Purpose of the Scaling Scenarios Roadmap

As part of the Social R&D process, Participatory Canada wanted to understand demand in the field and conditions for scaling the Participatory City approach in Canada. As part of this exploration, Participatory Canada commissioned a series of strategy sessions in late 2020 and early 2021, to align around scaling demand and possibilities (Dec. 10, 2020), learning architecture (Jan. 15, 2021), and financing (Jan. 28, 2021). (Refer to Appendix A for materials from those sessions, including a list of session participants). The outputs from the sessions were used to develop a Participatory Canada Roadmap and related scenarios. This report is the culmination of those sessions, accompanied by the initial reflections of the Participatory Canada Team on the direction of potential future strategy and building of a scaled initiative in Canada.

The Participatory Canada Roadmap is meant to be used as a key data point in decision making and next steps by the Participatory Canada Team, along with current and potential partners. It is meant to provide context and support around sequencing and strategic decisions on resources, such as when and how to deliver programs and onboard support for new cities. It is not meant to be a complete or definitive model for the future development and implementation of Participatory Canada. This report reflects a possible direction for further development and implementation of the Participatory City approach in Canada and incorporates multiple perspectives, factors and suggestions from the wider partnership, city leads, and interested groups from the three sessions and through individual interviews. It identifies key themes, gaps, constraints, assumptions, implications, and opportunities that will need to be considered over the 1, 5 and 10 year path of scaling implementation. The Participatory Canada Roadmap puts forward choices to help frame the path and direction of Participatory Canada.

The Participatory Canada Roadmap connects to other streams of work being completed, such as the Developmental Evaluation on the experiences of the three city experiments and the core Participatory Canada Team. These inputs culminate in the larger Participatory Canada foundational document, the Social R&D Report (see Figure 5). In a connected way, these other documents and learning elements (such as the Theory of Change and learning sprints) will form the broader picture of strategic recommendations and operational planning to be undertaken by the Participatory Canada Team through discussion, and insights.

While the current prototypes in Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto in Canada have some programming that is operational, they will need to fully launch their programs to understand more deeply how this approach works and to envisage the potential impact and outcomes of local participation. These include building the relationships to people living in those neighbourhoods, and how these relate to organizations and governments, as well as the learning platforms. Through these prototypes the aim has been to create the initial evidence base and support for developing long term practical participation ecosystems. Figure 5 - How the Participatory Canada Roadmap connects to other Participatory Canada outputs

The Participatory Canada Roadmap puts forward choices to help frame the possible path and direction of Participatory Canada. It is meant to provide context and support around sequencing and strategic decisions on resources, such as considerations for when and how to develop people and capacity, financing approaches and methods, and how to support cities.

The Participatory Canada Roadmap must consider different elements of scaffolding the pathway from the present to reach the ten year vision that address assumptions, risks and opportunities in growing and scaling the Participatory City approach. These elements include:

• Considering common approaches to scaling social innovation and how they need to adapt for the Participatory

City approach in Canada, • Leveraging the essential components of large scale participation systems identified in the UK so they can be held as the core in Canada, • Sourcing and utilizing funding that is stage appropriate to support growth and scaling from early stage startup and evidence gathering, to longer term growth and impact development, • Adjusting to the uncertainties and externalities presented by an ever changing, uncertain future, as the Participatory

City approach grows and scales to reach its vision, and • Being flexible to pivot around new information and challenging assumptions so the roadmap followed is non linear and supports systemic ecosystem development.