12 Jan Keeping the Momentum: Celebrating 5 Years of the Ontario Community Changemakers Program

By Katie Konstantopoulos, 8 80 Cities Project Manager

The recent October Studio marked 5 years of the Ontario Community Changemakers, a multi-generational microgrant and fellowship opportunity designed by 8 80 Cities and funded by Balsam Foundation.

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 intentionally design, develop, and implement our groundbreaking program, Ontario Community Changemakers, to continue amplifying change across the province. We are excited to share the fifth edition of this program, powered by 8 80 Cities and funded by Balsam Foundation.

The 2025-2026 OCC program received nearly 450 applications, a highly competitive and unprecedented number of submissions. After much deliberation, the 8 80 Cities team, with the help of the OCC Advisory Committee, our trustees at Park People, and Balsam Foundation, selected 30 recipients.

2025 – 2026 Ontario Community Changemakers Cohort

The Changemakers

The 30 changemakers are from Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Kenora, Toronto, North Bay, Green River, Barrie, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Hamilton, Ajax, Vaughan, Kitchener, Milton, London, Thames Centre, Utopia, Brampton, Markham, Haliburton, and Scarborough (learn more about them and their projects here). With coaching from 8 80 Cities and financial support from Balsam Foundation, these 30 local leaders are beginning to build on, test, and make their vision a reality.

The Studio

After a Virtual Orientation, our newest 30 Changemakers met in Toronto over the last weekend of October 2025. This immersive two-day learning opportunity included city tours, workshops, presentations, and meetings with local grassroots community leaders.

Changemakers arrived in downtown Toronto and began connecting immediately through board games at the hotel and group outings, even before programming began!

Day 1. Changemakers learning more about the studio and 8 80 Cities.

Day 1: Connecting with Each Other and the Land

Each OCC Studio begins with the 8 80 Cities Land Commitment, which asks Changemakers to reflect on respecting treaty relationships with Indigenous communities. We opened the morning in a good way, thanks to Selina Young (OCC Advisory Committee member) as well as her helper Wynona Maracle, who opened the session with a song and a smudging ceremony. They led reflections on the importance of our relationships with the land, humans, and non-human relatives as we carry out our work.

OCChangemaker Rebecca Bekele, Peel Polaroid Project, Brampton.

Throughout the day, the changemakers introduced themselves and their projects through personal stories and reasons why they’ve chosen to pursue their projects.

Evergreen tour.

Changemakers also toured the venue at the Evergreen Brickworks, learning about flood resilience in the Don Valley, to park design, Indigenous gardens, and child-friendly play spaces.

8 80 Cities’s founder and chair, Gil Penalosa, presenting on Cities for Everyone.

Then, 8 80 Cities Founder Gil Penalosa shared his vision of Cities for Everyone, highlighting the exceptional capacity for change within communities of all sizes and at all scales – neighbourhoods, small towns, as well as mid-size suburban and metropolitan cities.

OCChangemakers enjoy dinner by Chef Iván Wadagymar at The Depanneur.

After a short ride back into the city, we closed out the day with a fantastic meal at the Depanneur with visiting Chef Iván Wadgymar, who prepared traditional Mexican dishes incorporating seasonal ingredients from his farm in Schomberg.

Day 2: Placemaking at the Intersections

8 80 Cities continued Day 2 of the Studio at the iconic Centre for Social Innovation, where we began exploring the intersections of identity, geography, systems, experiences, and ideas. Using the Two Loops Model of Change (Berkana Institute), we helped Changemakers get on their feet to identify their roles in the transition from the old, prevailing systems of Change to the new, emerging ones they are building together. Right after, Patricia Feehely, Development Manager at Park People, joined us to share how Park People also uses the Two Loops Model in their organization, encouraging Changemakers to take on a similar role to project managers.

The Loop Model.

Changemakers met with the Toronto Chinatown Community Land Trust to learn about building community power. Starting outside the Anti-Displacement Garden and the CLT’s Community Hub, Kaitlyn Chan and Hannia Cheng set the scene for Toronto’s Chinatown Centre mall as a multigenerational space for commercial and residential activity, then introduced us to local artists mobilizing through the second-floor art gallery. The group enjoyed spending time together and having lunch in the neighbourhood.

At Chinatown Centre Mall,, OCChangemakers learning about building community power.

Day 2 of Studio culminated with Changemakers in Dialogue: Placemaking in Your Context. The panel and workshop, hosted by past changemaker and 8 80 Cities Project Manager Tennesha Joseph, brought together OCC Alumni Mabe Kyle, Dokun Nochirionye, David Sheffield, Armi De Francia, and Sureya Ibrahim, who shared their experiences as Ontario Community Changemakers. Afterwards, Changemakers were vulnerable with one another about their excitement and fears about making change, and how their lived experiences and geographic contexts might shape their experience over the next 12 months as they bring their projects to life.

Changemakers in Dialogue panel.

Equipped with fresh insights and a new network of support, our Changemakers returned to their home communities, eager to get started. Some had already caught the attention of media outlets, like Wilma Delo (Filipino Street Games, Shared Stories) and Robert Lawler (Time to Be Together and Help Our Community), who were featured on Barrie Today in early October, and Bolu Adedeji (Sisterhood Protection Factor), who joined CBC London Morning the Monday after returning from Studio. Others jumped into logistics, such as Julien Hodge (COJA – Civics Ready), who hosted the first meeting with his team, and Karen Miranda Augustine (Kitchen Table Sesh) and Lise Andreana (ArtOut), who began promoting upcoming events and programming to their networks. Shauna Rae (Youth For Truth Journalism) also secured an additional $12,500 in funding from the Lawson Foundation Collective, expanding the scope of her project.

Over the next year, 8 80 Cities will support this inspiring group of Changemakers in sustaining momentum through training and coaching. We can’t wait to see what they get up to!