CAWI-IVTF

Making Voices Count Civic Engagement Table (MVC)
2027-08-24 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-07-27 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-06-22 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-05-25 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-04-27 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-03-23 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-02-23 13:30 - 15:00, 2027-01-26 13:30 - 15:00 (America/Toronto) and 15 more dates | Zoom
Every last Tuesday each month, from 1:30PM to 3PM, on zoom
Group open to all genders, to discuss policy change in the city
To join, send an email to kassidy@cawi-ivtf.org

Come to our Climate Action Party on July 9!
2026-07-09 17:00 - 20:00 | Rideau Community Hub, 815 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3A7, Canada
Every corner of our city is feeling the impact of cost of living increases, extreme weather events and mounting uncertainties. Over the past year, CAWI and Ecology Ottawa have been building power together and in communities across Ottawa to understand how we can build an equitable, resilient, and caring city.
Do we have the power to influence change
Join us for an evening of community storytelling and art to celebrate residents and communities with the courage to act, learn, and imagine a climate equitable, sustainable, and caring future.
Psst! The answer: come on July 9th and find out!
To celebrate is an action word.
We believe one way we can build resilience and care is through coming together and sharing a meal. This is a party AND a direct action to build momentum for change.
Find all the details below:
Date: July 9th
Time: Doors open 4:30pm, event 5pm-8pm
Location: 815 St. Laurent Boulevard (More details to come)
Dinner will be provided.
This is an outdoor event. Shade and seating will be provided, but we encourage you to dress for the weather and bring a lawn chair if you can.
Click here to save your spot!

The Places That Hold Us: A Caring Cities Community Art Gathering on Grief, Memory, and Shared Spaces
2026-03-17 17:00 - 19:30 | Rideau Community Hub, 815 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3A7, Canada
Join us to tend to our collective grief over the loss of beloved community spaces due to displacement and create a living memory wall together. We will write the names of spaces we have lost and share the stories tied to them. Corner stores. Gathering spots. Cafés. The places that once anchored daily life.
This gathering is part of our community-based participatory research, honouring lived experience as knowledge and recognizing that the loss of place is also the loss of connection.
Not an artist? Not a problem! Join us and be in community with one another.
The venue is accessible.
Someone will greet you at the front entrance!
Click here to save your spot!

Caring Cities Play Reading
2026-03-15 14:00 - 16:00 | Rideau Community Hub, 815 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3A7, Canada
Caring Cities Play Reading is a participatory theater project rooted in stories from our Caring Cities community-based participatory research.
Collaborating with Branch Out Theatre, playwright Naomi Tessler will bring to life the experience of searching for care in our city. Highlighting themes of accessibility, equity and social justice, the play will encourage audience members to step into the action and consider how we transform the systems that oppress and how we can use storytelling and imagination to inspire collective action and advocate for a caring city.
Light snacks provided.
Want to come watch the play reading?
Save your spot here!

Our Neighbourhoods, Our Say: Planning Basics for a Caring City
2025-12-05 09:30 - 16:30 | Rideau Community Hub, 815 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, Ontario, K1K 3A7, Canada
Join CAWI and Peoples Official Plan (POP) for Our Neighbourhoods, Our Say: Planning Basics for a Caring City, a one-day, hands-on workshop for community members who want to understand how planning and zoning decisions affect their neighbourhoods and daily lives.
In this training, you will:

Learn what planning and zoning are, and why they matter
Explore how city design can make life easier or harder, depending on where you live and your needs
Understand the history of planning, including how zoning has been used to exclude communities and reinforce inequalities
Look at city planning through a feminist lens, addressing historical power imbalances and prioritizing the needs and experiences that have often been marginalized
Discover tools you can use to influence city decisions and take action at City Hall
Learn about planning with care at the center

This training is open to everyone!
Save your spot here!
Friendly note: This training will be offered in English only. We hope to see you there!

You’re invited to our Story of Origin opening reception!
2025-10-29 08:00 - 17:00 | City Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
For over twenty years, the City for All Women Initiative has been working for collective advocacy and a more caring and equitable Ottawa.
Join us for our Vernissage to celebrate Our Origin Story an evening of celebration, art and shared stories from those who made it all possible.
We will celebrate our shared journey, our community, and the meaningful work we’ve accomplished together. We will be offering light refreshments for you to enjoy.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

Participatory Gendered Budgeting Workshop
2025-10-08 08:00 - 17:00 | To be announced
Since 2008, the City for All Women Initiative (CAWI) has worked with residents to understand and influence the city budget through community workshops, training, and advocacy. Our annual Participatory Gendered Budgeting workshop continues this important work.
This workshop is a space where community members can learn how the city budget works and how we can have a say in where public money goes. Participatory budgeting is about people coming together to make decisions, share ideas, and push for equitable use of public funds.
This year, we will be guided by the Care Lens – a way of thinking about budgets that centers care for people, communities, and the planet. We will also draw on all the learning we’ve done together over the years using CAWI’s Equity and Inclusion Lens, which helps us ask: Who benefits? Who is left out? How can decisions be more fair and inclusive?
When shaped by care, equity, and inclusion, participatory budgeting:
Shifts power to people who are often excluded from decision-making;

Builds stronger connections between residents, local government, and community groups;
Creates new opportunities for civic participation beyond voting;
Supports the growth of new community leaders;
Leads to fairer, more inclusive, and more effective spending.

This year’s workshop will give Ottawa residents practical tools for reading the city budget, spotting gaps and inequities, and speaking up for what our communities need most. Together, we will focus on how budgets can better serve women, gender-diverse people, Black, Indigenous, racialized, low-income, newcomer, and disabled communities.
?Whether this is your first time learning about city budgets or you are already active in community work, you are welcome to join us. This is a space for shared learning, skill-building, and collective action.
Friday, October 24, 2025 | ? 9:00 am – 12:00 pm (IN-PERSON)
Rideau Hub (815 St. Laurent Blvd., CAWI Office – Room 215)
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 | ? 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (ONLINE)
Register here

Join us for CAWI’s Action Forum: Cities as Places & Spaces of Care
2025-10-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Ontario
Good news! It’s time for CAWI’s Action Forum, and you’re invited.
This year, we are coming together for Cities as Places and Spaces of Care, an evening of reflection, creativity, and dialogue. Together, we will explore how to reimagine Ottawa as a city that embodies care and places the daily needs and rhythms of residents at the heart of planning and policy.
Here is what you can look forward to:

Creative exploration and storytelling
Co-designing through countermapping
Learning how to bring the Caring Cities movement to Ottawa
Turning ideas into action

Come enjoy delicious food and time in community from 4:30 to 5:30, then dive into the heart of the Forum together.
Date: October 23
Time: 4:30 – 8:00 PM
Location: Rideau Hub | 815 St. Laurent Boulevard

RSVP here!
