Second National Meeting

"A Safe and Affordable Place to Call Home" 

October 28th, 2024

The 2nd national safe and affordable meeting was a busy day for all who attended. It included CMHC staff, research assistants, professors, coresearchers, and post docs working together to discuss what our research for safe and affordable has been doing over the course of the past year. It began with an opening prayer and land acknowledgement led by Elder Fred. Subsequently, Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly welcomed everyone to this meeting and discussed the agenda and logistics of the day’s events which included the Indigenous Advisory group and First Voice committee introductions and how they are attached to this research because of their lived experience, peer support, and cultural knowledge that helps shape good ethical practice. As a group we then looked at several themes which included: updates, climate change, housing and finance, housing alternatives, Indigenous knowledge and practices, northern housing, digital mapping and next steps. We then broke for lunch to debrief.

Following this we discussed biannual reports and how to align our research by participating in small group activities. These activities consisted of the attendees breaking out into different groups aligned with one of the previous mentioned themes. In so doing we could analyze these themes with interdisciplinary lenses because of our own unique academic/experiential backgrounds. After the breakout activities concludes we had someone from each thematic group report back with what they discussed. After this we then had time for final questions and then closed with gratitude. This was further demonstrated by Elder Fred’s closing prayer in which we all held hands and acknowledged that we are all human despite our differences.