Community Conversations
A series of facilitated, inclusive dialogues that bring together people from different backgrounds to share what they are seeing and experiencing in our city.
Across Winnipeg, people are feeling the impacts of disconnection; on our streets, in our neighbourhoods, and in our relationships with one another. While many organizations and individuals are already doing important work, too often these efforts happen apart rather than together.
When people are given space to share their lived experiences, without judgment and with care, new possibilities emerge. Compassion becomes something we practice, not just talk about.
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Kahanee is partnering with Compassionate Cities Winnipeg to host these dialogues because we know that community wisdom lives in the room.
These are facilitated, inclusive dialogues that bring together people from different backgrounds, cultures, and lived realities.
What is shared is documented and distilled into insights that can inform community action, partnerships, and systems change.
These are not debates or lectures. They are relational spaces grounded in respect, curiosity, and collective responsibility.
Each conversation is shaped by three simple questions. This framework centers lived experience while keeping the focus on shared action.
This question invites you to share what you are seeing and experiencing in your everyday lives, grounding the conversation in lived reality rather than assumptions or headlines.
This creates space to reflect on the personal and collective impacts of these experiences, helping us connect emotion, story, and responsibility with care and honesty.
This shifts the conversation toward shared imagination and action, inviting you to explore hopeful, community-led pathways forward.
These conversations are about belonging, dignity, and collective care. We invite participants to
Participants are encouraged to share from their own stories and realities, honouring personal truth rather than speaking on behalf of others.
Listening is approached as an active, compassionate practice—one that makes space for understanding, even when perspectives differ.
Ideas are offered in a spirit of curiosity and collaboration, with the intention of contributing to collective learning rather than persuasion.
The focus remains on what we can create together, moving away from fault-finding and toward shared responsibility and possibility.
Kahanee is proud to host these conversations as part of a broader effort to strengthen connection, cultural understanding, and community-led solutions across Winnipeg. Becoming a City of Compassion doesn’t start with policy, it starts with people coming together, building trust, and choosing to care for one another.
Your hosts for these facilitated dialogues
Former Winnipeg Police Chief, community safety and leadership advocate
Community leadership consultant and social change facilitator
Founder of Kahanee, peacebuilder and dialogue facilitator
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Dentist, artist, interfaith leader, City of Compassion organizer
Community engagement specialist and dialogue facilitator
Youth advocate and community leadership facilitator
Member of the Board of Trustees, Charter for Compassion (International)
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Director of Partnerships and Dialougue Facilitator
In partnership with CanU Canada, 40 youth gathered to discuss compassion, wellbeing, and community in Winnipeg. Participants spoke about rising homelessness, substance use, mental health challenges, and the growing impact of social disconnection, especially among young people.Despite these realities, youth participants focused strongly on solutions and action. Together, they developed eight student-led ideas centered on neighbourhood care, wellbeing, safety, opportunity, and stronger support systems for families and communities. A consistent message emerged across the dialogue: young people are ready to lead, and communities are asking for deeper connection and belonging.
Our second dialogue focused on the weight many people are carrying: exhaustion, anxiety, isolation, and a growing sense of polarization within communities. Participants reflected on how individualism, prejudice, and fear can create barriers that keep people apart.Alongside these concerns, people shared a desire for greater compassion, connection, and collective responsibility. Conversations highlighted practical ideas like community gardens, neighbourhood engagement, and educational initiatives, while also emphasizing mindset shifts rooted in openness, empathy, and breaking down barriers across differences.
At our first Community Conversations gathering, 30 Winnipeggers came together to reflect on what people are feeling in the city right now. Participants spoke about growing disconnection, loneliness, and the impacts of racism, antisemitism, anti-Indigenous realities, poverty, and exclusion. Many shared that life feels increasingly fast and isolating, with fewer spaces to pause, reflect, and build relationships.At the same time, hope and compassion remained central themes. People emphasized dignity, especially when discussing homelessness and vulnerability, and spoke about the importance of listening, showing up, and staying curious with one another. Youth were also named as both deeply impacted and full of insight and possibility.
