The Community-University Partnership (CUP) program is making a career in social housing “hip” for the younger generation. By offering students hands-on experience working in social housing communities, it has allowed residents to gain access to skills and services to help them enhance their lives and neighbourhoods.

YWCA Elm Centre is an innovative residential community in Toronto expected to open later this summer. The building integrates Toronto’s first homeless shelter and will include one of the largest residential applications of geothermal technology in North America.

I am not a huge fan of acronyms, but REDY (Reducing Energy Demand with Youth) is pretty cool. Let’s Get REDY; REDY, Set, Go; REDY or Not…well you get the picture. But what makes REDY really cool is a lot more than how well it works in those phrases. This green jobs youth training, just wrapping up in London after successful sessions in Toronto and Kingston, is one of those great ideas that connect all the dots. Those dots are youth unemployment, energy poverty, building retrofits and green jobs.

Bad customer service run the risk of damaging their reputation and their bottom line. Take this DoubleTree Hotel as an example, and laugh at how their customer service damaged their reputation when two disgruntled business travelers documented their experience with a powerpoint presentation. It’s hilarious.

Energy Smart Initiative was recognized by the City of Toronto’s Green Toronto Awards at the Green Living Show 2011. Here are five energy saving tips from the initiative that you may consider implementing either personally, in your buildings, or to pass on to residents.

Do my residents need this insurance for regular meetings or casual gatherings? What is the benefit to my corporation in requiring our residents to purchase their own insurance? How much does the insurance cost and how do our residents apply for it? And More.

With the upcoming federal election, it is important to understand each party’s stance on the subject of affordable housing.

Today, documentary filmmaking has become more accessible due to the availability and equipment and software. This has empowered those who did not previously have the economic means to create films and tell their stories. ‘Reel Flicks,’ a 12 week project, will allow youths in Lawrence Heights area to tell their stories in five short documentaries.

The focus of this years’ Provincial budget was on the investment into employment, education and training and the protection of public health care. While the budget did acknowledge the Long-Term Affordable Housing Strategy and past funding initiatives aimed at social and affordable housing, no new funding was announced.

On March 4, 2011, the Canadian Senate marked the one year anniversary of the release of its report In From the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness with a symposium. Led by Senator Art Eggleton, the key proponent of the report, the symposium focused on reviewing the progress made on its recommendations – which call for all levels of government to take an integrated, “housing first” approach to homelessness and poverty.