The Climate Change Project, City of Mississauga
The CHANGE Lab (Cities, Health, and Neighbourhood Geomatics), led by Kathi Wilson, Professor of Geography at UTM, uses demographic data, surveys, and fieldwork to study the links between health and place. With a frequent focus on newcomer and Indigenous populations, Wilson’s lab studies inequalities in Canadian health care, and the expressions of inequality across urban and rural geographies. Wilson maintains a strong relationship with the Healthy City Stewardship Centre (a coalition of Peel-area hospitals and organizations) and the Newcomer Centre of Peel to study newcomers’ experiences of healthcare and settlement in Mississauga. Wilson identifies determinants of health that are often simple or overlooked, such as the availability of parkland or the reasons why residents may be more likely to take up smoking. In doing so, she builds on a research trajectory that runs throughout the CHANGE Lab’s work. Employing diverse methodologies—from air-quality monitoring devices to health surveys and demographic data—her lab asks: how do an individual’s neighbourhood and local environment contribute to their health outcomes?
Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF) works with communities to protect and sustain the tree canopy throughout the heavily urbanized Greater Toronto Area. Since 1996, LEAF has worked with citizens to plant and maintain trees at schools, businesses, parks, multi-unit dwellings, and homes. They prioritize planting native species, including those that have been nearly eradicated like the pawpaw, a tree with citrusy fruit that is unlike any other species indigenous to Southern Ontario. In addition to the regular legwork of planting and park stewardship, LEAF maintains an education program which runs workshops and tree tours, publishes guides to species identification, and presents on issues facing the urban tree canopy. These initiatives work to develop the next generation of tree stewards and arborists, through LEAF’s Young Urban Forest Leaders program. Leaders learn best practices from arboriculturists, and they work with local park organizations to launch Adopt-a-Park-Tree programs, which ensure the health of newly planted trees in city parks. Tree adopters are taught to maintain and nourish their chosen trees, and how they provide for the broader ecosystem of birds and insects. Through the broad range of programs offered by LEAF, more residents are learning about the care and stewardship required to sustain a healthy urban tree canopy.
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division’s Mood Walks program promotes physical and mental health by encouraging exercise in Ontario’s green spaces. In partnership with Hike Ontario, Conservation Ontario, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health, CMHA Ontario’s province-wide groups hike regularly to benefit from the effects of exercise in natural environments. Building on the commonly-held belief in the need for fresh air, doctors and therapists have increasingly turned to prescribing nature walks (or what some call “forest bathing”) for their patients and clients, the benefits of which are widely supported by research. In the case of Mood Walks, participants note lower stress levels after participating and express satisfaction with the social and physical aspects of group exercise. While Mood Walks first began with pilot programs engaging youth and seniors, the program now primarily serves post-secondary students on more than twenty campuses across the province, including UTM. In doing so, Mood Walks aims to foster healthy habits in young adulthood and mitigate the stresses of post-secondary education. At a more basic level, however, nature walks are an easy habit to take up—and in recognition of this, Mood Walks invites individuals to start their own local chapter with the help of a freely available program manual.
The Newcomer Centre of Peel (NCP) is a settlement services organization whose wide scope aims to address many of the challenges faced by newcomers to the region. With newcomers making up a slight majority of Peel residents, settlement services are in high demand. NCP provides English training, business start-up advice, counselling, childcare, connections to community services, and assistance for employment, co-op, and volunteer positions. Located in Cooksville, the Centre is host to activities of all kinds, from youth karaoke to winter driving skills. NCP’s Community Connections groups for youth, adults, and seniors meet regularly to facilitate social programs centered on arts and crafts, games, job skills, and conversation circles, among others. NCP is not solely focused on city-dwellers, however; they have recently begun to collect data on rural newcomer settlement in Peel. In a co-authored study, the organization worked with scholars (including Kathi Wilson of CHANGE Lab, above) to determine the health effects of newcomer settlement in rural communities. NCP’s multifaceted approach to settlement is thereby well-positioned to help people adapt to shifting employment and housing market trends.
Since 2011, the Ontario Climate Consortium (OCC) has worked to predict and mitigate the effects of climate change on local and regional environments throughout the province. As a consortium of universities, conservation organizations, and regional governments, the OCC draws from diverse bodies of knowledge to pinpoint the risks associated with climate change. As is evident in OCC studies, climate change risk necessitates diverse responses—be they infrastructural, such as flood barriers, or policy-informed, like the shift toward a green economy. As such, the OCC connects specialists with wide-ranging expertise. With the Region of Peel as a founding member institution, OCC studies have examined pressing local issues, such as regional climate forecasting, risks to agriculture, and extreme weather resilience. The OCC’s case studies evaluate risk to specific infrastructure and environments, as evinced in its localized study of extreme weather vulnerability and resilience in Port Credit. The OCC’s uniquely localized research demonstrates the need for co-operation across all sectors in order to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Zero Waste UTM is a newly formed student group that aims to spread awareness of waste management, and to provide tools and ideas for students and faculty to reduce their waste. The group is part of a growing Zero Waste movement which offers alternatives to disposable packaging and overconsumption. Zero Waste UTM highlights plastic pollution in particular as a major problem of consumer culture, with reference to the proliferation of microplastics in oceans and waterways. In October 2018, the group held a two-day Zero Waste Farmers’ Market on the UTM campus featuring vendors selling their goods in bulk or using low waste materials. Visitors could bring their own jars to fill with bulk home cleaning supplies and body care, or purchase locally produced honey and maple syrup, or even find upcycled items such as tote bags, scrunchies, and beeswax wraps. Alongside promoting alternative options for consumers, Zero Waste UTM recently hosted a clothing swap, empowering students to trade or donate clothes they no longer need. As such, the group makes it easy for students, staff, and faculty to reduce their environmental footprint by rethinking their everyday habits.