LoveMyHood Stories

Can kids help butterflies, grow food, and make new friends, all in one place? Yes they can!

A passionate group of residents at the Beyond Housing Community, off Bridgeport Road, transformed an underused green space into a vibrant learning hub for kids, gardeners and those who just like to visit. With support from the LoveMyHood program, City staff helped with planning and funding, but it was the residents who led the way! 

Together, they built two beautiful gardens: an 8-plot...

In Kitchener, disc golf is bringing people together in a new way. The Grand River Disc Golf Association, a volunteer-run group, is passionate about promoting the sport and building accessible courses in the community.  

When local courses charged fees, the association wanted to create a free space where everyone could play. Partnering with Eastwood Collegiate Institute, the group looked close to home and applied for a LoveMyHood Matching Grant to build a disc golf course...

Busy days of work, school, and activities can leave little room for simple things like stopping to chat with neighbours. That was the inspiration that sparked the idea for the Doon South Meet and Mingle. Mukul Verma, one of the event organizers, was speaking with a neighbour who organized the local Facebook group and was told that most of the members had never met in person.

“We all live in different parts of the neighbourhood, and there aren’t as many opportunities...

You can find neighbours sharing books through Little Libraries in almost every neighbourhood. While the intentions of these libraries are good, they often lack books by Black, Indigenous, and 2SLGBTQIA+ authors.  

Dinah Murdoch has been working to change this with a Kitchener chapter of the Little Free Diverse Libraries project started by Sarah Kamya, a public school guidance counsellor from New York City.   

Dinah was inspired to start a chapter when conversations...