Project Rationale

 

The Challenge

The challenge prompting this project is multifaceted

Racialized and lower-income communities, like East Scarborough, are most affected by climate change but often left out of decisions. To address this, engaging communities with a climate justice approach is crucial, ensuring they have the power to shape solutions.

Residents may have other pressing concerns like affordability, housing, and racial justice, so climate solutions need to align with these priorities. Our approach focuses on community strengths, desires, and locally-driven solutions, viewing climate benefits as co-benefits to community goals.

Collaboration involving various groups (communities, universities, policymakers, nonprofits, and residents) is vital for tackling urgent sustainability challenges. This emphasizes the importance of connecting and working together using knowledge co-production and co-creation.

The need for co-production exists at two scales: neighborhood engagement to identify community priorities and futures, and city-scale engagement connecting visions from different communities to create fair, community-centered climate policies and solutions.

Approaches

To appropriately meet this challenge, the Visionary Communities project will support neighbourhood aspirations for just futures in the Kingston Galloway/Orton Park (KGO) neighbourhood of East Scarborough through a Connected Communities approach and processes of co-production grounded in authentic relationships. With these approaches we can truly reflect the priorities of residents, while advancing climate and sustainability goals. Together, project participants (researchers, community development practitioners, grassroots groups, residents) will explore, design, test, and iterate solutions to community-defined challenges by building on and enhancing community assets (relationships, knowledges, experiences). Lessons learned along the way will inform just sustainable futures in the City of Toronto that are authentically grounded in community(ies) aspirations and actions.

Connected Communities Approach

By intentionally focusing on and strengthening social connections and networks between and among people and organizations, these networks can be a catalyst to foment community-based social and economic development.

Transdisciplinary Knowledge Co-production

Engaged scholarship that involves partnership with non-academic stakeholders and addresses real world and complex challenges of sustainability and climate change requires a different approach to building knowledge and facilitating action.

Normalizing Sustainability

How can we make sustainability the default, rather than the change? Dr. John Robinson explains in this presentation.

Purpose Statement

    Through a Connected Communities approach and processes of co-production grounded in authentic relationships, Visionary Communities supports neighbourhood aspirations for just futures in the Kingston Galloway/Orton Park neighbourhood that truly reflect the priorities of residents, while advancing climate and sustainability goals. Together, project participants (researchers, community development practitioners, grassroots groups, residents) will explore, design, test, and iterate solutions to community-defined challenges by building on and enhancing community assets (relationships, knowledges, experiences). Lessons learned along the way will inform just sustainable futures in the City of Toronto that are authentically grounded in community(ies) aspirations and actions.

Foundational Hypothesis

Achieving municipal climate goals will require:

  • an unprecedented level of political support
  • an unprecedented level of behavioural engagement

Current, top-down approaches may not achieve those outcomes. Visionary Communities is a four-year pilot of an alternative approach, one that is rooted in local momentum and aspirations. We think this approach may be much more successful.

Key principles of this alternative approach:

  • Don’t lead with climate
  • Start with what the community already cares about
  • Connect climate action explicitly to the pre-existing agenda and activities of residents