Tag Archives: not-for-profit

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News -2025-04-17- Local cycling route finder app rolls in with big update

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CKMS News -2025-04-17- Local cycling route finder app rolls in with big update.

dan kellar
Waterloo, ON – With the launch of “version 2” of the Cycling Guide, Mark Connoly told CKMS News that the app will find “the best available, low stress, cycling friendly routes available” to get a cyclist to a destination.  Connolly, who is the executive director of the not-for-profit Cycling Guide Foundation, and a programmer on the project spoke with CKMS News earlier this week.

Cycling Guide is a free app that uses data from the open-source Open Street Maps to create routes to a set destination that favours safe cycling infrastructure. The app will show a cyclist where they may encounter more stressful riding situations through a colour coded system, and allow a user to select the route that best fits their comfort levels.

Version 2 of the app still only provides routes in Waterloo Region and Guelph, but Connolly told CKMS News that it is beta testing in Ottawa, Sarnia-Lambton, and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News -2024-10-30- Senior Women Living Together matches housemates to counter rising costs of living

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CKMS News -2024-10-30- Senior Women Living Together matches housemates to counter rising costs of living.

dan kellar
Kitchener, ON – As landlords continue to raise rental prices across the country, many are being left behind. According to rentals.ca, average rent in Canada has been increased by 25% since 2021. For some, the result is homelessness, and Waterloo Region is no exception – a recent report shows at least a 129% rise in chronic homelessness here since 2020.

“I knew I was going to be homeless at some point if I did not do something” says Pat Dunn, a widowed retiree now living in Peterborough. Dunn is the founder and the executive director of the non-profit organization Senior Women Living Together. Through subscriber generated profiles on their website, the organization finds matches for senior women, who then meet up to discuss living as housemates.  

This show features an interview with Pat Dunn who discusses her own brush with homelessness and rising rent led her to helping others in the same situation. The organization is currently promoting their free service in Waterloo Region.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News -2024-05-03- Kitchener donates land for not-for-profit housing project, as MPP urges province to do the same.

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CKMS News -2024-05-03- Kitchener donates land for not-for-profit housing project, as MPP urges province to do the same.

by: dan kellar

Kitchener – On April 29th, Kitchener city council approved a land donation to a not-for-profit to build affordable housing.  Habitat for Humanity will receive the land and have most development fees waived, and in return they will build more than 60 homes, including larger three and four-bedroom units, and smaller studio, one, and two-bedroom units”.

As of January 2024, more than 8000 people remain on the affordable housing waitlist in Waterloo Region alone, waiting years for assistance. However, Kitchener Centre Green Party MPP Aislinn Clancy’s new motion may address waitlists across the province as it calls on the provincial government to use provincial land to build affordable housing. 

This show features interviews with Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic and MPP Clancy, who is also a former Kitchener city councilor. Mayor Vrbanovic focuses on how projects like this are helping to meet the city’s housing goals, while MPP Clancy discusses her new motion.