Welcome to Oosterbaan Strategy
Oosterbaan Strategy is on a mission to give clients the innovative and evidence-based solutions they need for their strategic endeavours. Specialized in strategy related to economic and community development, we provide thorough consultation, facilitation, planning, evaluation and education services to municipalities, not-for-profits, post-secondary, community organizations and businesses.
What we do
In-Depth Consultation
Understand client needs with custom research tools. We will develop, conduct and analyze the best research tools to meet your community needs, from surveys to interviews to facilitated discussions to participatory mapping exercises.
Strategic Solutions
Build a plan, ignite big ideas, maximize opportunities and mitigate challenges. Let us help you chart the best path for your community. Our plans are built on in-depth consultation and best practices research to make sure our solutions meet your needs.
Education
Gain a great understanding of concepts related to economic and community development. With years of experience developing and delivering course and workshop content, we can customize programming to meet your needs.
Project facilitation
Do you have great project ideas but don’t know, or don’t have the capacity to get started? We can help you get your big idea off the ground by engaging partners, facilitating meetings, and providing project management services.
Evaluation
How do you know that the money and time you are spending are achieving the results you want. We will work with you to benchmark and track measures to help you ensure you are achieving maximum impact.
Talk to us about your needs
We have a broad range of skills and expertise among our team and associates. Let’s discuss your project idea and budget to customize a solution to meet your needs.
The best solutions don’t fit in a box.
About Oosterbaan Strategy
After over a decade working with and within
government, we strive to provide clients with clear
directions that set them apart from the crowd. We conduct thorough research into the needs and opportunities
in your community to give you a comprehensive understanding of how to unlock
your potential and provide the most effective
and efficient path to successful outcomes.
Small and nimble by intention, we put
together a specialized team of highly qualified
associates to meet the specific needs of your
project. Our associates have advanced degrees,
multiple certifications and many years of experience
in their areas of expertise, be it community
consultation, strategic planning, education or evaluation.
Catherine Oosterbaan
President and Principal Consultant
Catherine is a planning expert, bringing over a
decade of experience working across provincial and municipal governments in senior economic development
roles.
She has been responsible for building impactful and innovative projects, programming, and strategy. She holds
two graduate degrees related to economic development, is recognized as a Certified Economic Developer in
Canada and internationally, and remains active in publishing cutting edge academic research. During her 7 years
as an Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Advisor with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs, Catherine played a key role in guiding community, economic, and tourism development across
Ontario through educational workshops, grant application coaching, partnership development, and strategy and
action plan development.
Catherine is an expert in utilizing a range of in-depth community consultation
techniques to generate solutions that work. She has developed and customized research tools such as surveys,
interview guides, focus groups, and other community consultation tools for a range of municipal, not-for-profit and
academic clients. Utilizing these tools, in conjunction with her broad data collection and analysis background,
Catherine has led the development of a number of strategies across client groups.
Her great dedication to the clients she serves, innovative approaches and community development excellence led
to her being recognized as the Young Economic Development Influencer of the Year by the Economic Developers
Council of Ontario in 2018.