25 Sep Where Two Programs Meet: 8 80 TowerPOPS as a Living Lab For Ontario Community Changemakers
By Katie Konstantopoulos, Rebecca Arshawsky and Praneti Kulkarni, Project Managers, 8 80 Cities
Since 2021, 8 80 Cities has brought together a network of 120 local leaders (and counting!) to implement bold ideas to activate public space, enhance civic engagement, and foster social inclusion in their communities through the Ontario Community Changemakers (OCC) program. After receiving funding, training, and peer networks, many participants remain in our network and programs, carrying forward skills, ideas, and partnerships that continue to activate neighbourhoods across the GTA and beyond. We also often have the pleasure of inviting them to work with us directly to experiment and support our local projects!
Today, we highlight past and present Changemakers who have developed relationships with 8 80 TowerPOPS, a 3-year multi-disciplinary project focused on transforming underused spaces to support health equity in tower neighbourhoods.
Finding Synergies
Both the Ontario Community Changemakers and TowerPOPS programs share a simple but powerful belief: empowering residents and community partners to activate public space, enhance civic engagement, and foster social inclusion.
Since 2024, 8 80 Cities has worked with community partners in Cooksville, Mississauga, and Rockcliffe-Smythe, Toronto. Residents have enjoyed new public furniture, lending libraries, and community programming from artists, cultural workers, and environmentalists.
Rockcliffe Smythe, Tower Neighbourhoods, Toronto
Cooksville, Tower Neighbourhood, Mississauga
The Changemakers working at 8 80 TowerPOPS recognize that public spaces, including those in tower communities, play a key role in impacting health equity and community wellbeing. In the spirit of the OCC program, their projects address common challenges and are rooted in local contexts, cultural approaches, and traditional knowledge. They are helping create the conditions where everyone, regardless of lived experience and identity, can show up for themselves and one another.
Keep reading to learn how Mikael Khalam, Mehedi Khan, and Sarah Hasan are contributing to sports mentorship, cultural programming, and circularity on 8 80 TowerPOPS sites.
Mikael Khalam, 2022 Changemaker
Project: TKOP – Taking Kids Out of Poverty
Location: Toronto, Ontario
When Taking Kids Out of Poverty (TKOP) connected with the OCC program in 2022, we saw how Mikael’s holistic approach to support youth from low-income communities through education, soccer, and mentorship was incredibly impactful. With OCC funding and training, he has aimed to transform the lives of underprivileged youth in Toronto neighbourhoods by combining mentorship and sports training to develop them into future leaders who will drive positive change in their communities.
Mikael discusses TKOP while watching youth on the soccer pitch. Photo source: SportsEngine / Ontario Soccer ©2025 SportsEngine, Inc.
Since completing the program, Mikael has continued working on reaching Toronto youth through TKOP and has even returned to partner with 8 80 Cities! Throughout the summer of 2026, Mikael has brought free weekly soccer clinics to the underused space at the corner of 8 80 TowerPOPS Rockcliffe-Smythe. As a “front yard” for the adjacent tower community, children often use this space for ad hoc soccer games. Thanks to Mikael and the team of local instructors, TKOP has provided meaningful opportunities for skill building, structured and unstructured play, and mentorship in an unconventional setting that meets young residents where they are.
Youth attend soccer clinics hosted at TowerPOPS Rockcliffe-Smythe.
Mehedi Khan, 2022 Changemaker
Project: Geometric City – Islamic Art & Public Spaces
Location: Toronto & GTA, Ontario
To connect his commitment to community activism, Mehedi co-founded Muslims in Public Space (MiPS). His OCC project, Geometric City, partnered with MiPS to use public art to increase the visibility of Muslim identities in urban spaces, foster a sense of belonging, and spark a necessary conversation about Islamophobia in everyday life.
Mehedi workshops ideas with other Changemakers during the 2022 OCC Studio.
Once he completed his work with the OCC program, Mehedi began working closer with 8 80 Cities. Mehedi and the MiPS team have been reclaiming spaces for creativity and culture as the lead programming partners at the 8 80 TowerPOPS Rockcliffe-Smythe and Cooksville sites. By curating programs with artists and cultural facilitators, MiPS has continued to integrate Islamic art and identities in the urban fabric of public spaces with a series of workshops, cultural programs, and community-building events. Summer programming highlights have included:
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- A community-wide Mela (Arabic vendor market) at the 8 80 TowerPOPS opening launch parties
- Prayer bead workshops
- Community-painted garden beds that reflect both the cultural diversity and built environment of the surrounding neighbourhood
- Spoken word performances, play days, and giveaways for the tower community’s youth residents
MiPS hosted multiple women-only prayer-bead workshops at Rockcliffe-Smythe, where participants came together to create custom prayer beads in October 2025. Photo credit: Zoobia Ilyas (@recent.developments).
Mehedi addressing the attendees during the community Garden Beds painting event facilitated by MiPS in June 2026.
Sarah Hasan, 2025 Changemaker
Project: Can Companion
Location: Toronto, Ontario
In many neighbourhoods, informal collectors move from park to park, gathering cans and bottles for cash, thereby disrupting the linear waste stream. However, they remain marginalized and lack safe working conditions. Sarah’s project, Can Companion, proposes small, purposeful interventions that make collecting recyclables easier and dignified. By equipping existing bins with simple, hygienic attachments, anyone can safely gather valuable recyclables.
Sarah debuts Can Companion in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood with a Jane’s Walk on Circularity in the City in May 2026.
With a working prototype, Sarah has offered walking tours to neighbourhoods in Toronto’s east end, prompting discussion and asking for community feedback. Now collaborating with TowerPOPS, Sarah has installed the CanCompanion tool at the Rockcliffe-Smythe site and conducted local community engagement, testing out circularity and community empowerment with residents in tower neighbourhoods. She continues to use this opportunity to reach policymakers, funders, and community members at our recent TowerPOPS Showcase, hoping to bring this tool to more community spaces!
Installing Can Companion at Rockliffe-Smythe!
The Takeaway
In our 20th year as an organization, it couldn’t be clearer:
We couldn’t do this work without surrounding ourselves with incredible activists, tactical urbanists, designers, artists, educators, entrepreneurs, and individuals with lived experiences and projects that are currently underrepresented in the placemaking sector.
As 8 80 Cities reimagines underused streets and spaces as places for people, we remain inspired by our growing network. Keep an eye out as a brand-new cohort of Ontario Community Changemakers joins us in October 2026! Thanks to collaboration and co-creation between programs like Ontario Community Changemakers and 8 80 TowerPOPS, we’ll continue to ignite action and challenge the status quo to create healthier, more equitable, and sustainable cities for all people. We hope you remain as inspired as we are.