The Community Happiness Project submission form

Connecting with our neighbours and community can be difficult during this time of isolation and social distancing. 

Being isolated from one another does not diminish the strength of our community. Now more than ever we need safe ways to connect and recognize that we are in this together. 

The Community Happiness Project aims to connect community members by sharing messages of hope, positivity, welcoming, and connectivity from community members and hopefully you!

Throughout January 2021, Create Waterloo (the City of Waterloo’s Arts & Culture office) will be accepting submissions of self-recorded audio messages and accompanying images (portraits, pictures, and/or art).

Audio messages/voice memos should reflect the caring spirit of the community and can include stories, messages, poems, and notes to combat the feelings of isolation that have grown throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Recordings should be no more than 30 seconds in length.

Starting in March 2021, selected messages can be accessed by using a phone to scan QR codes featured on signage placed in different locations throughout Waterloo. Signage will feature QR codes and the image submitted alongside the message. An online map will show the locations of each of the installations.

Community members are encouraged to both record a message and to visit and listen to the messages from other community members. 

Help us share the hopeful community spirit that Waterloo is known for by showing your support of The Community Happiness Project by submitting a recording and image that reminds us all that we are in it together and will get through it as a community. 

Due to the spirit of the project, messages of a commecial nature will not be lincuded.  

The following allows us to include your sumbission in our community art display as well as showcase and share your submission with the community on our social media channels.

I, the artist and/or the parent/guardian if partcipant(s) is under 18, irrevocably grant the following rights to the City of Waterloo:

• The right to reproduce images of my artwork in any print material/promotional for educational, informational or interpretative purposes not for sale or profit. 
• The right to lightly edit images to improve the quailty of image for display including, but not limited to, cropping, brightening, or removing portions of the image for the sake of clarity and in compliance with City of Waterloo standards.
• The right to lightly edit voice recordings to improve the quailty of the recording for the sake of clarity and in compliance with City of Waterloo standards.
• The right to reproduce images of any artwork (images and recordings) in any advertisement or promotion which would promote audience awareness of The Community Happiness Project and its exhibition, display, interpretive panels or technical bulletins in which the images are included at City of Waterloo owned facilities or locations.
• The right to reproduce images of my artwork (images and recordings) in photographs, digital or electronic format used for educational, informational or curatorial purposes and not for sale or commercial reproduction.

Please continue to the next page to upload your audio file. The link to upload your audio file will be provided once this page has been submitted. Please state your name at the beginning of the recording or save the file using your name so we can make sure we connect it to the correct image. 

To the extent that the foregoing information constitutes personal information as defined in the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, R.S.O. 1990, chapter M.56 as amended, the information is subject to provisions of that Act and will be used for the purposes of this project. Questions about the collection of personal information should be directed to the City Clerk, Waterloo City Centre, 100 Regina Street South, Waterloo, Ontario, N2J 4A8, telephone (519) 886-1550.