Collingwood N.H.Collingwood N.H.Collingwood Neighbourhood House
To promote the well-being of the Collingwood community by providing leadership and working collaboratively with individuals, families agencies and other groups to develop and support inclusive, innovative, sustainable initiatives and services that respond to the community's social, educational, economic, health, cultural and recreational needs.
Continue ↓
2021-2022
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
DIRECTORS
COORDINATORS
Reports
It took nine months of work by a 10-member Steering Committee, dozens of interviews, hundreds of survey responses and a myriad of suggestions and now Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) has a new Strategic Plan.
We heard from staff, volunteers, participants, local residents and service providers, our funders and all three levels of government to get their thoughts, ideas, dreams, opinions and suggestions as we looked to what we can do together over the coming three years.
The plan has three strategic priorities:
Those priorities are expanded upon in 11 strategic initiatives.
You’ll note that the first two priorities are as focused on our neighbourhood as much as they’re targeted to CNH: in our work we’re conscious that, in all that we do, we’re here to serve the neighbourhood. That includes working to ensure that we’re using an anti-racist, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion lens in all of our internal and external work.
The third priority is focused within CNH: after a few years of rapid growth we have realized that we need to upgrade and update many of our systems and practices. We’ve already started that process but are committed to making many improvements over the three years of the Strategic Plan.
Staff and Board Directors are carrying out all of this work in the context of the continued pandemic. As the pandemic has evolved, we re-opened some programs and started some new ones. We finally held the official opening of RISE Community Health Centre and continue to embed the community health centre within CNH. We’ve regularly updated our Safety Plan, and have learned to hold hybrid meetings with some meeting participants in the room and some on Zoom.
The pandemic has presented us with unprecedented challenges and we are so grateful to the CNH staff, Board of Directors and all volunteers for all of their efforts to continue to ensure that CNH is a warm, welcoming, safe space – whether in person or from a distance.
Staff have been very creative and flexible and have been deeply focused on ensuring everybody is safe and supported. People have been kind to one another.
Thanks to CNH’s staff for their remarkable dedication to ensuring that CNH offered services and programming and supported participants throughout the pandemic (and continue to do so as the pandemic evolves). Staff members have also been supportive of their colleagues, showing a high level of care for one another as we’ve moved through these challenging times together.
Thanks as well to all of our volunteers, including our amazing Board of Directors who have dedicated so much time to CNH, ensuring we truly are a place to belong, a place to grow. We look forward to continuing to work as a full staff and Board team, as we move into the work of our strategic plan.
— Leila Trickey (President of the Board) and Jennifer Gray-Grant (Executive Director)
Photo Gallery
Participants in the Collingwood Infant and Toddler program learning the important work of play! For these participants, play means exploring, laughing, sharing, problem solving, and so much more.
During the pandemic, many seniors needed safe and accessible transportation support for their daily needs. 
Our volunteer team completed grocery shopping on behalf of seniors and delivered to the household. This is an essential service that made a big difference for those in isolation and who were not able to visit the grocery store. 
We organized a planting ceremony to honour the lives lost during the pandemic. 
Led by Elder Eugene Harry (XiQuelem), we planted a Nootka rose. 
Community members were encouraged to visit the site at the Norquay Food Forest and honour loved ones, find solace, and reconnect to the land.
RISE Community Health Centre celebrated one year at 5198 Joyce Street. During RISE’s first year, we saw incredible growth from five staff members to 21 staff members, and from a few patients when we started in our tiny clinic room at CNH to over 400 patients.
A chair yoga event for seniors at Gaston Park!
Some of our volunteers who help maintain our food landscapes through hands on field work and gardening. 
Folks taking part in our Community-Supported Agriculture Pilot Program. 
The ‘Take a Book, Leave a Book’ book box was officially installed on the front lawn at CNH! The book box was designed and built with the idea of promoting learning and community connection through literacy. Community members can take a book and leave a book! The bookcase was built by Jim YC Chow, a CNH patron.
Youth stand in front of the boxes of donated supplies sent to Pukatawagan First Nations in Manitoba as part of The Ballantyne Project. 
A costumed lion dancer is handfed outside CNH during our Lunar New Year celebration.
The Community Fridge and Pantry were installed on February 1, 2022, and built from the ground up by CNH volunteers and staff – from pouring the concrete, to building the shed, to putting in the fridge!
LINC students participating in a Still Moon Arts project about protecting the Renfrew-Collingwood Ravine. Students learned of the importance of the ravine biodiversity and acoustic ecology in the forest. 
From Our Blog
Volunteer Ludin Godinez struggled when she first arrived in Canada in January 2020: in addition to the COVID-19 shutdown in March, she had difficulty navigating a new country, a new language, and a new community.
From Our Blog
Gian Villanueva said on being a newcomer, participating in CNH’s programs, and the community.
From Our Blog
At the start of the pandemic, life was lonely for Alice Crestejo. Like for many others, Alice found stay-at-home orders and physical distancing challenging.
From Our Blog
For volunteer Rahel Getaneh, helping out at Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) not only gives her an opportunity to do something; it’s also a way to contribute to the community.
Thank You
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of our Collaborative Partners for their time and expertise in helping serve Renfrew-Collingwood residents and working with us to improve their quality of life.
Collingwood Neighbourhood House's mission is to promote the well-being of the Collingwood community by providing leadership and working collaboratively with individuals, families, agencies and other groups to develop and support inclusive, innovative, sustainable initiatives and services that respond to the community’s social, educational, economic, health, cultural and recreational needs.
Collingwood Neighbourhood House is a registered charity (#118868298RR0001).
