Social Development Centre Waterloo Region

The Multicultural Connection continues to offer networking and supports among ethnocultural groups in Waterloo Region. With guests from Cambridge, the Portuguese Club and the Islamic Centre, the Arab Women and Afghan Associations, as well as Peace for All International, we have heard experiences of well rooted and more emergent groups. The challenges explored were how to ensure youth participation for sustainability, and advocacy for accessible funding from local, provincial and federal funders. The dialogue continues through the collaboration of the Immigration Waterloo Region, Volunteer Action Centre Waterloo Region and Social Development Centre Waterloo Region.

We are fortunate to live in a prosperous community but the benefits of living in Waterloo Region are 
not shared equitably. Some of us are missed, forgotten or left behind. We need greater representation 
of diverse voices at the decision-making tables to address unaffordable housing, income insecurity,
and social exclusion. You can join the movement by supporting the work of Lived Experience Groups
through Peer Internship Projects, or help us bring the grassroots, ethnocultural and volunteer-led
resident groups under the roof of the Civic Hub Waterloo Region. 

In the third part of the series, you can think with us about "How Did We Get Here?". The conditions for the current affordable housing crisis have been building up for decades. Many policy changes in Canada and Ontario since the 90’s could be named, such as the interruption of the federal investment in social and non-market housing, provincial cuts to social assistance programs, or downloading of social service costs to municipalities. The list would go on. The point here is not to unpack the policy changes. The focus is on shedding light on the mindset that created those policies or that failed to anticipate and respond to the crisis in the making. It is the same mindset that has been shaping the course of the urban development and gentrification in cities around the world, as well as in Waterloo Region. 

Building cheap and non-profitable housing seems to be an impossible scenario, especially in the urban core along major transit lines - except for all other conceivable scenarios. The Life Stories project started recording the history of our community told by persons who live on low income and have experienced marginalization in its many forms. Their voices were not represented in the long sequence of decisions that brought us to the present moment of reshaping urban development in the region. To read their testimonies and to listen to the full interview podcasts, go to the Life Stories of Displacement page where we will continue publishing three more episodes to better understand displacement, consider how we got to the crisis and how social justice and social commons can shape the future of our cities.