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The Canada Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI)

The Canada Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI) is a $31 million investment from the Government of Canada to support communities as they adapt spaces and services to respond to needs arising from COVID-19.

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COVID Signpost 365

To mark the one-year anniversary of the WHO’s declaration of the global pandemic the Canadian Urban Institute has released a seminal report that shares new findings drawn from the opinions of 180,000 Canadians about how COVID-19 hit Canada’s largest cities, and how people felt throughout a year unlike any other.

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In It Together: Bringing Back Canada's Main Streets

In It Together: Bringing Back Canada’s Main Streets reinforces the value of main streets to cities and communities and assesses how they have been impacted through the COVID-19 public health emergency.

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Main Street Design Challenge Playbook

The Design Challenge Playbook reflects the importance of design in revitalizing our streets and showcases creative and practical interventions to help us build back better than ever.

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Cities call for united front eliminate homelessness and protect tenants

Convened by CUI and The Shift, the Right to Home Municipal Working Group issues an urgent Call to Action to end homelessness, protect tenants and ensure everyone in Canada has access to a safe, secure, place to call home.

Read the Call to Action

CityTalk Leadership Lecture

To mark CUI’s 30th anniversary, the Canadian Urban Institute and its Board of Directors are proud to present the first annual CityTalk Leadership Lecture featuring Dan Hill.

Revisit the lecture

A Call to Courage: An Open Letter to Canadian Urbanists

Jay Pitter, award-winning placemaker and CUI Senior Fellow, Equity-Based Placemaking, releases an open letter to Canadian urbanists with a toolkit of resources for responding to anti-Black racism in urbanist practices and conversations

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The Case for a Canadian Urban Policy Observatory

Research recommending the development of a “one-stop-shop” housing the best quantitative and qualitative data on Canada’s cities

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Initiatives

This is an all-hands-on-deck moment, one that calls for us to support our local governments and community agencies, and unleash our collective ingenuity.

Bring Back Main Street

A nationally coordinated research and advocacy campaign about finding the best solutions to ensure our main streets recover from COVID-19 and emerge more resilient than ever
#COVID19 #Downtowns #MainStreets

CityTalk Canada

Candid conversations, analysis, and commentary on the new urban reality under COVID-19
#COVID19

COVID Signpost

The Canadian Urban Institute is conducting cross-Canada research and convening conversations about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next. These signposts offer important directions for urban Canada about the lingering challenges we must face as a nation.
#COVID19

CityShare Canada

A real-time, crowdsourced platform that houses resources, tools, and stories on how city-builders and residents are responding to COVID-19
#COVID19

CityWatch Canada

An interactive platform that tracks emergency response measures put in place by local governments across Canada, updated daily
#COVID19 #PublicFinance&Governance

CUI x Local

CUI x Local is a series of week-long virtual residencies to learn about local issues facing cities and connect the dots across urban Canada. We’ll be listening to and learning from local stakeholders on their most pressing challenges and surfacing examples of innovative and locally-driven solutions.

Insights & Publications

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Edmonton Activates

Edmonton Activates introduces city builders to the people, place and potential of this city. It reflects some of the best guidance Edmonton can offer to Canadians who are seeking inspiration and new ways of doing things to improve the quality of life in our cities. Here is what we heard.
#COVID19

Calgary Transforms

Calgary Transforms summarizes what Calgarians told us is happening in their city today. We heard diverse perspectives on what it’s like to live there, what people are concerned about, how they view the city and its organizations and how many are coping with and driving positive change. People from the arts, academia, business and industry, community agencies and many other sectors told us what they see as their successes, where they think needs more work and what their hopes are for a post-pandemic future.
#COVID19

Engaging Black People and Power

Created by placemaker and author Jay Pitter in collaboration with students and scholars in York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, this publication highlights engagement practice and policy approaches for addressing spatialized anti-Blackness in cities across North America.

Events

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Coming Up: August 4

How can cities address the challenge of encampments?
Encampments are becoming more common across cities in Canada and around the world. It’s a challenging issue that city leaders, health care professionals, activists and communities are struggling with. Are cities resorting to stopgap solutions that seem useless to solving our current affordable housing crisis?
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June 29, 2021

What’s next on the urban agenda for Canadian youth?
Join us on June 29, 2021 as we talk to a diverse group of youth experts across Canada and unpack their experiences living in urban centres across the country during the pandemic. Building off of the Urban Youth Impact COVID-19 Report that analyzes data from six of the largest Canadian cities and relevant census metropolitan areas including, Calgary, Edmonton, Montréal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto and Vancouver, we’ll explore how current issues such as race and discrimination, health, employment, cost of living and civic engagement affect youth and hear about their priorities and hopes for the future as we begin the journey to recovery. What do we need to change? And how can we leverage the experience and expertise that youth bring to the table to build more inclusive cities?
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June 24, 2021

Addressing the Post-COVID Gender Gap
The first event of “Leading Canada’s ‘shecovery’ from the ground up” virtual events establish the context for the day, providing a close and personal look at the gender gap in Canada as we emerge from a global pandemic and she-cession. This session takes an intersectional look at what groups of women and girls decision makers need to be most focused on today.
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CUI is Canada’s Urban Institute

The Canadian Urban Institute is the national platform that houses the best in Canadian city building – where policymakers, urban professionals, civic and business leaders, community activists and academics can learn, share and collaborate with one another from coast to coast to coast. Through research, engagement and storytelling, our mission is to ensure Canada builds vibrant, equitable, livable and resilient cities. (Registered charity #121844419 RR000)
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