For more than five decades, KW Habilitation has been deeply rooted in the belief that everyone deserves a place where they belong. Our work has always focused on supporting children, youth, adults, and families—especially those with developmental disabilities—through inclusive living options, employment supports, and early learning programs.

A Vision Taking Shape at 878 Frederick Street

Our newest affordable housing development is already becoming a reality. A modern, four-storey building consisting of 18 one- and two-bedroom apartments, this project is designed to be inclusive and accessible to anyone who needs affordable housing.

Walking by the site today, you’ll see walls rising and the structure coming to life. The foundation is strong, the vision is clear—and now we need your help to complete the final stage.

♦

This project builds on the success of our first affordable housing initiative that opened in 2018. Using our “Neighbour Helping Neighbour” model, we create communities where people supported by KW Habilitation live alongside people from the broader affordable housing waitlist.

The result? Diverse, connected, supportive neighbourhoods where everyone has something to contribute.

Housing is more than a place to sleep. It’s stability. It’s participation. It’s belonging. And when communities are intentionally inclusive, everyone thrives.

While construction is well underway, the final pieces, the ones that transform a building into a home, still need funding. Your Giving Tuesday donation will help us provide:

• An accessible elevator
• Appliances and window coverings for comfort and privacy in every unit
• Furnishings and equipment for a community room that will bring neighbours together

These touches may seem small, but they are essential in creating dignity, connection, and home.

When you support this project, you’re helping address critical housing challenges facing our region. You’re contributing to a concrete, meaningful solution: one that will strengthen the community for years to come.

You’re also building on KW Habilitation’s trusted legacy of inclusion, innovation, and accountability. Every gift, big or small, moves us closer to opening the doors for our future tenants.

To help our community understand the tangible impact of their generosity, we’ve created donation tiers that show exactly how each contribution supports the new building. A gift of $50 provides a window covering for one unit, ensuring comfort and privacy for a future tenant. A $100 donation helps supply essential appliances, turning an empty space into a functional home. With $500, you can help furnish the shared community room—the heart of the building where neighbours will gather, connect, and build relationships. And for those able to make a transformational gift, $2,500 supports the installation of the building’s elevator, ensuring accessibility for all who call 878 Frederick Street home. Each level of giving builds something real, meaningful, and lasting.

This Giving Tuesday, you can help create homes, hope, and belonging right here in Waterloo Region.

Together, we can build a community where everyone has a safe and welcoming place to call home.

Join us. Let’s build this together. Donate Today!

The post Building Homes, Hope, and Belonging: A Giving Tuesday Story appeared first on KW Habilitation.

Such a pack of total rectums.  O.K. I have just now read the 42 page report by the Integrity Commissioner (ADR Chambers-B. Bresner) . After 3 1/2 years the Waterloo Region District School Board have finally released it . It concerns trustee Mike Ramsay's behaviour and it is on-line at the WRDSB website albeit only thanks to a determined citizen who went through the Freedom of Information Act in order to get it released. It would be an exposure of my past contempt for the WRDSB's behaviour to suggest that they maliciously, intentionally and strategically refused to release it for so long purely for selfish, self-serving purposes. Therefore also looking at the WRDSB's penchant for spending taxpayers money taking citizens and parents to court when their misbehaviour is challenged I won't suggest such a thing. By the way today's Woolwich Observer newspaper has a large story on this three year plus belated report from the Integrity Commissioner.

Now without a doubt there are competing priorities between the WRDSB's Code of Conduct and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as with the Education Act and perhaps even with the Canadian Constitution. The Integrity Commissioner also advised the Board of Trustees that individual Integrity Commissioners from different districts and educational areas were quite likely to interpret those priorities between various pieces of legislation differently although it would seem to me that the law of the land should far precede stupid Codes of Conduct written by trustees of varying degrees of  intelligence much less ethics. This comment about "stupid" Codes of Conduct was simply to avoid me referring to "stupid" trustees which would have been rude and possibly invoked the legal wrath of some unnamed hypothetical School Board whose last name starts with B (as in ...Board). 

Further weirdness about this entire process is that the Integrity Commissioner merely restates the facts and does not render a Recommendation. Wow! Hence he's relayed the facts which for example I find to be some serious criticisms and or allegations by trustee Mike Ramsay that should have been investigated versus the investigation of Mr. Ramsay's right as a trustee to state them in the first place. Also it is my experience that Codes of Conduct are routinely weaponized for the mere purpose of intimidating and shutting down proper and appropriate disagreement and dissent. 

So if the Integrity Commissioner doesn't make Recommendations then who does? Simple that goes back to the alleged majority of potentially idiot trustees who may have screwed up big time in the first place and simply want a token "third party" to review their stupidity but leave them in control to pretend that the Integrity Commissioner backs their alleged stupidity. Especially leaves them in control by not making any Recommendations.

My final Recommendations: Throw out Codes of Conduct  Throw out Integrity Commissioners   Throw out most of the WRDSB trustees at the next election if not sooner   Tell our fat assed courts to GD do their jobs and render a decision regarding Caroline Burjowski and her mistreatment by the Board and their Chair      Oops I should have added the word alleged in there. It's way too easy for alleged professional liars and their fellow travellors to get the courts involved when honest citizens speak truth to power. These alleged professional liars behave that way because they have lots of taxpayers money at their disposal which allegedly they can spend as they see fit.

♦Leadership today is more complex than ever. Uncertainty is no longer hidden. It’s front and center, demanding courage and adaptability from those at the helm. In a recent conversation, Senator Paulette Senior and Scott Haldani reflected on what it truly means to lead in these times.

“Change is inevitable,” Senator Senior shared. “You can’t navigate it unless you understand yourself, including your strengths and vulnerabilities. Courage means standing firm even when the future isn’t visible while helping others believe in what’s possible.”

For Senator Senior, this lesson was amplified during her decade as CEO of YWCA Canada. “Leading a national federation is like no other role,” she explained. “You’re running an organization while leading a movement. Our model was an upside-down triangle, with the national CEO at the bottom, holding up the rest. That required humility, relationship-building, and trust.”

Senator Senior emphasized a leadership approach rooted in presence and intentionality: “Trying to lead with, lead for, lead beside—you need to be grounded. Understand that change is inevitable. Things will come that you can’t predict, but through it all, it’s about standing your ground and helping people see a future that isn’t yet created. Even if you aren’t sure of every detail, having the right people, the right structure, and clarity about what’s in your control makes all the difference.”

She illustrated this with lessons from her own journey: “There were things I didn’t know how to do—like fundraising—but I knew my passion for it. Early on, I learned to hire for what I didn’t know and lean into my strengths: advocacy, courage, and the ability to stand firm in the face of challenges.”

Senator Senior described a pivotal lesson from her leadership experience: “Leadership is often about making decisions without complete certainty. For example, when implementing new programs or advocating for systemic change, there were times I didn’t know how the outcomes would unfold. But having a grounded strategy, trusting my team, and staying aligned with our values allowed us to move forward with confidence.”

Scott Haldani agreed, emphasizing that courage is inseparable from collaboration: “I learned early that I didn’t need to know everything. I needed the right people. Hiring well and trusting them to do what they do best has always been key.”

Both leaders underscored that navigating change is not about having all the answers. It’s about building strong teams, focusing on what you can control, and embracing the unknown with confidence. Leadership, they concluded, is about helping others see a future that isn’t yet visible and walking that path together.

The post Leading Through Uncertainty: Courage, Trust, and the Power of Collaboration appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦At this year’s Board Governance BootCamp, attendees had the rare opportunity to hear from Canadian business icon Arlene Dickinson during a keynote fireside chat focused on leading with courage. Drawing from nearly four decades of experience in business and entrepreneurship, Dickinson offered a candid and inspiring reflection on what it truly means to act with courage in leadership.

“Courage,” she shared, “is really about understanding that our fears aren’t going anywhere. By addressing them, we put ourselves in a position to overcome them. If we just let ourselves be afraid, we never really get anywhere.”

Dickinson spoke about her personal approach to tackling challenges head-on. “I’ve always believed that if you go right at the thing that’s giving you the most grief, you’ll be far better off than if you put it on a list and let it slip down. I don’t make lists for this reason. I do what’s right in front of me, one step at a time. That’s how I’ve found my courage: by confronting each challenge as it comes, not postponing it because it feels too hard.”

She reflected on the evolution of courage in her own life. “I didn’t lack courage, but I sometimes lacked belief in myself. That belief has grown with age. We get one life and one chance to say the things that matter to us. Now, I realize it’s in the little moments of vulnerability that we find courage. Vulnerability, self-belief, and understanding that it doesn’t matter what others think – what matters is what you think of yourself.”

Dickinson also shared her experiences making unpopular decisions, particularly as a leader and board member. “An unpopular decision can simply be going against the grain. It doesn’t mean your decision is wrong. It just means you’re ready to stand for what you believe, even if everyone else disagrees. I trust my sense of what’s right and wrong, and that has guided me in business and on boards alike.”

♦

She recalled the lessons from her time on *Dragon’s Den*, where she was the only female investor: “I would make choices that everyone else thought

were crazy. But I never listened to them. That experience taught me how to make unpopular decisions and stand by them. In life and on boards, you have to voice your opinion, even if it’s against the majority. Voting with your convictions and not with what others expect is what good leadership means.”

Her advice resonated with the BootCamp audience, many of whom are non-profit leaders navigating complex organizational and societal challenges. Dickinson emphasized that courage is critical not only in business but also in the non-profit sector: “Standing up for what you believe, even when it’s unpopular, is essential. It’s about making decisions in the best interest of your team, organization, or community, even if it’s difficult.”

Her insights reinforced a core theme of the 2025 BootCamp that courageous leadership requires fortitude, self-belief, and the willingness to act, even in the face of fear and uncertainty.

The post Leading With Courage: Insights from Alrene Dickinson at Capacity Canada’s BootCamp appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦Capacity Canada proudly marked another milestone in strengthening Canada’s non-profit sector with the successful completion of its 17th Board Governance BootCamp, held November 18–20, 2025, in Kitchener at the Bingeman’s Centre. This year’s BootCamp brought together board members, executives, and emerging leaders from across Canada and beyond for three days of shared learning, reflection, and growth.

The event opened with a sense of excitement and purpose. As participants settled in for the immersive program ahead, which was filled with workshops, fireside chats, and peer-to-peer engagement, one message rang clear: strong governance is the backbone of resilient, high-impact organizations.

“Capacity Canada’s Board Governance BootCamp represents an exciting opportunity to equip non-profit leaders with the tools and insights they need to govern with confidence and impact,” said Cathy Brothers, CEO of Capacity Canada. “Strong governance is the foundation of thriving organizations, and tonight we celebrate the courage and commitment of our participants to excel in leadership roles.”

♦

The theme for the 2025 BootCamp – Navigating Change With Courage – reflected the challenges and opportunities facing non-profit organizations in an era of rapid transformation. Through practical exercises, expert-led sessions, and scenario-based discussions, participants explored what courageous governance looks like in action and how boards can position organizations for long-term success.

The opening night set the tone with a keynote fireside chat featuring Arlene Dickinson, one of Canada’s most recognized entrepreneurs and investors. In a candid conversation, Dickinson shared lessons on strategic leadership, innovation, and the evolving expectations of boards as they embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“Strong governance is about oversight, vision, adaptability, and courage,” Dickinson said. “I’m thrilled to join Capacity Canada in inspiring leaders to embrace innovation and lead with purpose.” Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, a respected Indigenous leader and Board Member of Capacity Canada, delivered an opening evening keynote that invited us into the healing journey of Truth and Reconciliation by sharing seven new teachings as guiding principles to live and lead with purpose.

Among this year’s attendees was Itohan Onaghinon, who travelled all the way from Nigeria to participate in the BootCamp. “I was drawn to the curriculum. The sessions were themed around AI, and it’s crucial for me to know AI is being introduced into a boardroom,” she said. “It was a great learning experience.”

Faune Lang from Food4Kids Waterloo Region, returning for her second BootCamp after first learning about Capacity Canada through one of her organization’s consultants.

“I love the BootCamp. Each year brings new perspectives, different themes, and so many opportunities to learn,” Faune shared. “It’s inspiring to be in a space where leaders can exchange ideas openly, and I’d love to see even more engagement and conversation as we continue to grow together.”

♦This year’s BootCamp also featured a series of pre-BootCamp sessions that quickly became highlights. Among them were:

Courage in Board Governance with Senator Paulette Senior, AI for Board Governance with governance expert and author Paul Smith, and sessions on risk management, fundraising, and more.

These sessions equipped participants with both the strategic perspective and practical tools needed to thrive in increasingly complex landscapes.

As the BootCamp concluded, participants left with renewed confidence, stronger networks, and a deeper understanding of how courageous leadership can transform communities. The 2025 cohort joins hundreds of past BootCamp alumni who continue to shape governance excellence across Canada.

The post Board Governance BootCamp 2025: Navigating Change with Courage appeared first on Capacity Canada.

♦

Behind every thriving nonprofit is a board of directors that brings clarity, accountability, and vision to the organization’s mission. When governance works well, boards act as strategic anchors, ensuring resources are used wisely, risks are managed effectively, and long-term goals stay firmly in focus.

But the reality is that many boards struggle. Directors often step into their roles with passion, but without the education, tools, or support necessary to fulfill their governance responsibilities confidently. This gap can lead to slow decision-making, unclear priorities, and missed opportunities that ultimately limit an organization’s ability to create meaningful impact.

Capacity Canada’s three-day Board Governance BootCamp was designed to close the knowledge gap and empower boards to lead with confidence. Led by a distinguished faculty, this immersive training gives board members the tools and insight they need to elevate their leadership.

Across dynamic small-group discussions, expert-led keynotes, and hands-on exercises, participants gain practical strategies they can apply immediately. Whether you’re part of a small grassroots nonprofit or a large national organization, the BootCamp equips you to make stronger, more informed decisions.

This year’s Pre-BootCamp workshops opened with two dynamic sessions:

Artificially Intelligent Boardrooms: Getting Smart About AI Paul Smith, Founder of Future Directors, delivered a jargon-free, hands-on masterclass—breaking down AI’s impact, sharing practical insights, and guiding confidence-building exercises.

True Stories: What Real Donors Taught Us Rob Donelson and Bryan Webber, Executives in Residence at Capacity Canada, shared powerful lessons from real donor experiences, highlighting what truly resonates and how boards can turn insights into action.

The Role of the Board Chair: Leading with Purpose Susan Radwan led a dynamic session on how board chairs can step into their role with clarity, confidence, and purpose—ensuring they lead with real impact.

Board Risk Management Fred Galloway guided participants through financial, technology, regulatory, and reputational risks, showing how boards can partner with senior staff to strengthen awareness, sharpen policy frameworks, and improve evaluation strategies to reduce risk and enhance governance

Cynthia Wesley Esquimaux invited us into the healing journey of Truth and Reconciliation by sharing seven new teachings these are guiding principles to live and lead with purpose:

• Courage – step into conversations, even the hard ones
• Respect – honour that all living things are equal; all my relations
• Humility – embrace service, both ordinary and extraordinary
• Truth – take action, create, and build with a long-term view
• Honesty – stay open emotionally and spiritually; avoid disconnect
• Love – give unconditionally, release, and share freely
• Wisdom – commit to lifelong learning

Her words reminded us that reconciliation is not just reflection; it’s action, service, and relationship.

♦

Senator Paulette Senior, in conversation with Scott Haldanes, spoke powerfully about navigating change with courage, trust, and resilience. She shared how she has led through uncertainty, encouraging us to find our own path by knowing who we are, recognizing our vulnerabilities and strengths, and learning to walk with fear rather than avoid it. Her message: true leadership means embracing courage as a companion on the journey of change.

♦

Capacity Canada was thrilled to welcome Arlene Dickinson entrepreneur, bestselling author, venture capitalist, and long-time “Dragon” on CBC’s Dragons’ Den. As our Opening Keynote Speaker. Known for her leadership and commitment to innovation, Dickinson brought genuine insight and inspiration to the room.

• Nonprofit Board Experience: Dickinson spoke about her work in the nonprofit sector, emphasizing the importance of strong governance and mission-driven leadership.
• Leadership Insights: Through personal stories, she highlighted what makes a great leader: clarity, empathy, resilience, and the ability to empower others.
• Being a Woman in Business: She offered candid reflections on her journey as a woman in business, sharing lessons on perseverance, confidence, and navigating challenges.
• Audience Q&A: Dickinson closed with an engaging Q&A, answering questions with honesty and practical advice drawn from her extensive experience.

♦

Capacity Canada was honoured to welcome Susan Aglukark, one of Canada’s most celebrated and unique artists, as our Closing Keynote Speaker. Blending Inuktitut and English with contemporary pop music, Aglukark has long used her voice to share the stories, history, and spirit of Inuit communities.

Aglukark delivered a powerful and deeply moving keynote. She:

• Sang for the audience, bringing her message to life through music
• Spoke candidly about trauma, courage, fear, and the journey of healing
• Reflected on overcoming adversity and the importance of cultural and personal discovery
• Answered audience questions, offering wisdom shaped by her 25-year artistic and personal journey

From inspiring keynote speakers to thought-provoking workshops and hands-on governance sessions, this year’s Board Governance BootCamp provided nonprofit leaders with the tools, confidence, and clarity they need to create lasting impact.

With contributions from remarkable leaders including Senator Paulette Senior, Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, Fred Galloway, Susan Radwan, Paul Smith, Marion Thomson Howell, Andrew Jardine. Participants explored governance through every lens: ethics, culture, financial stewardship, leadership evaluation, and the courage required to navigate change.

Panels led by Dr. Kathy Hogarth, Bob Gallagher, Terry Cooke, Karen Spencer, Mike Morrice, Scott Williams, and additional experts challenged boards to think boldly, embrace empathy, and lead with intention.

Together, these sessions created an environment where learning met practice, where tough questions sparked meaningful conversations.

Thank you to our sponsors Bhayana Family Foundation, Cowan Insurance and Lyle S. Hallman Foundation. Your generous support helps make the Board Governance BootCamp possible and strengthens the impact of nonprofit leaders across Canada.

♦

Whether you’re new to board governance or ready to deepen your impact, Capacity Canada’s ModernBoard training has you covered.

• Essentials: Build a strong foundation in nonprofit board roles, responsibilities, and strategic value.
• Advanced: Strengthen your leadership with deeper insights into risk, regulation, and board dynamics.

Both programs are self-paced, online, and designed to equip board members with practical tools for real-world impact.

Start your learning journey today—registration is now open!

Learn more and register today at capacitycanada.ca/modernboard/

The post Boards That Lead: Capacity Canada’s BootCamp Transforms Governance Into Impact appeared first on Capacity Canada.

Extract any website’s design system into design tokens in a few seconds: logo, colors, typography, borders, and more. One command.

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There are two kinds of bugs in software. The obvious ones you catch right away, and the sneaky ones that hide out until you finally relax and think, “Yep, this thing’s solid now.” Those are the worst. They don’t just show up — they ambush you.

I’ve spent the last four months living inside a refactor. Not some cozy little “cleanup.” I’m talking about a full-blown React-to-TypeScript migration, where every single file, prop, function, and utility had its own weird personality. I wrangled more chart logic, axes, scales, and D3 weirdness than any normal person should have to deal with.

After rewriting more than 6,000 lines of code, fixing issues one after another, and carefully migrating everything, guess what happened? The exact same bugs I fixed before came back. Not new ones. Not surprises. The same old bugs I already hunted down and killed.

It honestly felt like the codebase was taunting me:

“Oh, you learned TypeScript? Here’s your welcome basket of emotional damage.”

The Work Nobody Sees

This wasn’t some fun group project. It was just me, solo, running a marathon through a dark forest where the trees keep moving around. Refactoring is its own special brand of misery. You rewrite logic, rename types, patch up ancient utilities, and fix weird assumptions that should’ve died ages ago. And in the end? The app looks exactly the same. No UI changes. No shiny new features. Nothing you can point to and say, “Hey, look what I did.” Just your sanity leaking out while the code pretends everything’s fine.

QA doesn’t see the thousands of lines you refactored. They only see what’s broken. When a chart axis shifts by three pixels, when the minor ticks vanish, when the data mapping resets itself like there’s a ghost in the machine — it doesn’t just feel like a bug. It feels personal. Because you rewrote it. You tested it. You thought it was done.

There’s a little message no developer ever wants to get: “Hey… this bug is happening again.” Six words. That’s all. But it lands like a gut punch. It reminds you how tired you are. How alone you feel. How sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re actually fixing things or just shuffling the chaos around.

When I saw the same old issues popping up in my shiny new TypeScript code, my confidence cracked. Didn’t I fix this already? Why is it back? Am I actually making progress, or am I just running in circles?

TypeScript teaches you a hard lesson: the code doesn’t care how hard you tried. It only cares if it works.

People see the PR get merged. They see the end result. They never see the hundreds of TypeScript errors, the D3 functions you rewrote three times, the “why is this undefined now?” moments, the same Google search for the same error over and over, the debugging rabbit holes, the quiet 1 AM frustration, or the tiny wins nobody else notices.

Refactoring is a marathon, but one you run alone, in the dark, with a dying flashlight.

Everything broke again, but something changed in me, too.

I got more patient. TypeScript forces you to slow down and think things through.
I got braver. After rewriting chart logic eight times, honestly, nothing really scares you anymore.
I became a better debugger. It hurt, but it worked.
I got more confident — but not because I succeeded. Because I failed, and kept going anyway. Nothing teaches you faster than a bug that just won’t die.
This Isn’t a failure story. It’s about sticking with it.

Yeah, my refactor broke things. But it also made things clearer. It taught me that real engineering isn’t about being perfect. It’s about showing up, even when the code looks at you like a disappointed parent. It’s about believing that all your invisible effort matters, even if today just feels like chaos on repeat.

Maybe you’re where I am: tired, overwhelmed, debugging the same thing again, doubting yourself, wondering if anyone else struggles this much. You’re not alone. Refactoring is unglamorous. It’s lonely. It’s slow. It’s thankless.

But this quiet, painful work is where real engineers get made. Not the tutorial kind. Not the “hello world” kind. The resilient kind.

And one day, when everything finally compiles, when QA says “looks good,” when your chart ticks finally render perfectly in TypeScript, you’ll realize: you didn’t just refactor code. You refactored yourself into someone stronger.

I Spent Four Months Refactoring 6,000 Lines of React. Then It All Broke. was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Well at first blush it sure seems so. Todays Waterloo Region Record advises us that the provincial Conservative government under Doug Ford is about to lower the boom locally. The front page story is written by Luisa D'Amato and is titled "There's much chatter about Ford changing local government model". Luisa suggests that some of this has already started with local school boards on notice that trustees positions may be drastically changed or eliminated.  Thank God for that as the public board (WRDSB) have been making asses of themselves for years now including attacking their own trustees (Mike Ramsay & others) as well as attacking their own teachers (Caroline Burjowski) for following the Board's own rules by speaking to them as a formal Delegate.  The province have also announced that local and regional Conservation Authorities are in the cross hairs as they may all be removed in favour of one overarching Conservation Authority. While I have less ammunition as to the current state being pathetic I at least do know that their membership is primarily made up of municipal councillors who don't know sh*t from shinola. Also their (Grand River Conservation Authority) local nickname has long been the Grand River Construction Authority. The GRCA among other stupidities actually approved Severin Argenton's (of Varnicolor Chemical infamy) application  to build a solvent tank farm on Lot 91 in Elmira on the Canagagigue Creek floodplain. 

Now Ford and the Conservatives are strongly suggesting that the combination of three cities (Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge) and their separate municipal governments are wasteful, overlapping and redundant. At least they are wasteful when you have a Regional government above all three doing its' thing. Well again Regional government certainly have not endeared themselves over the last three years with their gross failures in both accountability and transparency regarding the 700 acres land collection going on in Wilmot Township. Personally I've been appalled at regional government for their abandonment of honesty and transparency regarding the Elmira Water Crisis over the last three and a half decades. Basically they've let Dogpatch (Woolwich Twn.) run the show which they have done by delegating all authority and responsibility to the polluter (Uniroyal & successors) and the the province (Min. of Environment).

Hmm interesting how both this provincial government (Conservative) and all the rest (i.e. Liberal ) have done little or nothing environmentally or human health appropriate for local Elmira citizens.  Maybe the current provincial government criticizing lower tier governments and agencies is simply a classic case of the kettle calling the pot black.

♦

♦Crescendo Choir at Christkindl Market
Friday, December 5
5:00 PM – 5:45 PM
FREE Admission
Kitchener City Hall – 200 King St. W, Kitchener

Experience the Magic at Kitchener’s Christkindl Market! Lots of Habbers will be performing in the Crescendo Choir, a yearly tradition of theirs. They have been working on their their festive songs at their Wednesday practices each week. After enjoying this spectacular performance, be sure you take a stroll through the market! Satisfy your cravings with delicious holiday treats, enjoy outdoor skating, take in other live entertainment, and bask in the warm Christmas ambiance. The Christkindl Market will be happening Thursday to Saturday December 4 to 6 from 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM and Sunday December 7 from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. If you like the Crescendo Choir’s performance and want to join, just come their next practice. They practice every Wednesday from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM at Glencairn Church – 725 Erinbrook Dr. Kitchener. Everyone is welcome to join the Crescendo Choir no matter what their singing abilities are.

Click here for more info on Christkind Market

Click here for more info on Crescendo Choir’s Performance

♦♦ ♦

♦Sensory Friendly Santa
Thursday, December 4
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
FREE
THEMUSEUM – 10 King St. W, Kitchener

Join us for a Sensory Sensitive meet and greet with the Jolly Old Elf himself, Santa Claus! We will have sensory-friendly crafts as well as cater our exhibitions to people with sensory sensitivities. All ages are welcome to come visit Santa and explore THEMUSEUM for this holiday season!

Click here for more info

♦Winter Art Market
Sunday, December 7
11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
FREE Admission
Victoria Park Pavilion – 80 Schneider Dr. Kitchener

Join Healing of The Seven Generations in supporting local Indigenous Artists. There will be many different artists selling their hand crafted works of art. Entry to the market is free.

Click here for more info

♦Winterfest
Saturday, December 6
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
FREE
Victoria Hills Community Centre – 10 Chopin Drive, Kitchener

Victoria Hills Neighbourhood Association invites you to join us at Winter Fest. There will be lots of family fun, including face painting, arts and crafts, youth basketball and a local vendor market. Come visit with the big guy himself, Santa Claus!

Click here for more info

♦

♦Enjoy free skating all winter long! Lace up your skates or borrow some from Kitchener Public Library for free with your library card. Check the schedule to see when and where you can go skating for absolutely free. Go skating in the morning, go skating in the evening, go skating Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! A dressing room will be provided to put skates on, the lobby space is also available for additional space to put skates on. There’s no need to register either, just come on it!

Make sure you click on the skating time you want to go to so you know which arena it is at. Some skates are at Activa Sportplex in the Tom Graham Arena and others are at Activa Sportplex in the Patrick J. Doherty Arena. One more important thing to check is the dates! Sometimes there are exception dates like on this skating time because of hockey tournaments or other events. If you scroll down to the Activity Meeting Dates section it will tell you if there are any exceptions to the date range provided. Now that you know how to plan your free winter fun, get out on the ice with your friends and skate all winter long!

Click here to see the skating schedule

Click here to find skates at Kitchener Public Library

The post November 26, 2025: What’s Happening in Your Neighbourhood? appeared first on KW Habilitation.

• What: Poetry, Pain, and the Promise of Palestine ♦
• When: 7:00pm-9:00pm on Wednesday 26 November 2025
• Where: Federation Hall, University of Waterloo
• Location: 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario Map
• Register Online: uwaterloo.ca/arts/events/poetry-pain-and-promise-palestine

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts is honoured to present guest speaker Dr. Sa’ed Atshan – scholar, Palestinian Quaker, and LGBTQ human rights advocate – on the role of poetry in capturing the realities of contemporary Palestinian life in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and beyond.

Please join us for this unique opportunity to explore how interdisciplinary scholarship can be applied to both understand and address a global crisis which has had such tragic human consequences.

♦Sa’ed Atshan Dr. Sa’ed Atshan is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He has previously served as an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Senior Research Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. He earned a PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies and MA in Social Anthropology from Harvard University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and BA from Swarthmore College. Atshan is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (Stanford University Press, 2020), coauthor (with Katharina Galor) of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (Duke University Press, 2020), and co-editor (with Galor) of Reel Gender: Palestinian and Israeli Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Registration is required for in-person and online attendance. For those attending in-person, proof of registration is required at the reception area.

• Doors open: 6:30 p.m.
• Lecture and moderated Q & A: 7:00 to 8:20 p.m.
• Reception for the in-person audience: 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Paid visitor parking is available in Lot M across from Federation Hall. More parking information.

This lecture is made possible through the generosity of alumni and friends. UofW Faculty of Arts extends sincere appreciation to the donors who contributed to the Foundation for Palestinian Studies Fund.

Watch past recordings from the UofW Palestinian Lectures series on YouTube.

♦

The Christmas Season is quickly approaching and KW Habilitation is once again making plans to support many people through the holidays.  Each year friends and staff of KW Habilitation donate money to purchase gifts for adults connected to our organization. 

Should you or anyone you know be interested in making a donation for this cause, we would greatly appreciate it.  The money we receive means our team can purchase personalized gifts for people who would not be receiving gifts in the traditional sense.

If you would like to make a donation, please fill out this form before December 12th, 2025.  A charitable donation receipt will be issued and we sincerely appreciate your assistance.

The post Give a Gift this Season appeared first on KW Habilitation.

The Women’s Centre of York Region (WCYR) is a community based not for profit organization, established in 1977 to support women who have experienced trauma, abuse, violence, and/or social and physical marginalizations.

We offer a range or programs and services to support women to identify and build on their strengths, connect with their communities, and achieve their goals. We do this through counselling, group education and support, employment and financial assistance, mental health supports, case management and system navigation.

WCYR is seeking to recruit two candidates for the volunteer Board of Directors.  The Board of Directors play a critical role in the governance, strategic planning, and strategic oversight of WCYR.

As a board, we are committed to providing leadership, expertise, and support to further WCYR and our mission.

• Passion for WCYR’s mission and commitment to its success
• Willing to actively participate and engage in strategic planning initiatives
• Ability to commit 2-5 hours per month for virtual/hybrid board meetings and organizational events
• Currently located in the GTHA, York Region preferred

Currently seeking board members with relevant experience in one or more of the following:

• Financial leadership experience, CPA designation preferred
• Human Resources
• Labour and employment law

Governance and Strategic Planning

• Participate in strategic planning sessions, provide input and guidance on the org’s strategic direction
• Help shape policies, procedures and best practices to ensure effective governance
• Performance management and support of the Executive Director

• Consult on fundraising efforts, including donor cultivation, event participation
• Provide financial oversight, review and approve annual budgets, financial statements and financial policies
• Monitor the organizations financial health and sustainability

• Act as an ambassador for the organization
• Utilize personal and professional networks to advance the organization’s goals

• Support development of risk mitigation strategies
• Provide input into program impact, effectiveness in achieving organizational goals
• Advise on development of leading organizational approaches and best practices

• Actively participate in monthly board meetings
• Serve on a board sub-committee (eg. Finance, governance, fundraising)
• Collaborate with committee members to achieve specific goals and initiatives

• Participate in recruitment and onboarding of new board members
• Contribute to succession planning efforts to ensure continuity of board leadership

If you want to be part of a dynamic and growing social services agency, please submit a letter of interest along with your resume highlighting your experience and qualifications including: business/work experience, academic qualifications, experience that would assist the board, any previous board experience, and previous community and/or volunteer activities to:

Niv Bala, nivb@wcyr.ca

We are an equal opportunity organization and are committed to a diverse, inclusive and barrier-free environment. We welcome all qualified applicants to apply.

The post Women’s Centre of York Region appeared first on Capacity Canada.

Hoping I've got the correct full name above. If not then the K-W Record can come after me for the mistake if for example it is just National Media Council for example. So I guess I want my cake and to eat it too. I'm very glad that the Record wrote that prodigious article on November 15/25 but am disappointed in the number of unnecessary factual inaccuracies involved as I've listed here over the last couple of weeks. I'm happy because the Record have informed the public that this environmental crisis still has not been resolved after 36 years! That lack of resolution is pathetic and every tier of our political governance should be ashamed from municipal, regional, provincial and federal. 

The reason for all the errors is fairly simple. The reporter Terry Pender doesn't know the good guys from the excrement. Is that a little harsh perhaps? No not at all. The excrement literally have destroyed health and lives over the decades by hiding behind the lack of a health study plus the shared culpability of  Uniroyal Chemical, their successors, the Ontario Ministry of Environment,  Woolwich Council and Regional Council. I'm giving the Feds a pass on culpability regarding Uniroyal's actions through the 50s, 60s,  70s,  80s and 90s. I think that since then they should have stepped in whether they think so or not.

The National Media group found in my favour regarding the last complaint I sent them about a Uniroyal Chemical story dealing with Agent Orange. This one has far more errors and inaccuracies and while several errors are relatively minor they nevertheless are unnecessary. Hopefully the Record will realize that there is not unanimity here in Elmira regarding Uniroyal/Lanxess Canada behaviour and decision making and will interview the dissenters as well.       

“This study is the first to explore the effect of fault zones on groundwater age distribution in topography-driven groundwater flow systems. Using the HydroGeoSphere model, we elucidated the impacts of fault zones on groundwater age characteristics in both non-Tóthian and Tóthian models.”

Jia, L., Xie, Y., Love, A. J., Wohling, D., Dai, X., & Fu, R. (2025). Groundwater flow and age in topography-driven groundwater flow systems with geological barriers. Journal of Hydrology, 659, 133241. doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2025.133241

The research examines how groundwater age and flow systems are influenced by topography and geological barriers, using numerical simulations to clarify the interaction between surface-driven flow and subsurface heterogeneity. Traditional models of topography-driven flow often assume homogeneous geologic conditions, which can obscure the role of stratigraphic variations in shaping groundwater movement and age distribution. This study offers a detailed exploration of how structural barriers— such as low-permeability formations— interrupt or redirect groundwater pathways and affect the spatial and temporal distribution of groundwater age.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

By simulating a series of generic basin configurations with and without geological barriers, the researchers demonstrate how the presence and position of these features can significantly influence groundwater flow regimes. In systems without barriers, flow patterns closely follow the topographic gradient, producing predictable age gradients with younger water near recharge areas and older water in deeper zones or near discharge points. However, when geological barriers are introduced, these patterns shift: groundwater may be diverted laterally or forced upward, disrupting the expected age structure and creating zones of increased or decreased residence time.

The findings underscore the complexity of groundwater systems where both surface and subsurface controls are at play. Notably, the study finds that under certain conditions, groundwater can be much younger or older than predicted by simple topography-driven models, depending on how barriers affect flow connectivity. These insights have significant implications for water resource management, especially in regions where age-dating is used to assess sustainability, recharge rates, or contaminant transport potential.

To simulate these dynamics, the researchers used HydroGeoSphere (HGS)— a fully integrated, three-dimensional modelling platform capable of resolving complex interactions between surface and subsurface flow. HGS was used to build synthetic models representing various geologic and topographic configurations, allowing for precise control of boundary conditions and material properties. Through HGS, the team was able to track groundwater age distributions using an advection–dispersion approach and to test how different barrier scenarios influenced flow paths. The model’s flexibility in handling variably saturated conditions, heterogeneous media, and coupled hydrological processes made it ideal for evaluating how structural geology alters flow dynamics, reinforcing the importance of integrated modelling tools in understanding subsurface systems.

Abstract:

Faults in hydrogeological systems can act as conduits or barriers for groundwater flow. However, the effect of faults on groundwater flow and age has not been widely studied, particularly in topography-driven flow systems (i.e., Tóthian flow systems). This study established Tóthian models through HydroGeoSphere and compared age distributions between models with and without fault zones. Hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer was set at 1 m/d, whereas that of the fault zones (Kf) was varied at 0.001–0.75 m/d to simulate barrier effect and at 5–20 m/d to mimic conduit effect. Simple (aquifer thickness 100 m) and complex Tóthian models (aquifer thickness 1500 m) were both considered. Our results show that, when the fault zones act as conduits, the groundwater is slightly younger than it would be without the fault zones, regardless of simple or complex Tóthian models. When the fault zones act as barriers, in most simple Tóthian models, groundwater cannot flow across the fault zones, with new local flow systems forming on both sides. Groundwater age thus increases upstream but decreases downstream of the fault zones. In the other simple Tóthian models (Kf at 0.25–0.75 m/d), groundwater can flow across the fault zones at some depths. Age changes are more pronounced in parts with flow parallel to the fault zones than those in other parts. In all complex Tóthian models with fault zones as barriers, new local and intermediate flow systems are formed upstream and downstream of the fault zones. Age changes mainly occur in deep parts of the aquifer.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE.

In today's era, everyone wants to get their job done in a short time yet efficiently. Whether you are a journalist, researcher, or data scientist (literally any job that you do), sometimes you need a search engine to help you discover the latest news for your analysis or the newest discovery to support your research paper.

In practical terms, you only need to put keywords on Google, then boom, a lot of articles, news, and PDFs of papers appear in front of your eyes. You can also search for Dodgers and Blue Jays live scores on Yahoo or Mozilla. A few minutes later, you'll be happy once you see your favorite team leading the game. Admit that (or not).

Basically, that's what we call a Search Engine, where Google Search primarily gathers a list of web pages based on keywords that you input. Behind that, there is an AI algorithm called PageRank, which retrieves all of the relevant information then the algorithm will get back to you from the most relevant at the top to the less relevant at the end based on the database as the output.

Additionally, Google hides things that are not related to your keywords at the end of the page. Do you notice that?

Therefore, even though it's still an AI algorithm, the output that the Google search engine gives to you is not a summary or newly generated text with a link embedded. It's real articles, news, or papers, like what you want to see.

On the other hand, AI chatbots like ChatGPT can not be made as a substitute for a search engine like Google. Why? ChatGPT is a large language model that has been trained on massive datasets and programmed to generate new sentences based on the patterns and data that have been given to the AI algorithm. It's not the same as how Google search engine does, but it feels like continuing the missing words in your poem.

Maybe you could ask, I already prompted ChatGPT to give me the real source from Google, is that the same thing?

Short answer: It’s not the same. ChatGPT can still do something that we call “hallucinations.” Even though we've been prompted with very specific information and asked to embed the link to sources, it could lead to misleading information. It's AI’s destiny to generate words, not find and give back to you.

When I wanted to write my white paper for PETA Future Without Speciesism 2025, I proposed a literature review on how we can switch the use of white mice to get the most appropriate breast cancer diagnosis and medicine reaction. I asked ChatGPT to mention some of the reliable sources that could support my arguments. It generates some lists, until I open the link one by one, only one to two links are correct. The rest of that? Missing. The real journal mentioned explains how microfluidics has been implemented in lung cancer according to A. But ChatGPT mentions it was according to B.

Why Big Tech Companies Need to Rethink Interviews Before AI Cheats the System

I really had a trust issue with AI if it's about searching for real information. From there, I learned that we shouldn't rely heavily on AI for everything. As simple as looking at what you need.

I know if we're going to Google and find “how to make the best matcha,” it will take longer to do your own research and make your perfect matcha. But hey, at least you got the recipes from the real person who had an experience of making matcha for 5 years (or so).

Asking for AI is indeed easy and more convenient. But do you still believe that AI can give you the most relevant sources yet factual?

Think. And I hope it gives us a space to do some reflections on it.

This is Why You Shouldn’t Rely on AI was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Kitchener Panthers will be conducting an open tryout for prospective professional baseball players.

Athletes are invited to participate in a series of pro-style evaluations designed to assess hitting, fielding, pitching, speed, and overall baseball proficiency. Members of the Panthers front office will be in attendance to observe and evaluate participants.

The tryout is intended for individuals seeking an opportunity to compete for a potential roster position within the organization. All participants are expected to arrive prepared, adhere to professional standards, and demonstrate the skills and discipline required at the professional level.

Click on the link below to sign up and learn more about the tryout

A worldwide internet outage occurred on November 18th when several major online services, such as X, OpenAI, Spotify, and many others, went down almost all at once.

Cloudflare soon emerged as the centre of the disruption as users worldwide struggled to load apps and platforms. US-headquartered Cloudflare, which offers CDN services, cybersecurity, DDoS protection, and DNS support, consequently confirmed that it was receiving reports of “widespread 500 errors.”

Cloudflare is a huge provider of internet security across the world, carrying out services such as checking visitor connections to sites are coming from humans rather than bots, detecting bad traffic, and making the website faster.

• ✅ DDoS Protection
• ✅ Bot Management
• ✅ Web Application Firewall (WAF)
• ✅ CDN (Content Delivery Network)
• ✅ DNS Management
• ✅ Serverless Computing (Workers)
• ✅ Static Site Hosting (Pages)
• ✅ Cloud Storage (R2)

Cloudflare’s outage was the result of a technical issue, not a cyberattack or malicious behavior.

The company said the outage was caused by a “configuration file” that was meant to manage “threat traffic.”

The file grew beyond an expected size of entries and triggered a crash in the software system that handles traffic for a number of Cloudflare’s services.

All the requests go to cloudflare goes through a well defined path into cloudflare network. It could be from the browser loading its webpage, or a mobile App calling its API’s etc. These requests will go to Cloudflare HTTP and TLS layer, then flow back into the core proxy system, i.e, FrontLine, and then into the Pingora, which performs cache lookups/ fetches data from origin if needed.

The bog management was the reason for cloudflare outage. It uses a machine learning model to detect bot vs real users.

How it works:

1. The model analyzes various traits of a request
2. These traits are called “features” (examples: IP reputation, request pattern, browser fingerprint, etc.)
3. All these features are stored in a “feature configuration file.”
4. This file is refreshed every few minutes to detect new bot attacks
5. The file gets published to Cloudflare’s entire network.

The feature file failure:

The feature(IP reputation, request pattern, browser fingerprint) configuration has fixed size of 60 features which is generated from a ClickHouse database query.
The change in the ClickHouse query behavior happened which resulted in the duplicate feature rows.The file grew to 200+ features instead of 60.
The Bot management module couldn't handle such large configuration file and crashed.

Cloudflare wanted to improve security by giving users explicit access to database tables
Previously, users couldn’t see metadata about certain database tables

They made a change at 11:05 UTC to make this access visible

SELECT name, type FROM system.columns WHERE table = ‘http_requests_features’ order by name;

A query that expected results from ONE database (default) now returned results from TWO databases (default + r0)

This created duplicate columns in the response.

Finally, the code caused the system to crash instead of handling it gracefully.

The Failure of events : Permission Change Deployed → Query Returns Duplicates → Feature File Corrupted (60→120+) → Memory Limit Hit → Code Panics → HTTP 5xx → Bot Management Fails → Workers KV Fails → Access Fails → Dashboard Fails → Users Locked Out

The Cloudflare status page also completely went down at the same time, which is hosted completely outside Cloudflare’s servers, which didn't have any dependencies on Cloudflare infrastructure, raising the suspicion that someone had attacked Cloudflare systems.

Cloudflare users were also in the middle of migrating to the new proxy engine(FL2).

On customers using old FL proxy: Didn't generate any error messages, causing the bot management to fail in blocking the real users.

On customers using the new FL2 proxy: Got proper 5xx errors, and a clear failure message was thrown.

These failures of core proxy caused Workers KV(Key-value data storage at the edge), Cloudflare Access (Identity and access management), and Cloudflare Dashboard (Control panel for managing websites) to fail, causing login issues.

The flow of cloudflare example : app.get(‘/user/:id’) → Core Proxy filters request →Core Proxy applies Bot Management check →Core Proxy routes to Workers KV(key,value) → KV returns data

1. Cloudflare disabled automatic bot management file generation.
2. They rolled back successfully to the last working bot management configuration file globally after validating it in testing.
3. All the services were restarted since they had a backlog of failed requests.

Don't assume- Query validation: The query will return columns only from the default database. Handle it through database names.

Memory limits: The code should handle gracefully when the memory limits are reached.

Breaking changes require careful rollouts: The permission change was deployed to all ClickHouse clusters at once.

Error Handling: Handle the failures consistently.
While the old engine silently failed(no errors, no results), the new engine failed with clear 5xx errors.

Cloudflare is geographically decentralized with 300+ datacenters, but they all run the same code. When a bug exists in that code, it affects all datacenters simultaneously, leading to a single point of failure.

The transparency and swift response of cloudflare is truely commendable minimizing the customer impact. Let's appreciate the team for quickly resolving this issue within 3 hours from error to recovery on 18th November 2025.

The detailed explanation of the outage is mentioned here.

Thank you for reading this article. Please provide your valuable suggestions/ feedback.

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Following are some of the frequently asked Java 8 Interview Questions

Frequently Asked Java Programs

Dear Readers, these are the commonly asked Java programs to check your ability in writing the logic.

SpringBoot Interview Questions | Medium

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Spring Boot tutorial | Medium

Must-know-coding-programs-for-faang-companies| Medium

Cloudflare Outage. What exactly happened? was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you ever want to test your patience, your diplomacy, and your ability to explain causal inference without losing friends, try introducing an incremental metric into an organization that has been happily using total metrics for years. I say this with affection. And a hint of trauma.

This is the final chapter of my “turning ambiguity into impact” series. Take a look at the first chapter, where I secure the priority to measure the causal impact, and the second chapter, which is all about using CUPED to correct bias.

By the time we reached this stage of the project, the heavy statistical lifting was done. CUPED was behaving. The causal framework was reviewed. The numbers were consistent. I had finally convinced the world (or at least my part of Google) that total revenue and incremental revenue are not siblings who can share a report.

I thought the rest would be easy.

Of course, it wasn’t. But it did become the part of the journey where I grew the most — not as a statistician, but as a human navigating other humans.

This chapter is about what happened after the math was “finished.”

The incremental results came out, and the reaction was… polite. And cautious. And a little bit like watching someone try kale for the first time: “I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying… are you sure this is what it’s supposed to taste like?”

Incrementality is smaller than total revenue. That’s not a bug — that’s literally the point. But when the numbers first landed in front of people, it was clear that everyone needed a moment.

This was where allyship mattered.

Instead of championing the metric solo, I shared the method early with groups who were already wrestling with similar questions in their own work. They weren’t “reviewers” — they were co-thinkers. They pushed on assumptions, applied it to their use cases, and surfaced edge cases that only appear in the wild. Through that process, something subtle happened. The metric wasn’t “my thing” anymore. It became “our shared approach.”

It turns out metrics, like people, gain confidence faster when they have company.

One thing I’ve learned is that confusion often disguises itself as disagreement. When someone says, “I’m not sure this is right,” it can mean “I’m not sure I understand what’s happening, and I’d prefer not to admit it in front of everyone.”

Incrementality, unfortunately, is the kind of concept that invites exactly that dynamic.

Different teams started asking questions that were technically different but spiritually identical — all orbiting the same gap between how data scientists interpret “impact” and how business teams do. Once I noticed this pattern, I stopped answering questions ad hoc and created a central FAQ.

This FAQ became the Switzerland of the project. Neutral, accessible, and surprisingly calming.

Every recurring question had a home. Every confusing scenario had a documented example. People could explore it privately without the pressure of having to ask the same question a third time.

We also held a cross-team session with all the “what about…?” questions. With everyone hearing the same explanation at the same time, the knots started loosening. The tension wasn’t about disagreement — it was about cognitive load.

Once we reduced that, the project moved forward again.

By the time we reached implementation, people understood the metric and were aligned on its importance. But understanding something intellectually and integrating it operationally are two very different things.

Instead of presenting a final solution, I invited PMs and engineers into a working session and let them design the implementation details while I provided the guardrails. It felt a bit like teaching someone to drive using your car — you’re alert the whole time, but you want them to feel the wheel.

During the session, I focused on answering causal inference questions, surfacing constraints, and helping the group reason through tricky edge cases. The teams took the lead on architecture, naming, and workflow decisions. Because they built it themselves, the final design fit their reality far better than anything I could have handed them.

And perhaps more importantly, it became their system, not a metric dropped from the sky by a quant team.

Ownership is a quiet but powerful thing. When people build the solution, they’re invested in the success of the solution. That’s the moment a metric stops being a proposal and becomes part of the organization’s bloodstream.

When I reflect on this phase, what stands out isn’t a specific meeting or a specific number. It’s how much of the real work in analytics happens outside the models — in the conversations, the collaborations, and the slow, steady building of clarity.

People sometimes assume turning ambiguity into impact is about having the perfect analysis. But in reality, it’s about designing the ecosystem where the analysis can survive — and even thrive.

This chapter of the project taught me that:

• allyship accelerates truth,
• clarity removes fear,
• and shared ownership turns ideas into action.

Incremental revenue didn’t become the new north star because the model was elegant. It became the north star because people trusted it, understood it, and saw themselves in the process of shaping it.

And that, somehow, feels like the real impact I walked away with.

The Path from Insight to Influence was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Festive Flail Fest appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

Canadian Parents for French is calling for volunteers to serve on its National Board of Directors. We seek those committed to promoting opportunities for youth to learn and use French.

The National Board of Canadian Parents for French is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of a national network of provincial and territorial branches with approximately 30,000 members. We are seeking volunteers from diverse backgrounds with a genuine interest in promoting French language learning and who can lead and innovate as the organization strives to embrace new ways of advancing its mission in a changing political and sociocultural environment.

We are actively seeking to diversify and expand the perspectives on our Board in ways that will extend its reach and ability to serve all those who call Canada home and wish to access French second language education.

Candidates should value lifelong learning and the importance of the French language in Canadian society. Applicants who have led organizational or institutional change efforts are particularly welcome as are those who have experience championing equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization in an institutional, educational or business environment. Candidates should possess a strong leadership and teamwork ethic, experience in change and risk management, along with effective communication skills, ideally in both English and French.

CPF’s ideal candidate has previous experience on at least one governance board and demonstrates experience and leadership in some of the following areas:

• change & risk management
• fundraising
• strategic planning
• advocacy
• human resource management
• academic and/or applied research
• financial accounting
• equity, diversity, inclusion and decolonization
• volunteer/community engagement
• governance
• guiding youth learning French

Board positions are voluntary and include some travel. The time commitment will vary based on the Board’s needs; a few days per month is likely, in addition to attendance of multi-day board meetings (approximately three times per year) for which all reasonable travel, meals, and accommodation expenses are reimbursed, plus shorter, online meetings. The Board is committed to accommodating the needs of board members to ensure that all members can fully participate.

Candidates must be (or become) CPF members and are invited to send a CV and cover letter/email indicating why they are interested in serving to Wendy Carr, Nominations Committee Chair at cpf@cpf.ca with the subject line “CPF Nominations”.

For additional information visit:

• CPF Network Strategic Plan 2020-2026
• CPF Network at a Glance

Deadline for receipt of nominations is midnight on February 13, 2026.

1. The National Board is committed to encouraging more diverse and inclusive leadership within the board and across the Network.
2. CPF strives to communicate with transparency in all interactions.
3. CPF recruitment efforts reach out to a broad and diverse pool of possible candidates to ensure that volunteer demographics reflect the communities it serves. Candidates are encouraged to highlight dimensions of diversity as appropriate and indicate how their background contributes to their candidacy. Those who are not from a diverse background are invited to describe any life experiences that have equipped them to be sensitive to those who come from minority or traditionally marginalized communities.
4. Consideration will also be made with respect to geographical region.
5. CPF encourages applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the Canadian Human Rights Act, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, ability, and/or status as a First Nation, Métis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.

CANADIAN PARENTS FOR FRENCH is a nationwide, research-informed, volunteer organization that champions the opportunity to learn and use French for all those who call Canada home.

The post Canadian Parents for French appeared first on Capacity Canada.

From housing and transit upgrades to new community spaces, here’s how our region evolved in 2025.

As 2025 comes to a close, it’s clear that the Kitchener-Waterloo area continues to be one of Ontario’s fastest-growing and most forward-thinking communities. This year brought significant change, including major healthcare investments, new housing projects, and policy reforms designed to make our region more equitable, sustainable, and livable for everyone.

Here’s a look back at some of the most impactful developments that shaped Waterloo Region in 2025 and a glimpse at what’s still to come.

One of the biggest stories of the year was the official merger of Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital, creating the new Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN). This unified system aims to streamline care delivery, reduce duplication, and improve access across the region.

In addition to the merger, the Ontario government announced a $10 million planning grant, building on earlier funding, to advance plans for a new acute-care hospital on the University of Waterloo’s north campus.

This new facility is envisioned as a cornerstone of the WRHN, offering around 400 new acute care beds and expanded diagnostic, emergency, maternal/newborn, and pediatric services. While still in the planning phase, it represents a major step toward meeting the region’s growing healthcare needs as our population continues to rise.

Housing remained a major focus in 2025, with several key projects and programs moving forward to help address affordability and supply shortages.

In northwest Waterloo, the Beaver Creek Road and Conservation Drive Redevelopment Project began its first phase, supported by roughly $23 million in funding for infrastructure, roads, and servicing. Once complete, the area could accommodate up to 4,500 new homes, creating a vibrant new residential community close to nature and major employers.

The latest update on this project includes an updated construction schedule and details on road closures.

Meanwhile, in one of Canada’s most ambitious affordable housing efforts, the City of Waterloo finalized a land transfer for a large-scale mixed-use project at 2025 University Avenue East. Developed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and BUILD NOW, the project plans to deliver 1,000+ attainable and affordable units, along with community amenities.

To encourage smaller-scale infill and rental options, Waterloo also announced a new grant program launching in Fall 2025 to support Additional Residential Units (ARUs), such as coach houses and basement suites. Two grant streams are offered, depending on the property type. Homeowners who create secondary units with below-market rents will be eligible for incentives, helping expand the region’s housing diversity and supply.

Sustainable growth also depends on strong infrastructure, and 2025 was a major year for transit and municipal services.

The Region of Waterloo secured nearly $72 million in federal funding under the Canada Public Transit Fund, earmarked for modernizing the transit fleet, improving service reliability, and supporting future expansion over the next decade. These investments will enhance regional connectivity, which is an essential factor for both commuters and new developments.

On the waste management front, a big change is coming in March 2026, when Waterloo Region transitions to cart-based garbage and organics collection. This shift aims to improve efficiency, reduce litter, and encourage better waste sorting at the curb. November 2025 saw the delivery of the new black garbage and green organics carts across Waterloo Region.

2025 also marked important strides toward a more inclusive and representative community.

The Region of Waterloo approved its Municipal Diversity Plan 2025, which ensures that appointments to the Waterloo Region Police Services Board better reflect the diversity of the local population. It also introduces READI (Reconciliation, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity, and Inclusion) training for all municipal appointees and community representatives, reinforcing equity as a cornerstone of local governance.

In education, the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) launched a Strategic Plan Community Consultation process, inviting feedback from students, parents, and educators to help guide its next multi-year plan. This is a reflection of the region’s commitment to collaboration and transparency in public education.

Kitchener-Waterloo continues to evolve as a hub of innovation, inclusivity, and opportunity. The projects and policies set in motion this year will shape not just the skyline, but also the social fabric of our community for years to come.

From new homes and hospitals to better transit and more equitable governance, 2025 was a year of meaningful progress; proof that Waterloo Region is not only growing, but growing smarter.

With major investments in housing, healthcare, transit, and community services, Waterloo Region is on a strong upward trajectory, and that momentum is reshaping neighbourhoods across Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge. Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, or invest, staying informed about these changes can help you make confident real estate decisions.

If you’re planning a move in 2026 or curious about how these developments could impact your home’s value, we’re here to help you navigate the local market with clarity and insight. Reach out any time. We would love to guide you through your next step in Waterloo Region.