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Welcome > Welcome to CIMnet
 The thrust for sustainable community development stems from the belief that communities themselves are in the best position to develop solutions to their own challenges. Rather than rely on the expertise of professionals from outside the communities, sustainable solutions engage citizens in the community development process.
Our Solution gives communities the tools they need to empower and engage their own citizens to use information to overcome challenges and obstacles. Our Solution is a Community Information Management Network (CIMnet) – an alliance of communities and community-serving organizations working together to strengthen communities through partnership, information sharing and effective IT systems. The core guiding principle of CIMnet is that strength comes from the interconnectedness of communities. Collaborative partnerships provide the most promising path toward sustainable community development.
CIMnet provides communities with:
· A framework for building mutually beneficial partnerships;
· A process for collaborative decision-making; and
· Common tools to create, store, share and manage community information more effectively.
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CIMnet does not exist separately from communities. It is, both in principle and fact, an alliance of communities and community-serving organizations. This alliance gives communities the opportunity to link during their community development planning processes. Through this connection, communities can develop a better understanding of how their needs relate to the needs of other communities. As part of the partnership, communities will be able to jointly plan initiatives that strengthen their communities; to share information, knowledge, expertise and other resources; to coordinate projects and programs to avoid overusing community resources and duplicating services; and to create a support network where communities can learn from each other’s experiences.
The CIMnet strategic framework is based on mutual respect so that communities are in the best position to work together to achieve sustainable community development. The framework gives life to the CIMnet identity, direction and raison d’ętre.
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Vision statements give people a reason to wake up in the morning and go to work. The CIMnet vision is unconstrained by factors that can impede sustainable community development, such as funding and resources. It is based on the belief that people must be the impetus for community planning; a top-down approach to community development will not be as successful because the people most affected by decisions are not consulted and involved.
Our Vision:
Communities with informed, empowered and engaged citizens.
To guide the partnership in bringing its vision to life, the CIMnet partners have articulated a collective mission. This mission is what partners do once they get to work.
Our Mission:
To build a network and provide an administrative and management framework that exchanges and shares information and resources with communities.
The CIMnet partners also commonly possess a set of values that promote sustainable communities in the long-term. These values are based on a belief that balance between social, economic and environmental needs and goals can be achieved.
Knowledge - Respecting traditional & scientific approaches.
Relationships - Respecting independence & interdependence.
Adaptation - Respecting lessons learned.
Quality of Life - Respecting a balance of economy & environment.
Process - Respecting varied methodologies.
Access - Respecting equity.
Commitment to these values is demonstrated through operating principles that guide the work, behaviour, relationships and decisions of CIMnet partners.
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· Participating communities will be involved in decision making.
· All outcomes will be linguistically, culturally sensitive and inclusive.
· All information will be accessible and shareable.
· Outcomes will be member-driven.
· Members have the right to determine who may access their information and to determine the terms and conditions of its use.
· Membership shall be determined by election.
· Holistic and inclusive community planning will guide outcomes.
· Development processes will respect the convergence of ideas and methods of its members'.
· CIMnet will support the principles of “connection over collection.”
· CIMnet will promote more accessible and shareable information for its member communities.
· CIMnet will promote the best practices in data stewardship.
· All current users will be involved in changes to common applications.
· CIMnet will support the interdependency of its member communities by communicating the range of available resources and changes to those resources as they occur.
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