22 Nov Reimagining Potential: The Expanded Ontario Community Changemakers Program

At 8 80 Cities, we believe in the power of community building, social inclusion, public space, and civic engagement. These pillars have allowed us to design, develop, and implement our groundbreaking program, Ontario Community Changemakers, with generous support from Balsam Foundation. We are excited to share the fourth edition of this program powered by 8 80 Cities.

This was a new and improved edition. We opened the program to anyone aged 19 and above to make space for those who are re-imagining their potential and need support for their goals. We also added ten extra spots, expanding the cohort to 30 changemakers.  

The 2024 – 2025 OCC program received about 285 applications from across Ontario. After much deliberation, the 8 80 Cities team, with the help of the OCC Advisory Committee, Park People, and the Balsam Foundation, selected the 30 recipients of the microgrants.  

The Projects 

The 30 changemakers are from Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Ottawa, Peterborough, Barrie, Bowmanville, Pickering, Scarborough, North York, Toronto, Etobicoke, Brampton, Guelph, Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Hamilton, Paris, and Cobourg. Their projects focus on physical activity, mental health, exploring the outdoors, public art, social justice, fostering a sense of belonging, and working with the unhoused population.  

Two White Feather’s project, Finding Common Ground, will mobilize encampment residents, community members and allies of ALL 4 Nations / Abilities to build a healing lodge and raise a respite tipi to alleviate mental health and emotional safety issues, improve physical living conditions, break the cycle of traumatic displacement of marginalized folks.  

Dokun Nochirionye’s The Sudbury African Literacy Project (S.A.L.P) brings African culture and heritage to life in Sudbury through literacy.  

Nancy Angus’s Park Your Stories: Storytelling in the GRAND Outdoors is a story circle concept in which chairs are provided in a park for a group of older adults or GRANDS to shape and share stories. 

Sanaaj Mirrie’s Groove by the Lake will occur twice monthly for three months. Afro-Caribbean-trained dancers will teach and showcase Afro-Caribbean dance moves in the parks of Lake Ontario in Ajax. 

Don Kwan’s Mapping Memory Project will activate Ottawa’s Chinatown by displaying historical photos in storefront windows, showcasing key moments and individuals from the neighbourhood’s past.  

Check out more changemakers and projects here.

The Studio

The fourth edition of the Ontario Community Changemakers program kicked off with a two-day in-person Studio in Toronto over the last weekend of October 2024. The program started at Evergreen Brickworks, where the changemakers arrived on a hired TTC bus. They spent the day at the Brickworks, connecting and introducing themselves and their projects to each other. 

OCC Toronto Studio at Evergreen. Day 1.

Our first session was facilitated by Selina Young, an OCC Advisory Committee member and Director of Indigenous Affairs at the City of Toronto, and Grandma Liz, who opened the session with a smudging ceremony. Selina facilitated activities for the changemakers to find connections with each other (like love for travelling and spicy food!) and identify how they are connected to their communities through their work.  

Evergreen Tour.

The changemakers also went on a tour of the Brickworks, which explained the site’s history and how the current facilities came to be, including the site’s recovery from the summer floods of 2024.

Shannon Holness, urban planner and board member of 8 80 Cities, led a session on project visioning, urging the changemakers to think about their legacy. Shannon also provided an overview of the planning system in Ontario to help the changemakers understand where and how they can enact change and be part of the city-building process.  

Grupo welcome donner at CSI Spadina.

Throughout the day, the changemakers introduced themselves and their projects to everyone, citing personal stories and reasons why they are pursuing these projects. We ended the day at CSI Spadina with a lovely Eritrean dinner by the local organization Newcomer Kitchen.  

OCC Studio Day 2 at Urban Space Gallery.

We hosted Day 2 of the Studio at the Urbanspace Gallery at the iconic 401 Richmond building, where the 8 80 Cities office is located. The theme for this day was community-led city building. We started the day with the changemakers co-creating a community agreement – a collective vision of how they want to be with each other. Patricia Kambitsch recorded the discussion graphically.   Right after, a fireside chat followed with Ana Cuciurenau, founder of Friends of ParkWay Forest and Asha Legendre-Simpson from Park People, our supporting partner for OCC, on how to lead and grow with your local community.  

Chinatowm Tour.

Keeping with the day’s theme, the group then went on a tour of nearby Chinatown by the Chinatown Community Land Trust, which showcased their work and achievements in Toronto’s Chinatown to save it from gentrification and displacement. The group enjoyed spending some free time and having lunch in the neighbourhood.  

Changemakers in dialogue: Tennesha Joseph, Kaitlin Goulet and Helen Chen.

After lunch, it was time to connect with changemakers from the previous cohorts. In a roundtable discussion, Tennesha Joseph from the 2021 cohort, Kaitlin Goulet from the 2022 cohort, and Helen Chen from the 2023 cohort shared their experiences as Ontario Community Changemakers.  

Along with Niko Casuncad, urban planner and OCC Advisory Committee member, we took the changemakers on a tour of 401 Richmond – a building which holds many stories of activism and community-led city building – ending in a brief session by artist Leala Hewak, whose installation TOO FUN, is currently on at Urbanspace Gallery. We wrapped up the weekend with an inspiring session by Gil Penalosa, founder and co-chair of 8 80 Cities.  

All in all, it was a great weekend of connection, dialogue, and sharing. We are so excited for this passionate group of changemakers, and we will be helping them keep the momentum over the next year with training and coaching.