PFC’s Community Advocacy Program seeks to inspire, equip and empower Neighbours through stronger community support networks and by promoting individual and systemic action. Our team supports systems navigation, develops resources, and facilitates community building activities, research, and collective action. The program aims to both address the immediate needs of our community and to address systemic inequities associated with poverty and food insecurity.
Advocacy Office
Our Community Advocacy Office team is available to meet with you to understand your needs, work with you on plans to accomplish your goals, and help you get connected with community resources. We are here to listen, offer information and direction, and support you in navigating difficult situations.
Contact Rebecca to make an appointment.
Email rebecca@parkdalefoodcentre.org
Phone (613) 722-8019 x110
Knowing Your Neighbours
The community at Parkdale Food Centre has always used food as a way to connect with one another: through in-person interactions at our community meals and community programming, grocery offerings, and virtually via cooking workshops. We collect little, if any, demographic information from the people who engage in our programs and services in order to minimize barriers for access. However, this limits our ability to deeply understand our community, especially regarding food insecurity, income, and disability statuses.
In early 2021, we completed the first-annual “Knowing Our Neighbours” survey to find the answers to these questions. We then continued this survey in 2022 and 2023 to assess trends and ever-changing needs in our communities. The information from the survey helps us to adapt our services to better meet the needs of Neighbours and to inform our evolving advocacy work.
- Knowing our Neighbours Survey I (2021; PDF)
- Knowing our Neighbours Survey II (2022; PDF)
- Knowing our Neighbours Survey III (2023; PDF)
Sitting at the Table
The stark data that uncovered in the 2021 Knowing Our Neighbors Survey inspired our team to breathe life into these numbers through Neighbour-led storytelling and film. Watch the film developed by the talented Hersi Osman: Sitting at the Table (video).
Advocacy in Motion
Advocacy In Motion – or AIM – is a 3-month project that gathers community members who are interested in learning more about how to use their individual and collective passions and skills to advocate for social change. Together, we build upon our collective knowledge and advocacy skills and practice strategies aimed at mobilizing communities to advocate for systemic changes. During and after participation in AIM, program participants are connected with advocacy opportunities as they arise, and are supported in creating and executing advocacy projects going forward. Since the beginning of the first AIM project in late 2023, participants have been involved in publicly advocating for themselves and their communities, through the media, municipal and federal speaking engagements, and collaborative consultations.
If you’d like to stay in the loop, email rebecca@parkdalefoodcentre.org and we will let you know when we are accepting applications next!