Veterans Village Housing Lab: André Thivierge

September 14, 2023 in Community, Housing, Veterans Village

There are an estimated 617,800 veterans in Canada, representing approximately 1.7% of the population, yet as of 2020 point in time counts, 7% of Albertans experiencing homelessness self-identify as having served in the Canadian military. The Veterans Village Housing Lab, a Solutions Lab that is funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, was initiated this summer to find innovative, affordable housing solutions that explore issues of health and wellness, affordable financing, and communal living concepts in housing amongst Veterans, in hopes of addressing this disparity.

The first episode of the series begins to explore issues of transition, health and wellbeing, and partnerships in providing housing for Veterans experiencing housing insecurity with André Thivierge, of the City of Ottawa Veterans Task Force. André is a 30 year Canadian Armed Forces Veteran who retired in 2013, and is a co-founder and co-chair of the Veterans Task Force in Ottawa, where he works to enhance the programs and services available to Veterans and their families through the three pillars of health, housing, and transitioning to second careers.

Over the next four months, we are conducting user interviews, and community engagement sessions to understand the community’s perspective on emerging solutions. If you’re interested in participating or learning more about this work to support housing security with Canadian Veterans, drop us a note at yasushi.ohki@greenviolin.ca. We would love to hear from you!

Resources

The Seven Domains Of Well-Being: https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-vac/news-media/salute/2019-se/wellbeing

Veterans House Canada: https://www.veteranshousecanada.ca/

Digital Engagement and Collaboration

October 24, 2022 in Community

It’s been awhile! At Intelligent Futures, we’ve been really busy working on a lot of cool projects. Happy to be back podcasting. In this episode we’re taking a deep dive into digital engagement and collaboration.

The pandemic has highlighted how digital engagement can be leveraged to ensure that a diversity of voices can be heard during engagement processes. To dive further into the concepts and tools used to address equity in engagement and city building, we met with Coby Williams, Zahra Ebrahim & Ceri Gordon to discuss their experiences with digital engagement and how it has shaped their work.

What’s Next for Urban Communities?

November 9, 2021 in Community, What's Next?

Welcome to What’s Next – our latest season of 360 Degree City.

How will COVID’s impact take shape in the long-term for our mobility, public spaces, supply chains, economies, and society? In this series, John sits down with a number of folks to talk about what’s next for cities. 

To start off, hear from Mary Rowe, President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute.