In our final episode of season one, Sandi speaks about Community Land Trusts, and how stewarding community assets for permanently attainable housing can benefit everyone, not just the people who get housed.

In this episode, Lynn DeCaro from the Muskoka Community Foundation joins me to talk about Vital Signs, a bi-annual report that functions as a health and vitality check up across a range of sectors that are critical to the quality of life for our community. We discuss her path from Orrville to Muskoka, from bottle drives to community foundations, and from small actions to big impact.

I’m joined today by Suzanne Willett, Executive Director of Community Living Huntsville, to talk about what exactly Community Living does to support and advocate alongside people with developmental disabilities to live the lives they choose in their community.

I’m joined today by Tom Fortier and Peter Kelley to talk about how our community is affected by the housing crisis. We discuss what the District Municipality of Muskoka is doing about it, including the work of the Muskoka Housing Task Force 2.0, and what we as community members can do about it both collectively and individually.

Kate Monk joins me today to talk about how a regenerative approach to the business of tourism aims higher than mere sustainability and helps ensure that the businesses, the environment, and the people who live here, work here, and visit here can thrive together.

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Jeremy Rand, the Manager of Planning for the Town of Parry Sound. He’s worked as an urban planner all over Muskoka, and is a proud Gravenhurst resident who lives just down the street from me with his young son Atlas.

We’re talking about homelessness…or, more precisely, about how we talk about homelessness, and how our understanding of both the problem and the solution come into focus when we keep the dignity of the people involved at the forefront of our minds.

Finding secure, affordable, and appropriate housing is hard enough. For those with developmental disabilities, plotting a course through the many, many barriers to housing and finding community on the other side is exponentially more difficult.

In today’s episode I’m joined by Brianna Goslin, who has been working with first time homebuyers in Muskoka since 2021 to navigate rapidly rising interest rates and find original ways to secure and afford housing. While the picture she paints may sound bleak, Brianna articulates a hopeful vision of community care that proves more than one thing can be true at any given moment.