Welcoming and inclusive communities

A welcoming community celebrates diversity. It’s a place where everyone feels valued and included.

A sign in a business window with a pride flag reads “LGBTQ+-friendly”.
A volunteer at a hospital speaks to a woman wearing a hijab.

Sense of welcome

A welcoming community is a place where we feel included and can meet our diverse individual needs. [1]

Not everyone feels welcome in our community—and those who have experienced discrimination feel less welcome 
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Not everyone feels welcome in our community—and those who have experienced discrimination feel less welcome 

When we face barriers or unfair treatment because of our identities, it makes it hard to feel welcome. Feeling unwelcome can lead to loneliness and social isolation—feeling disconnected from others with little social support. [2]

A dot plot shows the average feelings of welcome among people in Wellington County age 18 years and older who have and have not experienced discrimination in 2021. For a full description of the graph, refer to the “Read graph as text” section.
In 2021, people in Wellington County who had experienced discrimination had lower average feelings of welcome than those who had not. A dot plot shows the average feelings of welcome among people in Wellington County age 18 years and older who have and have not experienced discrimination in 2021. The x-axis shows the average feelings of welcome (low to high), and the y-axis shows the demographic group (immigrants and visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, and white non-immigrants). Dots indicate the average feelings of welcome for each demographic group, with separate dots for those who had experienced discrimination and those who had not. Among all groups, average feelings of welcome were lower for those who had experienced discrimination compared to those who had not. Source: Guelph-Wellington Local Immigration Partnership
Library books on a shelf.

References

  1. Esses, V. M., Hamilton, L. K., Bennett-AbuAyyash, C., & Burstein, M. (2010). Characteristics of a welcoming community. Welcoming Communities Initiative. 
  2. Statistics Canada. (2016, September 28). Community belonging. 
An open drawer in a card catalog.

Data sources

Guelph-Wellington Local Immigration Partnership. (2022). Experiences of discrimination in Wellington County – Final report, March 2022.

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Tackling food waste from farm to green bin 

Hear from the University of Guelph, The SEED, Food Cycle Science, and the City of Guelph and learn what community organizations, businesses, and municipalities can do to reduce food waste across the supply chain—and how it can improve food security. 

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January 20th, 2025