Jason Stockfish, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | [email protected]
Christopher Read is returning to town as the director of the municipality’s newest department, Community Development after nearly a decade away from Jasper.
The creation of the Department of Community Development sees the integration of two current departments, Community and Family Services as well as Culture and Recreation.
In the years since he left his position as Fitness and Aquatic Centre manager with the municipality (2002-2012), Read first worked at the Town of Hinton as the Parks, Recreation, and Parks manager before taking a position as the director of Community Services in Yellowhead County, where he gained relevant experience overseeing a department with similar key responsibilities to the new department he will now be running.
“That position covered parks, recreation, culture, heritage, community and family services, agriculture, and so putting these seemingly different departments together is actually fairly common in the industry (and) I’m looking forward to bringing that level of sophistication to Jasper, for sure,” Read said.
Read noted that combining departments is regularly done in other municipalities, but he also didn’t want to make light of this fact and that the distinction between community services and community development was worth discussing.
“And I’m really impressed with CAO Given, that he would purposefully choose the word ‘development,’ rather than ‘services,’” he said.
“And I’ll be honest, that is one of the things that really, really puts the extra excitement for me to come home (and) become part of this newer direction that will be (helping) Jasper to become the community it wants to be.”
Read added that having discussions with members and organizations within the community would be a key part of the department being successful in its mission.
“The typical community services model is not really what we’re aiming for,” he said.
“We’re aiming to be above and beyond that, with the concept that these services and the staff and the connection and the engagement all contribute in developing Jasper into the community it wants to be.”
In addition to his relevant work experience, Read also studied at the University of Alberta, where he received his National Advanced Certificate of Local Authority Administration Levels One and Two.
Most recently, Read remotely studied community economic development at Simon Fraser University while working as director of community services in Yellowhead County.
“That was an interesting program because there is a lot of connection to some opportunities in Jasper and some of the existing strengths of Jasper,” he said.
“Something like a concept of social entrepreneurship and co-op models… that really do align well with the collaborative nature of the outreach model at the Community and Family Services (currently in Jasper). And so, there’s a lot of connections from my experience and my education.
Currently, Read is the chief administrative officer in Clearwater County. His new position with the municipality begins Feb. 14.
