Turning Up the Volume!

Every Voice Counts.

Individual Membership $30 / Organization Membership $50

There has been a lot of change in the last year, but also many successes. In 2022, the Social Development Centre:

- Continued to support the Civic Hub partner groups, a space and financial supports for grassroots organizations to do the irreplicable work they do in the community

- Remain the charitable partner for A Better Tent City, O:se Kenhionhata:tie Land Back Camp & Black Lives Matter Waterloo Region, African Community Wellness Initiative and Kind Minds Family Wellness, along other lived experience groups in Waterloo Region ensuring they have access to resources and funding,

- Set up a pilot project with the City of Kitchener to inform the Housing for All Strategy, and mobilized a group of advocates under the banner of Lived Expertise Working Group to inform and improve municipal responses to housing and homelessness. 

- Created a Map of Displacement in Kitchener-Waterloo and continues the study displacement in the urban core of Kitchener-Waterloo and in the inner suburbs in Kitchener. The project is currently implemented across four Ontario communities through the Social Planning Network of Ontario.

- Sustained Kitchener’s Festival of Neighoburhoods during distancing and relaunched the Propinquity Challenge as we reconnect across neighbourhoods in Kitchener

- Ensured the Eviction Prevention Program and tenant supports and advocacy in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge

- Supported the Unsheltered Campaign, an advocacy campaign to provide 24/7 access to shelter alternatives for those who are sleeping rough and for decriminalization of homelessness and expect to start working with the regional staff on decriminalizing and human rights approaches to homelessness supports and end of chronic homelessness.

What does it mean to be a member of the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region?

• Vote at our Annual General Meeting and have a say in the strategic direction of the organization
• Be on the forefront of collective responses to social issues unifying different opinions and experiences
• Gain a greater audience to share your own projects and initiatives
• Take an active role in participating in or promoting the work on a project you value the most.

As a member of the Social Development Centre, you will be showing your support for equity and inclusion, and the SDC’s successes will be your successes. Please consider joining the SDC’s many initiatives as an individual or organizational member, and become a part of our network of people who believe in connecting deeper to the grassroots and who walk the talk.