Executive Summary To culminate a year of experiential learning and research, Participatory Canada wanted to understand demand and conditions for scaling the Participatory City approach in Canada. As part of this exploration, Participatory Canada commissioned a series of three strategy sessions in late 2020 and early 2021, to align around scaling demand and possibilities, learning architecture, and financing for the approach. The 10 year vision for Participatory Canada was developed at Wasan Island in 2019. Participatory City Foundation, working in partnership with the McConnell Foundation, began seeding an intention and creating a plan to develop, learn and explore feasibility of prototypes during a social research & development phase in three Canadian cities, Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto. The live prototypes were designed to maximise learning opportunities
and share knowledge and practices between the three cities. This was completed with an aim to test local responses to participation culture and to assess the emerging opportunities for building participatory social infrastructure in these neighborhoods long term. After one year of research, the vision is still compelling and viable, even with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Information gathered from participants in the strategic sessions, through interviews, and from supporting research was used to develop this Participatory Canada Roadmap, which outlines potential pathways to help grow the vision for a scaled initiative in Canada.
PARTICIPATORY CANADA ROADMAP
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