The City of Kitchener has a long history of helping plan, build and support safe and thriving neighbourhoods through a variety of municipal investments and partnerships with other orders of government, community partners and residents.
The recommendations outlined in the LoveMyHood: Kitchener's Guide to Great Neighbourhoods strategy were created in response to what was heard from the community. They represent a collection of achievable actions that the city, community partners and residents can work towards in the coming years.
Three Years in Review:
We are constantly working to develop new programs, tools and resources so you can make positive change in your neighbourhood. So far, we’ve completed 65% of the action items outlined in our Love My Hood strategy. Here are a few of our most significant achievements:
| Community Gardens Program |
| We updated our community gardens program, with a new guide for starting community gardens and more grant support. Our goal is to build one to three new community gardens every year. Stanley Park Community Garden opened in 2017, and we approved three more gardens for 2018: Henry Sturm Greenway, King East/Auditorium neighbourhood and Cherry Park neighbourhood. |
| Resident-led Traffic Calming |
| We created a new guide for intersection murals, painted crosswalks, pop-up measures and more. In October 2017, the students at Wilson Avenue Public School painted two crosswalks outside their school, with help from the surrounding community and a Neighbourhood Matching Grant. |
| Neighbourhood Markets |
| In partnership with our friends at Kitchener Market, we've put together a simple, step-by-step guide for running a neighbourhood market. Plus, you can borrow a pop-up market kit, with things like tents, tables and baskets, so you don't have to buy all the expensive equipment to host a market in your local park, community centre or parking lot. |
| New Neighbourhood Greening Program |
| We created a user-friendly guide to support residents leading greening projects, such as pollinator gardens and food forests, in their neighbourhoods. |
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New Public Seating Program |
| To make it easier to create more gathering places in neighbourhoods, we developed a step-by-step guide to help residents get started on public seating projects. |
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New Placemaking Guide |
| We created a user-friendly guide to describe placemaking and how it can create more neighbourhood gathering places. |
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New LoveMyHood Website |
| We created this website to feature great neighbourhood ideas and provide helpful tools and resources - and we're thrilled you're checking it out! |
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Piloting New Neighbourhood Action Plans |
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We created a guide for developing a long-term vision for change and are piloting it with several neighbourhoods. Congratulations to Victoria Park Neighbourhood Association for being the first group to present their plan to City Council in February 2018. |
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Tripled Neighbourhood Matching Grant Funding |
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We tripled the Neighbourhood Matching Grant funding to $60,000 total and simplified the grant process. We nearly distributed the full funding amount in 2017, to 12 resident-led projects. |
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More Neighbourhood Events |
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We made it eaiser for residents to host neighborhood events, by introducing easier road closure requirements and by simplfying the process to get a noise exemption for small, neighbourhood events. We also created a how-to guide for planning street parties, making it that much easier to plan your next neighbourhood gathering. |
Building great neighbourhoods is up to all of us. We've made progress on our commitment thanks to your eagerness to take the lead on projects in your neighbourhood. For many people living in Kitchener, playing an active role in the life of our community isn't a question, it's a passion. With the support of Love My Hood, over 400 residents have led and continue to plan projects across the city:
| 2017 Projects |
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| 2018 Projects |
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| 2019 Projects |
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As the third year of LoveMyHood comes to an end, we look forward to continuing to build on this momentum together.
For more details, read the full report to learn more about the progress we’ve made so far.
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