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As Ottawa continues to navigate a housing and homelessness emergency, the Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness has played a central role in bringing together partners across the sector. In collaboration with the Ottawa Social Housing Network, the Alliance launched the Moving UPP! initiative to explore how pathways could be improved from precarious housing and homelessness to permanent and successful housing. Addressing this challenge called for a collective action process that could align diverse voices into solutions the sector could truly own.
To meet this need, the Alliance engaged Connect2Knowledge to design and facilitate a co-design journey that placed lived and living expertise at the centre and engaged frontline staff alongside sector leaders. With clear framing, equity-centred dialogue, and real engagement, the process created space for the sector to identify the “moments that matter” and develop actionable solutions grounded in their shared capacity. The Alliance’s leadership in this initiative reflects both urgency and vision: ensuring that Ottawa’s housing system can evolve in ways that are simple, affirming, and sustainable.
The Ottawa Alliance to End Homelessness and the Ottawa Social Housing Network approached Connect2Knowledge as leaders ready to take on a complex challenge: improving pathways from precarious housing and homelessness to permanent and successful housing. They recognized that moving forward required a collective process that could bring together lived and living expertise, frontline knowledge, and sector leadership in a way that was actionable and within their circle of control. C2K designed and facilitated a sector-wide co-design journey that centred lived expertise, engaged frontline staff, and brought over 75 sector leaders into the process. Through early engagement, an environmental scan, and iterative co-design, we created the conditions for equity-centred dialogue and shared ownership. The result was actionable solutions grounded in the sector’s capacity and aligned with its priorities, demonstrating how a well-structured co-design process made visible the moments that matter and build momentum for lasting change.
A collective action process that aligned diverse voices into shared solutions.
See how it all came together—our approach, key challenges, and measurable outcomes—in the full case study.
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