Riverside South Canada Day
Wed, Jul 1 · 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Claudette Cain Park, Riverside South
Canada Day marketplace, inflatable games, and fireworks show at Claudette Cain Park. Riverside South's biggest community event of the year.
- Festival
All community work
2025–present · Riverside South, Ottawa
Riverside South Community Association
Director of Civic Engagement
Director of Civic Engagement, and former Director of Volunteers. Neighbourhood outreach, resident consultation, and connecting Riverside South to city planning decisions. And having some fun on Canada Day and in our holiday Toy Mountain Parade.
The Riverside South Community Association (RSCA) is a volunteer-run organization serving one of Ottawa's fastest-growing suburban communities. Developing community spirit, protecting quality of life, and keeping residents connected to what matters locally is what the RSCA is about.
I serve as Director of Civic Engagement, connecting neighbours to city planning and consultation, gathering and presenting community opinions, and engaging with city staff and councillors. Before this, I spent two years as Director of Volunteers, recruiting and coordinating the people who make events, outdoor rinks, and cleanups actually happen.
Community association work is where grassroots politics starts: listening to neighbours, solving practical problems, and building the trust that later shows up in housing advocacy, municipal campaigns, and provincial runs.
About RSCA
Riverside South sits in Ottawa's south end, across the Rideau River from Barrhaven. It's a growing community of families, new builds, small businesses, parks, and trails. The vast majority of Riverside South was built this millennium.
The Community Association is entirely volunteer-run. We have no paid staff, just residents who show up to organize Canada Day, maintain outdoor rinks in winter, run spring cleanups, and keep neighbours informed about development and city decisions that affect daily life.
- •Develop and foster community spirit
- •Protect and enhance quality of life in Riverside South
- •Promote organized community endeavours
- •Keep residents informed of actions which could affect the community
Upcoming events
What we're talking about
Thomas Gamble Municipal Drain
- Responses
- 211
- 206 from local residents or workers
- Concerned residents
- 73%
- Unhappy with city communication
- Mixed-use pathway
- 90%
- Want to see pathway installed now
- Pathway use
- 77%
- Would use the path weekly
- •67% of residents upset at lost trees and vegetation
- •85% of all pathway opposition comes from homes along its route
- •50% of residents living along pathway corridor support its installation
- •Community largely concerned with safety of Earl Armstrong as an active transportation corridor
New library and community centre
- Responses
- 193
- 160 from local residents or workers
- Library use
- 40%
- Plan to visit each week
- Community centre use
- 43%
- Plan to visit each week
- Educational programming
- 84%
- Library users interested in programs beyond books
- •Residents are excited, as many have waited years for a neighbourhood library branch
- •Strong demand for evening and weekend hours that work for commuters
- •74% will access the library or community centre without a car at least some of the time
- •Maker spaces, study rooms, and sports programming were popular write-in requests
- •Residents want native plants, shade trees, and landscaping that survives Ottawa winters
What RSCA does
From the largest annual celebration to the small weekly tasks, RSCA is the connective tissue of Riverside South — powered by volunteers and local partners.
Canada Day
Riverside South's largest annual community celebration. A flagship event that brings together families, local businesses, and volunteers for the neighbourhood's biggest day of the year.
Outdoor rinks
Volunteer-maintained outdoor skating rinks that give Riverside South a winter gathering place, and keep families active and outdoors even through the coldest months of the year.
Community programming
Events like park movie nights, our holiday sleigh rides and Toy Mountain parade, decoration displays at Hallowe'en and Christmas, and a spring garage sale keep things happening in the neighbourhood all year long.
Seasonal cleanup
Spring & fall cleanups where volunteers spread out to collect waste and litter across parks, pathways, and green spaces. A big source of community service hours for high school students that keeps Riverside South looking beautiful!
Outreach & consultations
Surveys, Facebook chats, and general meetings to keep us up to date on how you're feeling. Relationships with councillors, city staff, and community partners so you don't have to take time out of your busy schedule.
Neighbourhood communication
Newsletters, social channels, and direct outreach so residents know about events, volunteer opportunities, and issues affecting Riverside South.
Community involvement
Westcliffe to Riverside South
Knowing my neighbours and making my community brighter has always been important to me. My community association volunteering started when I lived in Bells Corners in 2009, with the Westcliffe Estates Community Association.
Where politics begins
While typically volunteers with very limited power, neighbourhood associations are the closest political groups to real community life. Friends and neighbours helping each other and making small but really direct and meaningful impacts on our shared experience.
Family roots
Rachel, Simon, and I live in Riverside South. Building the events, community, and institutions our son will grow up with is personal as much as it is good for our neighbourhood.
Carleton connection
Riverside South is part of the Carleton riding. Volunteer connections here kept me grounded in the neighbourhoods my provincial campaign was built to serve.
On the ground
Further reading
Volunteer with RSCA
The RSCA is always looking for volunteers! Sign up through the association's volunteer form or email volunteers@riversidesouth.org to help with events, rinks, cleanups, and committees. No experience required.
Sign up to volunteer