Youth Engagement Strategy
2014 - 2015
Toronto, Ontario
With the intent of making Toronto the most engaged city in North America, the City Planning division launched Growing Conversations to reach out to individuals whose voices are often missing in planning conversations. Achieving this goal meant speaking to the city’s youth, who are the fastest-growing demographic in some parts of the city, the drivers of economic and employment growth, and an important segment of Toronto’s population. Urban Strategies Inc. along with Swerhun Facilitation and Maximum City were retained to select a Youth Research Team (YRT) of 10 Torontonians between the ages of 18-29 to help us study how and when to engage young people on city planning issues. We facilitated a series of workshops to gather feedback from the YRT based on their innovative research with youth across the city and their own personal experiences. By distilling and summarizing the findings from the YRT and facilitating several workshops, we helped develop the Youth Engagement Strategy. The Strategy consists of nine Guiding Principles, four Focus Areas, and 20 Actions that aim to mobilize a generation to take ownership of and become active in city planning in Toronto.
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