2026-2027 Creating Connections in Our Community

The Healthy Living team is pleased to offer a grant focused on ‘Creating Connections in Our Community’ in Southern Health-Santé Sud Communities.  This grant aims to build supportive spaces, help communities identify and leverage their unique strengths, address systemic barriers to connection, promote a culture of inclusion, and engage equity-denied and strategically excluded populations. When people feel connected to their community, they are more likely to engage with others, feel comfortable and safe in public spaces, volunteer, and take pride in their community.  

“Promoting awareness of the importance of social connection is essential because these connections are foundational to maintaining physical and mental health, resilience, and overall wellbeing… While individual actions play a critical role in enhancing social connection, the broader community context significantly influences our ability to form and maintain meaningful relationships. Communities provide the social environments in which individuals live, work, and interact, and these environments can either facilitate or hinder social connection.” (Community Guidelines for Social Connection, 2025). 

Keep in mind there are groups and individuals that may not always feel like they belong. People in every community can experience barriers to accessibility and inclusion. These barriers can create unique vulnerabilities to loneliness, isolation, and disconnection. Communities can work together to:

• Ensure that activities and programs are available for people of all ages, abilities, socioeconomic classes, cultural backgrounds, language groups, and with various social and recreational interests. 
• Actively seek to eliminate stigma, discrimination, and violence while advancing Reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

Timeline

Grant Guidelines

• This grant funds one application per organization with a maximum of $2,000. Projects that follow these guidelines will be prioritized.  
• All communities within Southern Health-Santé Sud are eligible to apply, and more than one application per community can be accepted. Not all applications are guaranteed to be approved. 
• For-profit organizations are not eligible to apply. Non-profit organizations will be prioritized over Not-for-profit organizations. 

How to Apply:

This grant is part of Healthy Together Now.

Access the funding guidelines.

Prior to applying, please reach out to your local Healthy Living Facilitator to discuss your application.

November is Domestic Violence Awareness in Canada

– an opportunity to promote awareness of the services and resources available to individuals in need of support – or medical attention – due to an experience involving intimate partner violence.

Agencies across Canada are working to increase knowledge of this form of violence and the resources available to individuals who experience it.

Visit Shared Health for more information on services and resources available.

National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW) is November 16–22, 2025.

NAAW highlights solutions that help address the harms related to the use of alcohol and other drugs. It provides an opportunity for people in Canada to learn more about prevention and harm reduction, talk about treatment and recovery, and discuss solutions for change.

Click here for more information

A community-investment commitment that gives back to the places Co-op calls home. We are working to brighten up our communities by donating CO-OP^® Imagine Paint to the projects and initiatives that matter most to you.

For more details about the program, see the program overview or stop by your local Co-op Home Centre.”

Link to the application form: Communities in Full Colour Application | Co-op Home

Recorded Webinars

In case you missed the daily Lunch and Learn webinars hosted by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), for Truth and Reconciliation Week, you can watch the recordings. The Lunch & Learns are aimed at an adult audience and sessions are approximately 40-50 minutes followed by Q&A. Here is a breakdown of the sessions:

Surviving the Residential School System
Uncovering the Truth: Ground Searches
The Ongoing Legacy of the Residential School System through Child Welfare
Reflecting on the TRC’s Calls to Action 10 Years Later
Confronting Residential School Denialism

Visit the NCTR page to watch the Recordings:

Lunch and Learns – Truth and Reconciliation Week

• Boosts our immune system – helps you live longer
• Helps build healthy and harmonious relationships
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
• For youth: enhance ability to cope with school pressures
• For older adults: promotes better sleep and lessens the feelings of sadness.

Big or small…notice things to be grateful for in your day.

• use your senses to experience gratitude
• spend quality time with friends, family & pets
• be grateful toward your physical body – nourish it and be kind to it
• encourage yourself with positive thoughts
• cultivate gratitude in spirituality
• write down 3 good things that happened in your day
• practice kindness – help out a friend or neighbour
• show your gratitude to others – thank someone mentally
• write a thank you note.