Ontario Community Changemakers Studio

After the first year of our Ontario Community Changemakers program held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year we were thrilled to bring the winners of #OCChangemakers 2022 to Toronto Island for our first in-person retreat of the year. The day was packed with team-building and sharing skills activities. The #OCChangemakers introduced their projects and shared challenges and opportunities to support each other on their new one-year adventure.  

Visit a photo gallery of the day here.

What We Are Reading

Nature Can Help Kids Facing Mental Health Challenges

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a mental health crisis in youth as they continue to face unprecedented times cut off from social networks and support systems. A temporary solution for combatting symptoms of anxiety, depression and trauma is encouraging youth to spend more time outdoors. Yet many youths are not able to easily access park space nor visit National Parks, which have shown to provide even greater mental health benefits than traditional city parks. This article highlights the importance of programs like Every Kid Outdoors (EKO) which provides every grade 4 student across the United States free access to National Parks for a full year.

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A New Jersey City Eliminated Traffic Deaths For 4 Years & Its Ending Injuries Too

“For Vision Zero to really take the next step at a national level, we have to start finding a way to bring smaller cities into this work, because right now, Vision Zero has this brand that’s associated with very flashy, huge street redesigns in the biggest cities in the country” explains Hoboken Transportation Director Ryan Sharp. This article provides a unique example of Vision Zero in the United States where the focus is on small, low-cost changes in a small-scale city. Hoboken has been able to eliminate traffic deaths over the past four years and is an example for cities big and small globally.

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Image credit: Aerial plan of Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Studio Gang and SCAPE
The Memphis Experience: Building A Park On A Tight Rope

This essay by Carol Coletta explores gentrification and equity in the provision of park space, in response to the new development of Tom Lee Park on the waterfront in Memphis, TN. The new park will span 31 acres across the city’s waterfront creating accessible high-quality park space for many neighbourhoods across the city. However, many worry that adding high quality park space near traditionally low-income neighbourhoods will increase property values and push longtime residents out. Coletta addresses this concern and reminds us that all residents should have access to high-quality outdoor space regardless of their income status.

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Low Traffic Neighbourhoods Don’t Close Streets, They Liberate Them

Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTN) are a measure being implemented across the United Kingdom that reduce the amount of through traffic in residential neighbourhoods. Urban traffic has been increasing dramatically on residential roads since the introduction of satellite navigation applications like Google Maps and Waze, creating a need for LTNs. Measures to create LTNs include using bollards or road filters to slow traffic and divert drivers trying to cut through residential neighbourhoods. Despite LTNs proven success at reducing traffic injuries, improving air quality and promoting active transportation, their implementation has caused a violent uproar from their opposers.

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Image credit: The Naked Scientists 
Finding New Ways To Promote Adventurous Play

This interview with the author of Urban Playground: How Child-friendly Planning and Design can save Cities, Tim Gill, details the current decline in children’s free play and how parenting practices may be impacting this decline. Tim briefly discusses the ‘philosophy of protection’ seen in parents and makes the case for why we need to provide more opportunities for adventurous play.

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Street Safety Groups Say SUVS & Pick-Ups Are More Likely To Kill

Road safety advocate groups across Ontario are petitioning the province’s chief coroner to investigate whether the large size and weight of certain vehicles are associated with more pedestrian deaths. The groups have evidence from the United States that pedestrians struck by SUVs or trucks are more likely to suffer a fatality than if they were hit by a sedan. The advocacy groups including Friends and Families for Safe Streets, Walk Toronto and Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition are hoping the chief coroner will investigate pedestrian deaths in Ontario to see if SUVs and trucks pose the same risk in Ontario. The goal is that the coroner’s report would also provide recommendations to the province based on the evidence.

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Cultivating Neighbourhoods That Care

This report by Agile Aging Alliance and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provides new perspectives on aging and how we can better support healthy aging through the housing sector, the built environment and by changing our outlook on aging. The report specifically highlights the loneliness epidemic in older people and provides a variety of solutions to address this issue and other issues disproportionately facing older adults.

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What We Are Watching

Tools & Resources

Bernard van Leer Foundation: Access & babies, toddlers and their caregivers
Babies, toddlers and their caregivers have special mobility needs. A "15-min neighbourhood" and "10-min public transport" are ideal models for improving their access to the services that are most important to them.

The Playful Cities Toolkit, developed by Arup and the LEGO Foundation in partnership with the Real Play Coalition, provides a range of resources to understand the complexity of play in cities, guide the design of play-based interventions, and measure their impact. By bringing together the fields of play and placemaking, its application maximizes the chance for children to engage in playful activities in their life.

Parks and Public Spaces Collection was produced by AARP Livable Communities with 8 80 Cities and Trust for Public Land to give community leaders (and park advocates from all corners) tools they can use to both create and improve green spaces and public places for people of all ages. A back-to-back to highlight the importance of parks.

OAST: Policy Recommendations
Ontario Active School Travel (OAST), Green Communities Canada (GCC) and the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory (HEAL) at Western University partnered to create a list of evidence-based policy recommendations to promote active school travel. 57 recommendations were created based on 555 key informant interviews, 24 Regional environmental policy scans and a review of 185 academic journal articles. The 57 recommendations are divided into 5 categories: planning, infrastructure, school site, student transportation and school travel planning.

Events & Announcements

8 80 Staff Spotlight