COOPER INSTITUTE LTD

Cooper Institute in collaboration with other community organizations carries out programs related to livable income migrant workers' rights land and water protection and food sovereignty. Our focus is community engagement around all of these issues and is carried out by all members of the Cooper Institute collective - staff and volunteers. Some of the networks we work with and support are the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income the Coalitions for Protection of PEI Lands and Water and the PEI Fight for Affordable Housing. Our ongoing programs include: Migrant Justice - supporting migrant workers with access to information health and other services; monitoring federal and provincial policies programs and services that affect migrant workers and responding to calls for input; connecting with migrant workers individually and in groups supporting them to have a voice in policies that affect them and supporting them to defend their rights; community engagement and public awareness around issues affecting migrant workers' health and safety dignity and human rights. Livable Income - with the PEI Working Group for a Livable Income - community engagement and advocacy for a Basic Income Guarantee program to ensure all people have a livable income/no-one falls below the poverty line. Monitoring and responding to calls for input on programs and policies related to income security. Seed Saving - organization of seed saving events and seed saving workshops aimed at developing local capacity to maintain a supply of locally adapted seed as a way of building seed and food sovereignty administration of the PEI Seed Alliance which makes locally adapted organic seeds available to Island growers/gardeners.

Tenant Organizing and Support - Cooper Institute continued to collaborate with the PEI Fight for Affordable Housing. The program involved supporting Island tenants to defend their rights and to understand and participate in the processes that are available to them to do so. It also focuses on engaging tenants and empowering them to have a voice in the development of programs and policies related to the provision and regulation of and accessibility to affordable housing. In 2023-24 we undertook a project aimed at developing tools for tenants to use when they were preparing for rental hearings as a result of wanting to appeal decisions related to evictions and unreasonable rent increases. At the same time we brought tenants together to develop ideas for provincial maintenance standards regulation which we will continue to advocate for. Migrant Workers - We were able to expand on our work with migrant workers offering individual support to workers in all regions of the province. We did this by accompanying workers to medical appointments providing emergency support when needed supporting workers to apply for open work permits when they were experiencing abuse and by providing information via webinars and WhatsApp. At the same time we engaged workers and the rest of the community in efforts to improve access to healthcare and to gain better (legislated) protections of workers' rights. This involved meeting with policy- makers writing briefs and speaking with media. We also engaged in research (with Dalhousie and St Thomas University) on migrant workers' experience of programs that are available to them to apply for permanent residency. Our research was published in the spring of 2024. Around the same time we embarked on a funded program aimed at developing and testing a model for a migrant worker resource centre for PEI. Livable Income - We joined with other Atlantic groups to share information and engage community members around the idea of a basic income and with a pan-Canadian group focused on developing ideas and a plan for the implementation of basic income in PEI. With other members of the Working Group for a Livable Income we embarked on 2 projects one examining the potential impacts of Basic Income Guarantee on gender-based violence and another aimed at developing a national coalition of feminist organizations supporting Basic Income Guarantee.