The Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough is pleased to announce a new partnership with Building Back Differently (BBD), a collaborative project that pulls together the expertise of Trent University researchers and local community members.
Today marks the first release in a series of resources focused on creating healthier, more equitable communities.
You can now find BBD’s work on housing on the Foundation’s newly launched Vital PTBO web portal.
A crisis before the pandemic, access to quality, affordable housing has only become more urgent as costs surged over the past two years. “Housing is key to our existence, but it’s increasingly difficult, and in some cases, impossible for people to carry its financial burden. Like the housing crisis, crises of nutrition, health, poverty and security are symptoms. The disease is the widening disparity in income and wealth,” says Paul Armstrong, author of BBD’s housing module.
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing inequities in Peterborough, as seen through crises in homelessness, food insecurity, social isolation, caregiving, the arts, and overdose deaths. These inequities are not new, only deepened. The pandemic has clearly illustrated that returning to a business-as-usual approach is wholly inadequate. New and different approaches are needed now to create equitable systems that will foster a vital, compassionate community for all people.
All the work produced by Building Back Differently, including reports, videos, and other resources, is aimed at helping leaders and grassroots organizers push for much needed change using reliable data and new solution-focused proposals.
We hope you will find these, and all the other resources available at Vital PTBO, helpful.