Photo from left: Dr. Mira Ray, Executive Director, Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Kevin Weaver, President and CEO, Georgian College; David Tremblay, CEO, Huntsville Public Library; Jeff Lehman, District of Muskoka Chair; Saleem Hall, Community Engagement Coordinator for the Huntsville Public Library; Jill Tettmann, CEO, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka; Nancy Alcock, Mayor of the Town of Huntsville, and attendees.
“A truly thriving community must include everyone.”
This was the message from Jill Tettmann, CEO of YMCA Simcoe Muskoka, as the Huntsville Public Library officially launched its Community Impact Lab, a collaborative space designed to inspire innovation, foster inclusivity, and enhance community well-being.
“We’re only as strong as the strength of our community around us,” continued Tettmann at the February 4 event. “Individuals cannot thrive without a sense of belonging.”
The new Huntsville Public Library Community Impact Lab will focus on promoting community engagement through workshops, events, and collaborative projects; supporting local innovation by providing resources and tools for creative problem-solving; and boosting community well-being by fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity.
The lab is open to the public and will serve as a resource for individuals and community organizations to come together and develop solutions to local social and economic challenges.
As he welcomed the opening of the lab, District of Muskoka chair Jeff Lehman highlighted some of the challenges facing the community, such as the supports required for healthcare to help people prior to being in crisis, building a strong local economy and labour force, attainable and affordable housing needs, and more.
Lehman and many in attendance believe that bringing stakeholders together will result in good ideas becoming great initiatives that turn into tangible projects for the betterment of the community.
“We live in a time where social and economic progress is under duress,” he said. “In our communities, we know that means relying on ourselves and building our own solutions to the challenges that face us. And lots of those challenges pre-exist any current politics . . . My good friend Hazel McCallion used to say that the federal government has all the money, the province has all the power, and municipalities have all the responsibilities.”
The Community Impact Lab is a part of the Future of Belonging Project and came to be thanks to the combined efforts of many community organizations, including the Library, the Community Innovation Network, Georgian College, the YMCA of Simcoe-Muskoka, and municipal governments.
Along with the ribbon-cutting and launch of the lab, Dr. Mira Ray, Georgian College’s Executive Director of Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, also announced that her school is receiving $1.1 million in funding to support social innovation projects and research.
The funding includes a $360,000 investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF), which is earmarked to expand Community Impact Labs across Simcoe/Muskoka.
“In collaboration with our partners, Georgian has opened several Community Impact Labs across the regions that we serve,” said Dr. Ray. “These labs are spaces where residents, organizations, and partners can access tools and resources to support uncommon collaboration, helping the region tackle global complexities with locally grounded solutions . . . Huntsville joins a growing network of community impact labs across the region, connected through the Community Innovation Network.”
The new lab at the library is open to the public. For more information about Community Impact Labs, visit: futureofbelonging.ca.
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Thank you John (the other comment pertaining to this article) and everyone in the community for the support of the HPL Community Impact Lab launch.
To get more information about this specific resources for Muskoka from HPL, please contact the Community Engagement Coordinator at HPL at 705-789-5232
This iniative is truly good. Will a schedule for 2026 meetings be set soon? The website link refers only to dates in 2025, at least as far as I could determine.