In this newsletter:
How Can We Confront Homelessness in Rural Ontario? Panel discussion at Rural Ontario Municipalities Association Conference, moderated by Steve Paikin, with our very own Marilyn Struthers. Watch the video here!
Penny Skelton talks to Rosalyn Morrison & Jessica Flynn, capturing an overview of The Institute’s origin story, recent projects and events, and a discussion about future goals. Watch the full episode here!
TISGB works on community collaboration, and affordable housing in 2023. “The work of a regional think tank has begun to pay off, figuratively and literally”. Read the full article by Ian Adams here!
Have your voice heard! This is the final call to share your thoughts on the work of TISGB and provide your input as we go into our 2023 Strategy Session. Take the survey here.
How Can We Confront Homelessness in Rural Ontario?
Rural Ontario Municipal Association Annual Conference
A word from Councillor Geoffrey Shea, from the Municipality of West Grey: “At the end of January, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association held its annual conference. Along with sessions on asset management and building codes, there were several panels and presentations about helping vulnerable populations, protecting the environment, and indigenous relations. But nothing was more noticeable than the topic of housing…”
One panel, Innovative Rural Housing and Homelessness Solutions, included Marilyn Struthers who has been leading a group addressing Social Financing for Housing in association with the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay. (This panel was recorded and broadcast on TVO with Steve Paikin.) The panel looked at solutions for developing more housing for people at the lower end of the affordability spectrum. It looked at issues in housing further north and locally developed solutions. The point that Marilyn raised, and which everyone on the panel and in the audience agreed with, was that the housing crisis we are experiencing was created by the financial model that we have now: private developers building houses as commodities and investments, rather than essential community services. She spoke about the work that her group and the Institute have done over the past two years to envision social financing alternatives.
In part, that has resulted in the creation of an Affordable Housing Toolkit. This is meant to help communities identify the housing and financing problems where they are and to provide strategies and resources to begin implementing concrete solutions.
I heard more than one attendee at this panel exclaim that it was the highlight of the entire conference! That was certainly my feeling. I encourage you to watch the panel on TVO’s website and to explore the Affordable Housing Toolkit!”
Geoffrey Shea
Councillor, Municipality of West Grey
Read Councillor Shea’s full blog post here.
The Penny Skelton Show sits down with representatives from The Institute of Southern Georgian Bay.
Rogers TV, The Penny Skelton Show. January 8, 2023.
Penny kicked off the conversation by asking the audience, “How much do you care about your community and what changes do you want to see?”
It was a biggy. And we covered a lot of ground! If you, or anyone in your network has ever had questions about who we are, what we do, or how to participate, this is the show you’ll want to watch! Watch the episode now!
TISGB works on community collaboration, affordable housing in 2023. “The work of a regional think tank has begun to pay off, figuratively and literally”.
Simcoe.com, Ian Adams. December 22, 2022.
The work of a regional think tank has begun to pay off, figuratively and literally.
At the Dec. 3 final event of its six-part series on how to create local sustainable economies, the Institute of Southern Georgian Bay helped to launch a new $1-million south Georgian Bay Innovation Fund.
“The fund is the latest initiative in a long line of community-building philanthropic work by Larry and Barb Hall,” said the institute’s executive director, Rosalyn Morrison.
It will be managed by the Toronto Foundation and should generate $50,000 for grants in 2023 to support social entrepreneurs from across the area covered by the Institute, including Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, and the Town of The Blue Mountains.
The Institute was created in 2015, with a focus on learning about and implementing the so-called ‘triple bottom line’ of economic prosperity, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability.
“It’s the 21st century, and we are being challenged by a complexity that we’ve not seen before,” she said. “We need to figure out how we lean in together, how we learn together, and how to prioritize together.
“We are looking to build a collective leadership model where the sectors to walk our mission: connect with each other, have these important conversations, learn together, and then strategize.”
As an example, she said, the area municipalities could cooperate on an issue such as affordable housing.
The Institute will also be rolling out a tool kit on affordable housing for municipalities in 2023.
“Our platform provides this opportunity,” she said. “We want to get everybody on the same page in terms of how we speak about affordable housing.”
Read the full story here.