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Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

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Michael Shapcott

World Urban Forum (Vancouver) – day two

It’s day two at World Urban Forum III in Vancouver. As the Wellesley Institute’s representative, I’m meeting colleagues working on housing, health and other urban issues from around the world. Some of the stories are sobering, some are inspiring.

WUFIII is hosted by UN Habitat, the housing and human settlements agency of the United Nations. It’s not a formal decision-making meeting, which means that there is less bureaucracy and more of a chance for exchanges between people. Some of the pairings are quite astonishing: The vice-president of the Phillipines (which recently ordered the mass eviction of 150,000 families) confronted by a slum-dweller from that country.

The buzz among delegates is powerful. As stories are shared, people find common concerns as well as common solutions.

It’s not such a big world, after all.

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Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.