TCHC receives two 2025 CPRS ACE Awards

Toronto Community Housing (TCHC)’s The Next Surgeon program, was recognized this past spring by the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS). We won the 2025 Annual Achieving Communications Excellence (ACE) award (bronze winner) for the Canadian Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Campaign of the Year category. The ACE awards celebrate the industry’s top communicators and public relations programs and campaigns from the past year. More than 150 entries were received from public relations professionals across the Greater Toronto Area including large public relation agencies like Weber Shandwick Canada and private sector companies such as TELUS, HomeEquity Bank, and Northland Power Brand. 

The Next Surgeon program, founded in 2022, is offered to TCHC youth and local high school students. The free, accessible, and hands-on program focuses on recruiting Black students and students of colour who live in social housing and who are interested in healthcare - specifically the fields of cardiac and neurosurgery. 

Last year, this award-winning program received the Innovation Award from the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA). This summer, The Next Neuroscientist program launched at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. The program was made possible after the success of The Next Surgeon program and provides TCHC tenants in grades 11 and 12 with hands-on research experience in neuroscience labs.

TCHC also received the Silver ACE award for Employee Engagement/Internal Communications Campaign of the Year for our quarterly Leadership Exchange series. The series brings together people leaders at TCHC in a town hall format to build skills, network, receive organization news and updates, as well as collaborate on large projects. 

These awards highlight the dedication, innovation, and passion that we bring to our work at TCHC. We are so proud to be recipients this year.  

The full list of winners of the 2025 Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Toronto Chapter’s Achieving Communications Excellence (ACE) Awards