On Saturday, October 4th, 2025, Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro (NCNF) hosted another successful community fair. As the third fair, this event focused on highlighting local resources and further developing Canal’s residents’ vision for the future of their neighborhood.
With 255 residents, staff, and volunteers in attendance, the fair hosted a variety of local organizations to connect residents with nearby resources, provided art and activities for children, and distributed taco plates from Consuelo’s Kitchen Food Truck. Additionally, Vivalon provided free pick-up and drop-off shuttle services every 20 minutes from two different locations in the Canal including the 91 Larkspur Canal Alliance office and Pickleweed Park to ensure the accessibility to the event.
Once welcomed by our Fair Ambassadors, attendees were then invited to explore 30 organizations, organized into four categories: Community Preparedness & Sustainability, Health & Safety, Education & Workforce Development, and Community Development. These categories helped ensure a wide range of valuable resources were being shared with the community.
Organizations that participated in the Community Preparedness & Sustainability included: CalTrans, Cool the Earth, Marin County Parks, Marin County Planning, Multicultural Center of Marin, Legal Aid of Marin, and the Public Defenders Office. From sea-level rise, emergency preparedness, immigration, and the proposed McInnis Marsh Restoration Project, these booths helped inform community members of resources that can help them directly and the environment. One of the most popular booths of the whole fair was a sea-level rise demonstration facilitated by over 20 students from the Landscape Architecture program at UC Berkeley.
Under Health & Safety, Kaiser Permanente, the County of Marin, Marin community clinics, City of San Rafael, Marin Sanitary Services, San Rafael Police Department, Canal FC, and Buckelew Programs were in attendance. These organizations presented information on illegal dumping, an update on the Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, had soccer sign ups, and shared suidice prevention and mental health resources. Most notably, Kaiser, the county, and community clinics provided Flu and COVID-19 shots and blood pressure readings on-site.
In Education & Workforce Development, Marin Promise Partnership, Parent Services Project, San Rafael Library and Recreation, Matrix Parents from the Marin Center for Independent Living, and the Education and Economic Mobility departments from Canal Alliance engaged with community members, primarily regarding early child education. Activities spanned from surveying parents on their preferences for childcare, signing people up for ESL/ISL/citizenship classes, providing board games, giving away free books, and sharing a children’s reading circle. Administered by Marin Promise Partnership, you can learn more about their Child Care Wish List activity, data analysis, and findings in our NCNF Community Fair Data Analysis linked below.
Lastly, Community Development had Marin Transit, Golden Gate Transit, The Canal Arts, Voces del Canal, and Canal Alliance. These organizations provided information regarding housing, transit and trip planning, collected feedback on proposed transit initiatives, and had a mural and coloring pages for kids to draw on. Canal Alliance had registrations for their Leadership Academy as well as information regarding their voter engagement and tenant rights services.
This category also hosted our NCNF Placemaking and Community Asset Map stations where Canal residents were able to directly express their ideas for the Canal neighborhood. At the Placemaking station, participants were asked to picture their neighborhood and think of a project they would like to see there. At the Community Asset Map station (Figure 1), participants were asked to name an existing resource in the Canal* and then think of a new resource they would like to see in the next 10-20 years. Their responses were then categorized within our 7 resident-identified themes: Health & Safety, Education, Economic Development, Cultural Preservation, Climate & Sustainability, Transportation, Housing. An analysis of this data can be found here.
In the coming year, NCNF will begin diving into the seven community priority themes with the Consejo and Canal residents through a series of working groups and workshops. You can stay up-to-date on our progress by texting “Nuestro” to 844-508-1276.
Learn more about the projects presented at this year’s Community Fair:
- CalTrans Highway 101 Sea-Level Rise Feasibility Study: https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-4/d4-projects/d4-marin-sea-level-rise
- Marin Promise Partnership: Canal Promise Neighborhood: https://www.marinpromisepartnership.org/initiatives/
- Multicultural Center of Marin: Steering Committee: https://multiculturalmarin.org/steering-committee/
- City of San Rafael Sustainability Department: Illegal Dumping: https://www.cityofsanrafael.org/how-is-the-city-addressing-illegal-dumping/
- City of San Rafael Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan Update: https://www.cityofsanrafael.org/citywide-bicycle-and-pedestrian-plan/
- Marin Transit: Zero-Emission Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility https://marintransit.org/projects/zero-emission-bus-operations-and-maintenance-facility
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