Boosting diversity and participation the goal of Ottawa Citizens Corp

The Centretown Ottawa Citizens Corporation is a leader in the national capital region’s community housing sector. Established in 1974, it has grown steadily and now includes 1,597 housing units with 2,500 tenants. Its relationship with tenants is the Corporation’s most valuable asset. But over the years, it has found that many tenants from backgrounds reflecting community diversity have left the committees in which they were involved. Today, the organization is looking to address this under-representation of tenant diversity on its governance committees. The Corporation also wants to implement ways to consolidate and better organize its volunteer program in order to attract and retain tenants from diverse origins and to create an energetic network of volunteers. The Tenant Led Governance: Strengthening and Sharing Participant Resources in Community Housing project will span three years and will require the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data that will guide the development of a plan and the necessary structures to achieve its goal of boosting inclusion, equity and the participation of its tenants.