Event Agenda

Please note that details will evolve as the agenda is finalized.

 

Day 1 – October 21

Cecil Community Centre, Toronto Neighbourhoods

 

Place:

Learning from the field through immersive community tours and connections with local leaders

 

Day 2 – October 22

Evergreen Brickworks

 

 

People:

Building skills and supports to continue, sustain, and equip us for the next horizon of changemaking

 

Day 3 – October 23

Evergreen Brickworks

 

 

Policy & Systems Change:

Creating the enabling environment for systems change and collective action

Gather together to connect as a learning community.

 

Experience one of six immersive community tours to learn about local initiatives, including:

 

  • Transformative Community Land Trust

  • Social Enterprise at Scale using asset-based approaches and community wealth building.

  • Neighbourhood Action & the Community Benefits Movement.

  • And more!

Optional evening gathering to share stories and build connections

Reconvene the learning community

  • Reflection from community tours: seeing possibility, progress, gumption, and the power of relationships & trust.

Plenary – Navigating shifting ground

  • How polarization and limited levels of trust are impacting community change efforts.

  • Being a bridge builder and other roles are required to advance our work.

  • Reflection – the inner and external work of changemaking.

Initiative showcase

 

Music, art, and walks

 

Deep-dive workshops – Building practical changemaking skills, including:

  • Community engagement – participatory decision-making approaches.

  • Collaboration – defining and framing your issue.

  • Collective leadership – conflict transformation.

  • And more!

Plenary – 10 years later: lessons learned from longer-term initiatives about sustaining community-based work

 

 

Evening Reception

Reconvene the learning community

 

Getting to systems change – learning session, interactive activity, group sensemaking

 

The Next Horizon panel – What system leaders are anticipating, and the role of place-based collaboration as the engine of systemic change

 

Block 1 - Advocacy & movement building

Tool carousel of effective strategies and actions

 

Block 2 - Prototyping, scaling, and embedding new solutions

  • Case studies

  • Discussion and sensemaking

Music, art, and walks

 

Block 3 - Policy Change

Contribute to a community-driven policy change agenda

  • Financial security

  • Guaranteed Basic Income

  • Poverty Reduction

  • Entrepreneurship

  • Belonging

  • Climate Justice

  • Youth Employment Pathways

  • Inclusive economies

Close the learning community

 

 

 

Immersive community tours

See below for a list of tour options Summit registrants will have on Wednesday afternoon.

 

TCLT 2

Toronto Chinatown Land Trust

Chinatown is an important part of Toronto’s cultural landscape, however it is in a battle against the potential loss of the character, identity and roots of their neighbourhood.

The Toronto Chinatown Land Trust (TCLT) tour provides a look at community-led land stewardship and cultural preservation. Set in one of Toronto’s most historic neighbourhoods, this walking tour highlights efforts to protect spaces for local residents, businesses, and cultural life. This tour explores how collective ownership, community governance, and trust-building support long-term resilience.

 

PNLT

Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust

Parkdale is one of the few downtown neighbourhoods that have remained relatively affordable and accessible to low-income communities, but it is under intense pressures of gentrification, housing financialization and displacement.

The Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT) tour showcases a community-led model of land ownership that protects beyond affordability and stability by enabling transformative change. Built through strong local relationships, it keeps decision-making in community control. This tour highlights how shared ownership can advance equity, belonging, and resilience.

 

LJCLT Reggae Lane

Toronto Community Benefits Network and Little Jamaica Community Land Trust

After 15 years of construction, the Eglington Cross Light Rail Transit is finally open. This large-scale infrastructure project catalyzed the community benefits movement in Toronto.

The Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN) and Little Jamaica Community Land Trust (LJCLT) tour highlights how communities are organizing to ensure that infrastructure can generate jobs, address displacement, build community wealth and advance Black self-determination through land stewardship and cultural preservation.

 

Building Up Team photo

Building Up

Social enterprises pair business innovation with a social mission to address social inequality and environmental challenges, and are often sought as part of social procurement strategies.

The Building Up (BU) tour showcases how social enterprises can help people overcome barriers to employment. BU provides a suite of training and supports their participants need to access upward wealth mobility, leading to long-term careers in the construction industry. This tour focuses on how investing in people strengthens agency, leadership, and long-term economic inclusion.

 

 

NYHFB

North York Harvest Food Bank

Food insecurity is rooted in income insecurity, and innovative approaches are needed to address the systemic causes of poverty.

The North York Harvest Food Bank (NYHFB) tour highlights how it goes beyond emergency food distribution by offering workforce training, community wealth building, and focused advocacy to tackle the root causes of food insecurity. This tour also explores how it works with sectoral partners to develop long-term solutions rooted in dignity and access.

 

Mabelle 1

Mabelle Arts

Mabelle Park is the first park in Canada designed to respond to the unique needs and desires of residents living together in a high density, low-income tower community.

The Mabelle Arts tour highlights how long-term, resident-led arts practices can transform public spaces into vibrant social infrastructure. Co-created with hundreds of neighbours, Mabelle Park reflects a decade of community visioning, where art becomes a tool for connection, care, and shared ownership. This tour shows how creativity can build belonging and turn underused spaces into hubs of pride, artistic creation, and connection to nature.