This is a time when Canada must harness its community-driven resilience. We’re asking you to share examples of how Canadian communities are responding to the crisis with creativity and imagination. Collective problem-solving and collaboration will be instrumental in how Canada mitigates the local impacts of COVID-19 and creates on-the-ground solutions.
Highlighted Initiatives
CBC documentaries & local films featuring Windsor’s independent producers, directors and student filmmakers
Links include:
Leslie McCurdy Story: On the Money
Award-winning actress and playwright Leslie McCurdy has dedicated her life to staging the stories of heroic Black women who stood up against racial injustice. For two decades, McCurdy has been bringing the stories of her heroines to life on stage. Like her, they inspire others to follow their dreams and to stand up for what they believe and not be treated as second class. They include Harriet Tubman and Viola Desmond, both known as firmly established heroines of civil rights in North America. McCurdy comes from seven generations of civil rights activists, the most recent being her father, the late Dr. Howard McCurdy, Jr.
You can watch it now on CBC Gem.
Graffiti: The art that changes a city
Watch as Windsor gets transformed by graffiti artists and discover how their art brings life back into the city’s neighbourhoods. This project is a collaboration with CBC Arts, CBC Windsor and local independent producer/director Sasha Jordan-Appler.
CBC ARTS | Meet Derkz, one of the artists behind the murals transforming Windsor neighbourhoods
Featured artists: Eugenio Mendoza (DREVMZ), Daniel Bombardier (Denial), David Derkatz (Derkz) and Briana Benore (Athena)
You can watch it now on CBC Gem.
A drama, documentary and musical all in one? Directors Trista Suke and Ellis Poleyko follow Trista’s experience struggling with alopecia, a hair loss condition. An eccentric memoir intertwined with interview segments of people living with the condition, Foxy shines a light on mental health and society’s unachievable beauty standards.
You can watch it now on CBC Gem.
Q&A | FOXY director Trista Suke on why alopecia doesn’t define her
A compilation of short, scripted films and documentaries from independent producers and student filmmakers from the University of Windsor and finalists from the Windsor Youth Short Film Showcase. This year’s compilation brings together stories about performance and the creative process, identity and learning to love who you are, plus some fun with time travel, dogs and fireworks. You’ll have to watch to find out more!
Short films include: Band Together, Starving Artist, Led By Her, Time Record, Season of Seven Loves, Love Me and Fire Work.
You can watch it now on CBC Gem.
Stories from the Land: Corn Soup and The Last Fishermen
Stories from the Land, a podcast dedicated to Indigenous storytelling, has been adapted into a documentary series by Wanderer Entertainment Inc. for CBC Short Docs. Watch a sneak peek of the series on Absolutely Canadian with this special Ontario broadcast featuring the short films Corn Soup, from Fort Erie, and The Last Fishermen, from Rainy Lake in Fort Frances.
You can watch it now on CBC Gem.
Great idea: Lean Urbanism seeks to bring common sense back into the planning and development process—because great neighborhoods are built with many hands, often in small increments.
Lean Urbanism is a multidisciplinary movement to lower the barriers to community-building, to make it easier to start businesses, and to provide more attainable housing and development.
The Precarious State of the Mom-and-Pop Store
Approaches to maintaining street facing small retail and vibrant neighbourhoods
Storefront Stagnation: Coping With Neighborhood Retail’s New Realities
We miss the locally owned shops that once sustained community on our Main Streets. We need to try to sustain them in a radically different economic world.
Started by two Edmonton women, Vax Hunters Alberta shares information on where vaccines are available in Alberta.
The site also posts a Guide to Booking a COVID vaccine in Alberta — a shareable Google Doc, Albertans are asked to spread it far and wide, especially to folks not on social media.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r3S2osQwLZuQm59BiXbGrSLdnlwhHG4eic1A6wN9Eqg/edit
Boyle Street Community Services — an Edmonton-based service organization — has linked their annual giving campaign to local business support
The goal of the 2021 Community Sustainability campaign is to reciprocate local giving; this time, offering a helping hand to the Edmonton-based businesses that have supported the community. By committing to becoming a monthly donor for Boyle Street Community Services, donors will also be supporting a local business of their choice. Donors will be sent a gift card equal to the value of the first month’s donation to the local business of choice
Community Land Trusts in Toronto’s Parkdale and Kensington Market — ownership model to keep rent affordable
Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust — part of a growing movement of community-based groups who are taking affordable housing acquisition and preservation into their own hands.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is seeking volunteers with medical backgrounds to help with vaccinations
Although the region remains in Phase 1 of the province’s three-phase COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, health unit officials say they may need support from residents with health-care know-how when mass inoculation begins.
The Rotary Club of Cobourg is leading a community collaboration to recruit volunteers to assist at the Covid-19 Vaccine Clinic at the Cobourg Community Centre.
Volunteers are needed to assist at the clinics; organize volunteer scheduling and drive seniors to vaccine clinics. 50-60 volunteers are needed per day to support the clinics. MORE INFORMATION
Volunteers step forward as U of T hosts downtown vaccine clinic on St. George campus
The vaccine clinic, hosted on the St. George campus, is part of a university-wide effort. At U of T Mississauga, a mass vaccination site operated by Trillium Health Partners and overseen by Peel Public Health plans to administer up to 2,000 shots a day, and to scale up to 4,000 later on. U of T is ultimately planning to host vaccination sites on all three of its campuses, and to provide health-profession students with opportunities to get involved. https://www.utoronto.ca/news/volunteers-step-forward-u-t-hosts-downtown-vaccine-clinic-st-george-campus
Vaccination Clinic Volunteers Volunteers are needed to support King Township with a Vaccine Clinic.
Volunteer Positions Available:
- Parking Guides
- Greeters
- Line Guides
- Runners
Labrador-Grenfell Health is engaging the public in search of motivated volunteers looking to be part of the COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign
They are looking for Greeters; Post-Immunization Observers and Flow Director/Runners
Red Cross in PEI are looking for volunteers to help out with testing and vaccinations, contact tracing & other jobs
The Nurses Association of New Brunswick (NANB) is helping to recruit former nurses and nurse practitioners to assist with the pandemic response
NANB is working with the Government of New Brunswick to ensure an adequate supply of nurses to assist in this effort.
New Brunswick seeking volunteers for community immunization clinics
Shifts will be four hours or less. Water and snacks will be provided. Fill the application form, then contact Volunteer Services in your area.
Sask. physicians answer call for volunteers to provide vaccines
An email from the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) was circulating among physicians looking for volunteers to give the vaccine to long-term care residents throughout the city the following day. The call was answered quickly. In both centres big and small, physicians rushed to volunteer – to fill an urgent need to provide people in their communities with the vaccine.
Saskatchewan Health Authority is seeking volunteers to assist in different roles to support COVID-19 response
Yukonnection is a volunteer matching system related to COVID support (groceries, snow removal, etc.)
Yukonnection is two forms:
- The first form lets people sign up to ask for help.
- The second form lets people sign up to offer help.
The Yukon Helpers Network Facebook page is an example of our community coming together to help.
Jebenevole posts volunteer opportunities including transporting people to their COVID appointments across Quebec
Mosaic Refugee Health Clinic in Calgary organizing physician volunteers for immunization clinics at large meat processing facility in High River, Alta
Alberta plans to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to about 15,000 workers at meat-packing plants
Volunteers helping to transport seniors to COVID-19 vaccinations in Calgary
Calgary Seniors Resource Society organizes volunteers to drive seniors to their vaccination appointments. Learn more about Calgary Senior Resource Society online.
The Good Neighbour Project now boasts some 6,000 volunteers from a host of diverse backgrounds, speaking more than 30 languages, with chapters in Toronto, London and Ottawa.
Those who need assistance accessing groceries, essential supplies and medication are connected via the Good Neighbour Hotline with a person who is able to purchase and deliver the items. The person making the request pays only for the cost of the groceries as delivery is free.
A community group in Winnipeg’s North End is launching a new campaign aimed at fighting vaccine “misinformation.”
Norwest’s campaign to address concerns around the COVID-19 vaccine with accurate information will be delivered to their clients and the public through social media posts and interactive sessions.
Over 200 Queen’s University medical students volunteer to administer COVID-19 vaccines in Kingston
Kingston Health Sciences Centre was alerted that they would be getting a large amount of vaccines that needed to be distributed quickly.
In Manitoba, people with health expertise are being recruited to volunteer as clinic managers, post-immunization observers and immunizers
Jobs have been posted online seeking physicians, nurses, paramedics and other health professionals including pharmacists and veterinarians. The postings are also open to former providers and students studying to become a health professional as long as they’ve completed the immunization portion of their training.
Training for eligible professionals surrounding the specifics of the COVID-19 vaccine is being provided through Red River College. The training takes eight hours which includes five hours of online theory and three hours of lab time.
People assigned to work in immunization clinics are in one of the priority groups to get the vaccine.
Waterloo Public Health is currently looking for volunteers for its COVID-19 vaccination clinic in a variety of non-medical roles.
Public Health is seeking people to help weekdays, weeknights and weekends, and is asking for a three-month commitment.
Those interested, can sign up on the region’s website or call the Service First Call Centre at 519-575-4400 or TTY (Telephone for the deaf and hard of hearing): 519-575-4608.
Manitoba seeking volunteers at testing sites, healthcare facilities
The Manitoba government is looking for volunteers to help with the work being done at COVID-19 testing sites and healthcare-facilities. The province said volunteers are needed for several tasks at testing sites, to support screening at health facilities, and to provide health system support to help frontline workers. To sign up, Manitobans need to create a profile on the HelpNextDoorMB app, select a region of the province and an area of interest. The province will then automatically conduct criminal record and vulnerable persons check. Once approved, the volunteer’s contact information will be shared with the respective health authority to follow up if they find a match.
Volunteers are helping Manitobans get vaccinated
Volunteer team members are helping countless Manitobans who follow Vaccine Hunters Canada while they’re looking to get vaccinated. The chat room Andrew started in March has grown to more than 25,000 members today, with thousands often online at any given moment; and the Twitter feed now has well over 156,500 followers, an over 2,000 per cent growth over the 7,000 they had just two weeks ago. With the help of nearly 50 other volunteers, the team searches for information from clinics, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers to ensure it’s available right away, and presents it in an easy to understand format.
Volunteers organize to drive seniors to COVID-19 vaccination appointments in the Windsor area
Dozens of volunteers across Windsor-Essex are ready to ensure all seniors have a ride to their COVID-19 vaccination appointments. The region’s first public vaccine clinic started Monday morning with seniors 80 years and older arriving at the WFCU Centre. It’s a joint initiative made possible by two groups including Windsor Frontline Health Care Workers and Windsor-Essex Seniors Needing Assistance, a seniors advocacy group that began at the onset of the global pandemic.Last week, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) said plans for mobile or ‘pop-up’-style vaccination clinics were in the works to ensure those with limited mobility are able to receive the vaccine.
Nova Scotia health care professionals considering how to use volunteers in their next phase of mass vaccinations
Nurses, nurse practitioners and pharmacists could help with vaccinations, together with dentists, vets, physiotherapists. Veterinarians, vet technicians, and dentists do many injections, and physiotherapists and physiotherapy students are intimately acquainted with anatomy. These people might be trained to help with injections, while other volunteers without that expertise could help with registration and related task
Applications open for healthcare volunteers to assist with COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Windsor
Registered healthcare professionals interested in volunteering with the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to rollout the COVID-19 vaccines can now do so online.Those interested and qualified can go to the online application form to submit their information. There will be a minimum time commitment needed and a chance on the form to specify area preference and availability.