Our Events

MAY 17th – 12:oo PM

Mark your calendars for an exciting conversation, featuring Joshna Maharaj, about using food as a tool for a just recovery! York Region Food Network, Social Planning Council of York Region and the York Region Food Council are proud to bring you this powerful talk. Engage with us about meaningful solutions to food and income insecurity, so we can nourish our communities in more ways than one.

Joshna is a chef, a two-time TEDx speaker, & activist who wants to help everyone have a better relationship with their food. She believes strongly in the power of chefs & social gastronomy to bring values of hospitality, sustainability, & social justice to the table.

We will be discussing:

  • The impact of COVID-19 on our food systems

  • Rebuilding with food at the center

  • Local opportunities with values-based food procurement

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Past Events

Push – Documentary Screening

October 1 2020, 7 PM

Join us Thursday October 1st at 7:00 PM for an online screening of Push, a documentary that sheds the light on a new kind of faceless landlord, our increasingly unlivable cities and an escalating crisis that has an effect on us all.

To sign up visit: https://bit.ly/2YHpIiG

Thinking Globally | Acting Locally

October 15 2020, 7 PM

The Social Planning Council of York Region has been working with non-profits, sector leaders, municipal staff/politicians and community members to discover together the opportunities to increase affordable housing stock across York Region.

 

Join us on October 15th at 7:00PM for a discussion on what could be possible if we work together as a community.

 

To sign up visit: https://bit.ly/3ftkQnm

Tenants Rights Presentation

August 17, 2020, 10 AM
The Province of Ontario recently enacted Bill 184, the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020. This act amended the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 in dramatic ways that could seriously undermine the security of tenancies for all Ontario renters. This presentation is intended for tenants, people working in the housing sector and anyone interested in this issue.
To sign up visit: https://bit.ly/3gMw8Dy

Reimagining Our Communities in a Just Recovery: An Online Meeting Series

On June 22, 75 community organizations and local leaders from across York Region met online to talk about how we reimagine Ontario after the recovery. 
 
We learned a lot during the pandemic, about the risks to vulnerable and marginalized people, about how fragile some of our essential systems are, but also about how we can do better. We talked about how to build on initiatives like the CERB, housing programs, employment supports  and food security initiatives that started during the pandemic. And we summarized it in the document attached.
 
We are hosting 5 more meetings, each on a key issue covered in the paper attached. We will use those meetings to flesh out ideas on housing, income supports, decent work, food security and the future role of the nonprofit sector. 
 
Please feel free to join as many of the discussions as you like by registering at the links below. And join us as we work to ensure that governments at all levels, implement the policies that can keep us safe, and resilient as we recover from COVID-19. 

Reimagining Our Communities in a Just Recovery

During the pandemic we have seen big changes that matter, such as access to decent income supports, food security, and paid sick days. We have seen longstanding gaps and inequities exposed more clearly. We have also seen systems we rely on break down, like childcare, transit, long term care and home care. Across York Region people have been working together to respond to the  COVID-19 emergency and our communities have taken on new initiatives and collaborative efforts to address it.

Now, there is concern about moving backwards rather than forwards. Simply returning to business as usual could mean losing the gains we have made and forgetting what we have learned we can do together to support our communities. If we want to shape the recovery, in a way that reflects what we have accomplished during the pandemic and what is needed to build an inclusive and equitable recovery, we need to plan together.

Join Social Planning Council York Region and York Region Food Network for a conversation about Reimagining Our Communities in a Just Recovery, on Monday June 22nd, at 10:30 AM, online. Get the details by registering on Eventbrite at  https://reimaginingcommunities.eventbrite.ca.

Click here for an initial description of issues and ideas as a way to spark the discussion.

If you are interested in these issues but don’t have time to attend more meetings, please let us know by sending an email to SocialPlanningCouncilYR@gmail.com and we will keep you in the loop.

Let’s reimagine how we build a recovery that works for all of us.

Past Events