Congress 2018 – Call for Proposals

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) is seeking proposals for the 50^th National Congress on Housing and Homelessness, taking place April 24^th to April 27^th in Ottawa, Ontario. 

About the Congress:

The CHRA Congress on Housing and Homelessness provides an exceptional opportunity to meet collectively and exchange learnings and ideas from a growing Canadian body of practitioners, policy makers, front-line workers, government officials and key stakeholders within our sector.

The 2018 Congress in Ottawa is the CHRA’s 50^th Anniversary Congress. It will convene over 600 delegates and sector leaders from Canada and other countries for four days of learning and networking opportunities.

Each year we develop a unique program of over 40 concurrent workshops, plenary and learning sessions, mobile tours and keynotes to meet the educational needs and interests of our members and participants from across the affordable housing and homelessness community.

About the Call for Proposals:

We are inviting interested participants to submit proposals for our concurrent workshop sessions.

Concurrent sessions take place during a 1.5-hour time slot, and consist of one or more speakers on a thematic, policy or programmatic area of specialization, and may take the form of either:

Workshops: Including one or more presentation(s) by speaker(s) in a lecture format on a topic with a question and answer period facilitated by a moderator.

Forums: Discussion on a broad topic such as ‘Insights on the National Housing Strategy’ or ‘Best-Practices in Supportive Housing’ providing an opportunity for participants to bring their concerns, questions and ideas for discussion to the session. An experienced facilitator will guide group discussion.

Panels: Cross sectional gathering of two or more experts on a theme for debate, such as ‘Housing First’ or ‘Right to Housing’. A moderator will lead the session by establishing the scope of the debate and moderate a question and answer period to encourage interactive audience participation.  

Training: Skills building session on a specific topic such as ‘Asset Management’ or ‘Advocacy/GR’ that offers concepts, skills, approaches, models and learning activities on that topic. 

* The final workshop format and number of panellists will be determined at CHRA’s discretion.

The Call for Proposals will be used to program CHRA’s main Congress, Innovation Forum and Indigenous Caucus. Early Career Professionals are welcome to apply on this call. 

We are inviting proposal submissions on a range of topics, including, but not limited to the following areas:

• Neighbourhood Renewal/Redevelopment                
• Community Capacity Building                        
• Asset Management                                               
• Financing Models                                                  
• Leveraging Capital/Assets                                 
• Social Enterprise Models                                    
• Affordable Housing                                                
• Homeownership                                                      
• Rental Housing                                                       
• Supportive Housing                                             
• Mental Health/Addictions & Housing
• Housing and Health
• Green/Sustainable Initiatives                        
• Women’s Housing                                                
• Newcomer Housing                                             
• Seniors Housing                                                     
• Indigenous & Northern Issues
• Policy (eg. NEW Prov./Municipal Initiatives)
• Housing Related Research
• National/International Initiatives
• Leadership, Planning & Governance
• Sector Capacity & Growth
• New Development of Affordable Housing
• Operations Management
• Partnerships
• Small/Rural Communities
• Post-EOA Transition
• Homelessness (incl. Youth Homelessness)
• Other…