In Peterborough, CASSA is working with local partners on a small-scale project focused on access to public transit for newcomers and immigrants. Public spaces including bus stops and buses have been identified in Peterborough-specific research that looks at issues facing immigrants, newcomers and people of colour.

York Region is rapidly changing and growing – between 2001 and 2006 the population increased by 22 per cent, the number of visible minorities¹grew by 53 per cent², and the number of low-income households increased by 55 per cent; in 2009 over 40 percent of students in the York Region District School Board identified their first language as one other than English³. As the Region becomes more diverse, there are challenges that municipalities and community institutions must be prepared to address to ensure a safe and healthy Region for current and future residents. In the context of a rapidly changing region, an equity lens is most useful – one that is informed by the concepts of access, equity and inclusion. Keeping this in mind, Putting Equity on the Agenda: Are We Being Heard?, a York Region equity campaign, was launched in 2009 by the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA). The campaign created spaces for dialogue on the issues facing newcomers and immigrants in the Region.

The Waterloo Region is currently home to 40 community gardens. CASSA is working to start a dialogue around increased access to these gardens for immigrants in order to identify barriers and build capacity for their inclusion in the local food movement. Our local partners in this initiative are the Diggable Communities Collaborative: the Community Garden Council of Waterloo, Opportunities Waterloo Region and Region of Waterloo Public Health.

Currently there are 39 community gardens in the Region. These gardens are scattered throughout the Region, but are mainly located in the urban areas of Kitchener and Waterloo. These gardens are located on private properties, church properties, community centres, and some on city owned land. Every community garden is unique in how it operates, but the majority of the community gardens are set up as individual plots that community members can ‘rent’ for the season.

In a survey conducted by Region of Waterloo Public Health in 2005, 38% of respondents reported growing some of their own food, with 90% of these respondents using a backyard garden to grow these foods (RWPH, 2005). Despite only about one third of the citizens actively engaged in growing their own food, 70% stated growing their own food is important to them. This same survey revealed that 2% of respondents garden in community gardens (RWPH, 2005). There are some opportunities for support for these community gardens from the local municipalities. Presently, the City of Kitchener provides both in-kind support as well as financial support to their gardens. They will provide shelters, water, and waste pick-up to some of their gardens, in addition to a $500 grant to new garden start-ups. The City of Waterloo is also slowly making strides through their Partners in Parks Program. As part of this program the City has agreed to provide passive public parkland for use as community gardens.

 Nearly 25% of Waterloo Region residents are immigrants or refugees from diverse regions of the world, with expected growth to 30% by 2031. Our region is one of the top seven communities in Canada for recent immigrants/refugees1 on a per capita basis (2006 Census). Between the 2001 and 2006 Census, 17,020 individuals immigrated to this region(Immigrants in Waterloo Region: Fact Sheet, ROWPH, 2009).