City of waterloo neighbourhoods: strong and connected.

Add connecting with neighbours to your 2025 vision board!

Do you have an idea for bonding with your neighbours? Let's make it happen! Apply for our Neighbourhood Fund and get up to $7,500 for an idea that brings your neighbourhood together.

The 2025 deadlines are:

Round 1: February 12
Round 2: May 14
Round 3: October 22

Learn more about the Neighbourhood Fund

Get involved

Bee-come a volunteer on the Pollinator Working Group!

Get involved with protecting and supporting our buzzing pollen-neighbours by joining the Pollinator Working Group You'll help plan and deliver educational experiences at community events and host park stewardship activities to create habitat for pollinators.

Apply by January 29 to join the Pollinator Working Group

1 person and 2 children at a table colouring outdoors.

More ways to get involved

There's a research study that is examining accessible housing needs in Canada. Help share this with any neighbours who may be interested!
Want to connect with your neighbours but don't know where to start? Learn more about being a Neighbourhood Connector and get involved in your neighbourhood!

🙂 Smile corner 🙂

Meet Red!

Red’s favourite thing in winter? Exploring his neighbourhood! He loves sniffing every tree and pretending he can catch those sneaky squirrels—it’s what gets his tail wagging.

Now, Red wants to know: what makes you smile in your neighborhood? Snap a photo of something that brings you joy and send it to us. Your smile-worthy moment might just be featured in our next newsletter!

Submit your photo and caption by responding to this email.

Get inspired

Knitting and crochet club

Eastside neighbours gathered for a cozy yarn-fest. The event was a perfect chance to unwind—not just their yarn but also their minds—while knitting, crocheting and connecting with one another.

As the weather continues to get colder, think about connecting with your neighbours by hosting an indoor activity! Take a look at the gathering spaces map on locations that you can use.

2 people sitting at a table with knitting items.

Neighbourhood kindness

A neighbour wrote in...

"As someone who's been recently widowed, Ralph has helped me out in many ways. He has put up my Christmas lights, put away my patio furniture and added grass seed to my lawn. He basically looks after my home when I’m away."

Have a great neighbour like this that you want to say thank you to? Nominate them for our Neighbourhood Kindness program and we'll send them a thank-you package and enter them to win a $20 Uptown BIA gift card.

Nominate a kind neighbour

Get in the know

Both Rummelhardt and White Elm park playgrounds are complete!

The construction of the playgrounds are complete and open! Enjoy this new space with your neighbours.

Rummelhardt park playground

White Elm park playground

More things to know!

Have you had the chance to check out the Giraffe exhibition at THEMUSEUM? It features artifacts and original footage from the local scientist Dr. Anne Innis Dagg. This is a great indoor activity to do with a neighbour or two! Exhibit ends at the end of January.

There are beginner clay workshops being hosted at The Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. Check out workshop dates and what other program and events they offer, and don't forget to bring your neighbour.

Arts grant applications are now open. Apply before February 20.

Spectrum Waterloo Region's Rainbow Community space offers a variety of programs and services, check out their website for more information.

Learn more about reporting Hate Incidents or Discrimination: involving Islamophobia, Racism, Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

Waterloo Region has a long history of welcoming refugees and refugee claimants. Immigration Waterloo Region shares information on community support for refugees living in our region.

January Diversity Calendar

January 1: New Year’s Day

January 2: Vasant Panchami

January 4: World Braille Day

January 4: National Ribbon Skirt Day

January 6: Epiphany

January 6: Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti

January 7: Christmas / Feast of the Nativity (Orthodox / Eastern)

January 13: Lohri

January 14: Orthodox New Year

January 14-17: Pongal 

January 17: Raoul Wallenberg Day

January 20: Martin Luther King Jr Day

January 21: Lincoln Alexander Day

January 24: International Day of Education

January 24: World Day for African and Afrodescendant Culture

January 27: International Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 29: National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque Attack and Action Against Islamophobia

January 29: Sadeh

Alzheimer’s Awareness Month (Canada)

Tamil Heritage Month (Canada)

Source: Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion's Diversity Calendar

Waterloo Neighbourhoods is published throughout the year to keep residents informed about the good things happening in neighbourhoods across Waterloo. If you’re reading Waterloo Neighbourhoods as a non-subscriber, visit our subscription page to sign up for future editions.

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