdrie.
Here's where you can find us:
Additional details will be released closer to the dates of these opportunities.
We will work with specific focus groups to dive deeper into the issues and needs of selected subpopulations.
The survey is now closed. Preliminary results are shared on this project page. Thank you for providing your input on social issues, needs, and services in Airdrie.
We worked with youth to understand their thoughts on social needs, issues, and services in Airdrie. Engagement opportunities included in-school activities, working with a youth-serving social service provider, and working with the Airdrie Board of Youth Affairs (ABYA).
Our Open House was held on May 21, 2025 to help ensure that survey results reflected residents' understanding and hear their input on whether anything was missed by the survey.
Below is a high-level overview of the preliminary survey results which will help inform the remainder of our Social Needs Assessment engagement opportunities. Residents had a chance to share their thoughts about these results (and more) at our Open House May 21, 2025. Additional opportunities to provide input will be available through our Coffee Chats with Social Planners (Coming in June).
In regards to what residents like most about Airdrie, the following key themes emerged from the preliminary analysis of responses:
More residents had concerns about affordability than any other social issue in Airdrie. Residents also recognized challenges facing our youth.
This affordability trend continued when we asked residents to identify the three social issues they were most concerned about in Airdrie. Crime, mental health, and challenges to youth well-being were also top of mind.
Healthcare services were identified by the highest number of respondents as a social need in Airdrie along with affordable market housing and opportunities for youth after graduating high school.
When asked about the top three most pressing social needs in Airdrie, respondents indicated healthcare services, mental health services, services for youth, and affordable market housing.
Awareness and usage of social services vary greatly depending on the service in question. This is not entirely surprising as residents tend to look for services to meet specific needs.
However, there are a good number of services that residents are aware of and using.
Just over half of survey respondents reported encountering barriers to accessing social services in Airdrie.
The most common barriers to accessing social services in Airdrie are wait times or lists, that the services are not available here, or that residents needed to leave the city to access certain services.
Barriers were encountered across almost the entire spectrum of services.
We will share a final report that incorporates what we heard across the various engagement opportunities with the community.
Contact us at involve@airdrie.ca
