Many countries and organizations around the world celebrate Peace Week every year. In Waterloo Region, the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement at the University of Waterloo hosts a community calendar to help spread peace and connect people across the region. It features a mix of in-person and online events happening locally between International Day of Peace on September 21st and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th.
Peace Week 2025 has wrapped up for the year, look below to see the 2025 Community Calendar. If you want to get ahead for Peace Week 2026, make sure to submit your event today!
Peace Begins With You
SEPTEMBER 21, 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Celebrate peace and unity at RIM Park Waterloo for International Peace Day - let's spread love and harmony together! This gathering will be a vibrant expression of community spirit and unity.
9:30 AM Opening & Heart-Centred Welcome
9:30 - 10:00AM Music, Kids program, Heartfulness & Peacefulness initiatives
10:00 AM Relaxation, Meditation, Felicitation, Awards, Speech
Moving for Good: The Walk to End Chronic Homelessness
SEPTEMBER 21, 12:00 PM
Hosted by the Lynn Macaulay Legacy Project (LMLP), this annual event brings together community members, service providers, and local leaders to raise awareness and critical funds to support those experiencing chronic homelessness in our region. We’re proud to share that Supportive Housing of Waterloo (SHOW) has once again been named the benefitting charity.
All proceeds from the walk will directly support SHOW’s life skills programming and wrap-around services for older adults transitioning from homelessness to stable housing—work that aligns closely with the missions of many local service agencies.
Sacred Fire & Sacred Stories
SEPTEMBER 21, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Please join us around the sacred fire in Willow River Park (so-called Victoria Park) for an evening of stories about the Residential School System and the meaning behind Orange Shirt Day. Please dress warm and bring a chair or blanket.
Drinks provided. This event is hosted in partnership with Immigration Partnership Welcoming Week 2025.
Elephant at the Border
SEPTEMBER 21 - OCTOBER 5, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
MCC is equipping you to become peacemakers in your communities with three-part webinar series Elephant at the Border: A Peace Church Response to Annexation. Amidst political discord and talks of annexation across the Canada-US border, what is the call to followers of Jesus to respond? MCC is hosting four thought-provoking webinars that will explore learning from nonviolent power, peace possibilities and inter-national solidarity.
Prayer Walk for Peace
SEPTEMBER 21
You’re invited to join the President of the Canadian Council of Churches and Christians across the country to walk and pray for peace.
In a world longing for healing, justice, and reconciliation, we invite you to “pray with your feet.” Walk in your neighbourhood, your church community, or your city’s streets. Walk by yourself or with others from your church or ecumenical community. If walking is not an option for you, consider gathering with others to pray and reflect together about your hopes for peace.
International Peace Day
SEPTEMBER 22, 10:00 AM
This panel will explore how nonviolence can shape political life, transform education, and cultivate a culture of peace amid ongoing violence. Our panel brings together three complementary voices: Congresswoman Martha Alfonso (Colombia) on public policy and peace ethics in governance; conflict-transformation practitioner Oscar Siwali (South Africa) on mediation, community safety, and practical tools for nonviolent change; and pastor-educator Francisco Mosquera (Colombia) on faith, formation, and peacebuilding in local churches and schools.
Waterloo Institute for Complexity & Innovation Open House
SEPTEMBER 22, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Please join using DC 1301 as we kick off 2025/26 with the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI) Open House. Meet the WICI members and learn how you can be involved in Complex Systems Science. WICI is a member-led and member-driven research and networking hub that promotes innovative training and application of complex systems tools and theories to address challenges essential to human well-being, including those at the intersection of society, health, and environment.
Exploring the Tensions between Censorship and Free Speech
SEPTEMBER 22, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
We invite you to attend the third event of 2025 in the Antagonism and Intimidation in Academia Speaker series, entitled, "Exploring the Tensions between Censorship and Free Speech." This panel focuses on issues relating to free speech, hate speech laws, and freedom of expression in and beyond university environments. It brings significant attention to the wealth and poverty of free speech, to university conduct under the rubric of expanding freedom of expression, and to matters concerning the banning of symbols, emblems, flags, uniforms, and insignia under hate speech laws.
Wear Peace Share Peace
SEPTEMBER 23, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Join The Ripple Effect Education (TREE) in celebrating Peace Week! Come visit our table in the Atrium at Conrad Grebel University College where we'll be creating an interactive community art piece, doing other peace activities, and selling peace-themed mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, beanies, stickers, and more!
Forced to Flee
SEPTEMBER 23, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
If you were faced with urgent choices, limited information and uncertain outcomes, what would you do? "Forced to Flee" will plunge you into a facilitated simulation experience, where you’ll be confronted with a series of difficult decisions – realities facing more than 110 million displaced people around the world. Develop awareness and understanding about the global refugee crisis in this experiential learning activity.
Blanket Exercise
September 23, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
This unique participatory history lesson fosters truth, understanding and respect. Facilitated by Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers and educators, the Blanket Exercise is an experiential teaching tool that explores the historic and contemporary relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the land we now know as Canada.
Safe Neighbours
SEPTEMBER 23, 6:00 PM
Safe Neighbours is a community-based program that equips individuals with practical tools to recognize and respond to domestic violence. Through engaging presentations, participants learn how to identify warning signs, approach someone safely, and offer appropriate support. Whether you're concerned about a neighbour, friend, or loved one, this program helps you become a more informed and compassionate bystander. Light refreshments will be provided.
Transformative Mediation
SEPTEMBER 23 – SEPTEMBER 26
This workshop emphasizes the development of practical skills to resolve interpersonal conflict and to facilitate mediation. It explores skills and develops strategies that enhance effective communication and are essential when facilitating conflict resolution. Role-plays and interactive exercises to integrate theory and practice are an essential part of the training; coaches assist with the role-plays. Conrad Grebel University College and Community Justice Initiatives certificates will be awarded to each participant upon successful completion of the workshop.
Impact 25 Festival
SEPTEMBER 23 – SEPTEMBER 28
Founded in 2004 by Majdi Bou-Matar, MT Space centralizes minoritized voices and narratives through theatre. IMPACT (International Multicultural Platform for Alternative Contemporary Theatre) is a biennial festival produced by MT Space in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada – presenting politically-charged and urgent international, national, and local work by Indigenous, Black, and Racialized artists since 2009.
Learn more about pricing, tickets, and passes here.
Loving Lessons from our Equity, Reconciliation and Belonging Journey
SEPTEMBER 24, 12:00 - 1:00 PM
You’re invited into an open and honest conversation with Tamarack staff, board members, and a First Nations advisor who supported the transformative journey of Tamarack’s equity, reconciliation, and belonging framework. You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of what it really takes to conduct an internal equity audit, how to engage your ecosystem in the work, and the very human lessons learned along the way. Tamarack also has a four part customizable Equity + Belonging series coming up in October - November.
Suicide Prevention Awareness
SEPTEMBER 24, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
This one-hour community education session will provide an overview of suicide prevention, focusing on awareness, identifying invitations for help, and strengths-based approaches to resiliency and wellbeing. In addition, we’ll discuss the importance of building a suicide alert community, and how to connect to local resources and supports.
Presented in partnership with the Waterloo Region Suicide Prevention Council (WRSPC).
Golden Dome: understanding the US’s new missile defence system
September 25, 1:00 PM -2:30 PM
The US Government recently announced its decision to pursue a space-based missile defence system – ‘the Golden Dome for America’. Although space-based strategic missile defence is not a new idea, the different geopolitical, economic and technological context in which this initiative is developing has raised new questions regarding the possible impact of the system on nuclear strategic stability. The ISYP / SYP-UK project on Golden Dome includes a series of three expert-led webinars exploring: What is the current status of the initiative? Is the GDA technically feasible? What would be the impact of the GDA on strategic stability?
Living Below the Line Film Screening and Fundraiser
SEPTEMBER 25, 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Living Below the Line is a film that presents the lived experience of individuals living with poverty in Waterloo Region, Ontario. Initially, Living Below the Line was a stage play, co-created by people living with poverty and theatre creators. Co-creators acted their own or each others’ stories, sharing struggles, courage, and hope. The play was very effective in dispelling audience myths and stigma about poverty, so in early 2024 a high-quality film of the play was created to be used more broadly for advocacy.
Migration Film Festival
SEPTEMBER 26, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Join us as we conclude the Waterloo Region Migration Film Festival 2025 and watch the documentary A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness).
This documentary follows a Rohingya refugee who fights for her education in the camps of Bangladesh. Her story sparks public outrage, highlighting her resilience and the challenges faced by Rohingya refugees who are denied basic rights. Dreaming of a life in Canada where she can pursue her studies, will she be one in a million to break free?
Gidinawendamin/Ska’nikú•lát annual Pow Wow
SEPTEMBER 27, 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Join us as we celebrate Indigenous culture and tradition through song, dance, arts, and cuisine. Gidinawendamin/Ska’nikú•lát Pow Wow is intended to be a safe, welcoming, and vibrant opportunity for Indigenous and non-Indigenous folks from the UWaterloo community and beyond to gather in celebration. Dancer, Vendors and Volunteers can register here.
Harvest Dinner
SEPTEMBER 27, 2:00 PM-5:00PM
Come celebrate World Alzheimer’s Day with Green Care Farms! The Harvest Dinner is our end of year celebration hosted in our Sensory Garden. Together, we enjoy a soup made from produce we have grown with people with dementia throughout the program season.
Visit our website to register or scan the QR code in the image above.
The Lion, The Lamb, and Common Sense
SEPTEMBER 28, 2:00 PM
A talk by Marinus de Groot about Thomas Paine's Common Sense, arguably the most influential pamphlet of all time, as we approach the 250th anniversary of its publication. Paine's work is considered from a Waterloo, Canada perspective at the historic Detweiler Meeting House. Hosted by the Home Range Story Kitchen as a special Sunday afternoon session of the Sandhills Parlour, a "talk circle" that normally meets Tuesdays "cinq a sept" in various downtown Kitchener locations.
Tea and Tales
SEPTEMBER 28, 2:30 PM
Join TriSisters Art House and Coalition of Muslim Women on Sunday Sept 28 at 2:30 pm for Tea And Tales. Presented by the Coalition of Muslim Women, Tea & Tales is a Cultural Cafe where participants get to engage in heart – to – heart conversations with local Muslim Women of diverse backgrounds from as they share their culturally unique traditional teas and treats. This is a free event sponsored by the Three Sisters Cultural Centre. Donations gratefully accepted.
Domicide and the Meaning of Home
SEPTEMBER 29, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
This panel, co-hosted by the Migration, Mobilities, and Social Politics Research Cluster, the Conflict and Security Research Cluster, and the Zoryan Institute, will explore the discuss the concept of “domicide” and how this can be applied to contemporary cases of violence that we are witnessing around the globe today.
Sexual Violence on Campus
SEPTEMBER 29, 1:00 PM – 2:00PM
A virtual workshop that explores the campus sexual violence landscape in Canada. We confront the issue by examining: the history of universities and the academy in Canada, including its exclusion of women and other marginal groups; the expansion of universities in the 1960s and the rise of the neoliberal state in the 1970s; the legal and policy frameworks that currently govern the issue in and across Canada; and the lived experiences and prevalence of sexual violence in campus settings. We will also be sharing information about Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office (SVPRO). The workshop will be facilitated by Ravita Surajbali.
Courage to Act
SEPTEMBER 29, 5:00 PM-6:30PM
What will it take to secure a sustainable future—for our cities, our forests, our coastlines, and the air we breathe? Join Sir Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund and one of the world’s most influential voices on climate action, for an urgent conversation about collaboration, courage, and bold solutions. With decades of leadership at the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, and now guiding one of the largest philanthropic efforts for the planet, Sir Andrew will share how global partnerships and innovation are driving real change on the frontlines of climate and sustainability. This lecture is part of the University of Waterloo’s long-standing TD Walter Bean series, bringing world-renowned leaders to our community to address the defining issues of our time.
Community-Powered Decolonization
SEPTEMBER 29, 7:00 PM-9:00PM
Join us to listen and learn about how to build peace together in our communities with Indigenous thought-leader and justice catalyst, Sarah Augustine. Sarah will inspire and equip us with insights from decades of practical work on peace building and dismantling oppressive systems at the community level. Sarah Augustine, a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant, is the co-founder and Executive Director of Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. She is an Indigenous Anabaptist activist and author and has worked in relationship with vulnerable Indigenous Peoples since 2005. Read: The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. REGISTER to join one or both evenings. These events are co-organized by local peace-building organizations Mennonite Central Committee Ontario, Coalition to End the Doctrine of Discovery, Mennonite Action, Christian Reformed Church, and Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2025
SEPTEMBER 30, 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM
We invite and encourage the entire Waterloo community to attend and observe the ceremonies throughout the day as their schedule allows. All of the ceremonies will start and end at the B.C. Matthews Hall (BMH) Green.
7:00 AM | Sunrise Ceremony
9:30 AM | Commitment Polishing Ceremony
11:00 AM | National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Remarks and Walk around Ring Road
12:00 PM | Closing Remarks, Drumming and Round Dance
All times approximate.
Truth and Reconciliation: Remember Me Walk
September 30, 10:00 AM
Please join H7G on Tuesday, September 30th for a Community Walk. A walk to remember and honour all of our children as we spread awareness while reflecting on the tragedies from residential schools, experienced by Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. All are welcomed to join in on the walk!
Following the walk, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples are invited to join at Crow Shield Lodge for a Sacred Fire, Drumming, and Elders.
Make a lil' Peace
SEPTEMBER 30, 10:30 AM-2:30PM
Make a Little Bit Peace Through Games. Join us for an interactive and uplifting event where games become bridges of connection and understanding! "Make a Little Bit Peace Through Games" invites participants of all ages and backgrounds to engage in classic and modern games that promote teamwork, empathy, and cultural exchange. Located in the first floor Education Room in Conrad Grebel, come play, connect, and celebrate the power of play in creating a more peaceful world—one move at a time.
''Peace starts in the mind''
Cultivating Justice
September 30, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report marked a new moment in national consciousness: a recognition of Indigenous histories, an awareness of the injustices committed by Settlers and their governments, and an understanding of the need for redress and the restoration of rights. At the time, Settler populations largely voiced support for these recommendations and committed to a more just future; in the years since, words have eclipsed actions. Andrew Basso and Andrea Perrella mobilize four years of survey research to understand why Reconciliation has stalled.
Inshallah Choir
SEPTEMBER 30, 5:00 PM – 6:30PM
Inshallah is a community choir of more than 130 voices, gathering from across campus and throughout Waterloo Region, singing songs of praise and prayer, of joy and lament, from around the world. It’s a fun and welcoming space where multifaith and multicultural diversity is explored through music at rehearsals, public gatherings and workshops.
Join us to sing songs of reconciliation. Visitors are welcome to participate throughout September.
Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land
SEPTEMBER 30, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
How can art help us feel the urgency of climate change — and inspire action to protect our planet? Join us for an inspiring panel conversation exploring how artists are advancing the goals of SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land) through their art, advocacy, and creative engagement. These panellists use their artistic platforms to raise awareness, build community, and spark dialogue around environmental justice and sustainability.Featuring: A panel of artists and creatives whose work amplifies environmental issues and encourages community-led action.
The Encampments Film Event
SEPTEMBER 30, 6:45 PM
The Encampments is lauded for “its sense of contemporary and historical detail, owed to both footage shot by the filmmakers, as well as by the protesters themselves.” The encampments and the students challenged the big money donors, politicians, administrators and police as they had not been for two generations. Purchase tickets online for this event fast, before it sells out!
English Conversation Circles
SEPTEMBER 23 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2025
Making friends with people who are different to you is key to building peace! Many Libraries and Community Centers across Waterloo Region offer English conversation programs, which can be an amazing way to meet people from a diversity of cultures and life experiences.
- Tues Sept 23, 11:00-12:30 Kitchener Central Library
- Wed Sept 24, 6:30-8:00 McCormick Library
- Wed Sept 24, 6:00-7:30 Pioneer Park Library
- Thurs Sept 25, 10:00-11:30 Kitchener Central Library (women only)
- Thurs Sept 25, 6:00-7:30 Southwest Community Library
- Thurs Sept 25, 6:30-8:00 Grand River Stanley Park Library
- Tues Sept 30, 11:00-12:30 Kitchener Central Library
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun
JUNE 14 - OCTOBER 5
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun is one of Canada’s most outspoken and influential contemporary artists, confronting colonialist suppression, environmental degradation, and the ongoing struggles for Indigenous sovereignty. Of Cowichan (Hul’q’umi’num Coast Salish) and Okanagan (Syilx) descent, he presents his ideas through hard-hitting, polemical, but also playful artworks making him a pivotal voice in contemporary art.
University of Waterloo Art Gallery
SEPTEMBER 11- DECEMBER 6
Brenda Mabel Reid’s ongoing large-scale quilt project Underlay explores quilts, architecture, and gender-queerness. Reid’s work challenges binary gender norms and uses quilted-architectural forms to explore quilting as a method of making a queer space that brings people together. Visitors are invited to remove their shoes, enter the space, and sit or lie down on the futons provided as a place for contemplation or a relaxing nap. In a society predicated on productivity and a 24-hour news and entertainment cycle routinely focusing on crisis and spectacle, Reid proposes the nap as a restorative political action that incites us to revive ourselves and take up space in a joyful manner.
Tending Tomorrow, Picturing Today
JULY 2 – SEPTEMBER 30
Explore a photography and prose exhibit that reflects on the interconnection between humans and the natural world, challenging dominant Western views of social and environmental hierarchies. This exhibit invites you to critically reflect on the impact of human actions, re-imagine our relationship with the environment and each other, and envision flourishing futures for people and the planet.
Where do we still Plant Flowers?
SEPTEMBER 21 – DECEMBER 30
Where do we still plant flowers? is a line from a poem written by Roshan James, stemming from her response to a community-arts project that involved tenants at the YW Kitchener-Waterloo (YWKW) transitional housing buildings in Kitchener-Waterloo. Come visit the Martin Luther's Keffer Chapel to reflect on the stories, traditions, and relationships that keep us accountable to a place.