Community Housing Program to Host Founding Meeting

NOVA SCOTIA

Community Housing Program to Host Founding Meeting

It has been a productive year as Coady’s Community Housing Program continued implementing two housing projects in Nova Scotia focused on education and action. Build Together II resumes efforts to strengthen the province’s community housing sector (CHS), based on what we heard during Build Together I in 2021. A second project increases awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and affordable housing.

Build Together II remains grounded in a philosophy of community-based engagement – starting with those who comprise the community housing sector in Nova Scotia including individuals, groups, networks and coalitions. With support from the Community Housing Transformation Centre, Build Together II is focused on laying the groundwork for a new organization, a Nova Scotia Non-Profit Housing Association (NSNPHA). Diversity, equity, inclusion, and decolonization (DEID) are central to the organizational development process. Sharing circles, which began in Build Together I, continue with underrepresented groups, the learnings of which inform the structure and functioning of the proposed NSNPHA. Members of the Build Together I Engagement Team have joined the Build Together II Transition Team, along with new volunteers, to provide guidance on the governance and sustainability planning for the proposed NSNPHA. A founding meeting will happen at St. Francis Xavier University on October 26 to 27, 2022.

With support from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), we continue AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NOVA SCOTIA and the our efforts to raise awareness of the United UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Affordable Housing in Nova A series of three webinars on the United Nations Scotia. This initiative provides an opportunity Sustainable Goals (SDG) and Affordable Housing in Nova Scotia where we discuss the origin of the to engage Nova Scotians endeavoring SDGs, why they are important, what is happening to create affordable housing solutions in related to the SDGs in Nova Scotia, and how the convenings and learning activities related to SDGs intersect with affordable housing. the SDGs. We are meeting with affordable housing groups in each county to discuss the United Nations SDGs, how they connect to affordable housing, and how thinking about and identifying with a global framework could enhance our local initiatives. In addition to hosting three webinars and facilitating five people’s schools related to various SDGs and affordable housing, a virtual asset map is being developed to highlight where these efforts are happening with a view to becoming a tool to enable sector connections and collaboration.