Scaling over Three Time Horizons

In addition to considering the six essential components and the three supporting elements of coordination, communication and relationships, Participatory Canada will also need to build and scaffold foundations around people, sustainable financing, and networks over the next ten years (see Figure 15). Through the next decade, the initial ‘national’ support needed from the city teams may transition to a different type of support for more mature cities as the model builds capacity within cities across Canada over time. Formalized structures and nurtured relationships with the global campus will allow new cities and communities to join and utilize the Participatory City approach to create more practical participatory ecosystems.

The Near Term (0-3 years): People

The immediate and near term time horizon should focus on bringing together the right people, infrastructures and spaces for the initial cohort of cities. It is imperative to continue to leap-frog the learnings from the UK and Canadian experiments, focusing on the development of the outcomes measurement frameworks (to support future financing) and the vision and growth of Participatory Canada across the nation.

Establishing the first cohort of cities

Of high importance is the development of the initial deep demonstration city and the accompanying Here&Now campus. This demonstration site will form a strong validation case for the Participatory City program in Canada. Critical to its success will be the team that is assembled to develop the participatory infrastructure, bring expertise and program knowledge, design and execute the programs, and lastly, to engage the community.

Additionally, four cities with medium support from the national team will comprise the rest of the first cohort. They will begin to build capacity in their local contexts, preferably in diverse regions across Canada to increase Participatory Canada’s exposure across the nation. These cities will then provide the support and mentorship for another five small or light implementations to continue to build momentum for participatory systems in our Canadian cities.

• Explore and identify a potential deep implementation city. Understanding required of local vision, context and expertise within each potential city to choose a deep implementation city site and additional smaller implementation cities.

• Identify the minimum viable system to drive local impact, while contributing nationally and globally to the Participatory City approach.

Onboarding teams, potential partners and interested groups

Establishing a national team with necessary expertise and vision to lead the development of Participatory Canada will be foundational to start developing the resources and bandwidth to focus on supporting city teams. Coalescing additional roles and responsibilities, such as program managers, coordinators, and evaluators, will help to develop core infrastructure and future focused capabilities. Developing capabilities like impact measurement, reporting standards, communication, and learning, will create the conditions necessary to start leap-frogging current participatory practices, while priming Participatory Canada for future financing and business case development.

Furthermore, through strong narratives and partnerships, key potential partners like city officials and potential funders of Participatory Canada will need to be brought along the journey to have visibility into the impacts and evolution of the program. Interested groups will be engaged by building trust and being educated on the importance of transitioning towards practical participatory ecosystems.

Considerations:

• Define e ective ways to onboard new colleagues into the Participatory City ecosystem that leverage digital tools and media due to the ongoing pandemic.

Although experiential learning and in-person activities were the preferred methods noted by participants in the convening sessions and subsequent discussions, the realities of interacting with one another may be limited. Developing Outcomes Frameworks

Specific outcomes and measurement frameworks will need to be established at the onset to capture necessary data to be used in general communication and in building business cases for additional funding. The data collected will allow the Participatory Canada team to better understand and attribute the impacts of the program to develop the case for future cost savings or returns on investment to engage potential funders. Whether financing comes later on from outcomes funders (private sector), philanthropists, or municipal budgets, the data collected will be an integral input to rally the support of these potential partners and funders.

Goals of this Phase

1. Onboard five cities into Participatory Canada, supporting one deep demonstration city and four medium implementation cities. An additional five cities will be identified to be supported through a light exploration into Participatory

Canada. 2. Develop the people resource capacity and expertise to facilitate the execution of the Participatory City approach in the local contexts of the ten cities. 3. Develop and test initial outcomes architecture to begin demonstrating the values and impacts of the Participatory

City approach.

Community Engagement

A strong focus should be placed directly on the communities participating in the first cohort of cities to effectively communicate, establish local leadership, and develop capacity for the Participatory City approach. Looking to best-practices from city experiments in the UK and Canada will help support the narratives and methods to effectively do so.

Over the medium term, establishing sustainable financing methods should be emphasised to promote the scaling of practical participatory ecosystems in Canada. In this phase Participatory Canada should grow from the initial cohorts of cities, towards financing and establishing the next decade of cohorts. Outcomes measurement, data, and strong narratives from the city implementations will be critical inputs for the success of establishing sustainable financing.

Sustainable Financing

As a lead city, the deep implementation site will be relied upon to provide strong evidence and data that establishes a strong business case for the Participatory City approach. Two major financing tools that would allow for sustained growth of Participatory Canada are outcomes based financing and municipal support by way of budgetary spending on the programs. Outcomes based financing would require demonstration of attribution of the desired outcomes that would be purchased by an outcomes funder. The infrastructure and methods for capturing and reporting on the impacts generated through the Participatory City approach will need to be quickly established and tested at the onset of the first cohort of cities in order to produce and collect the required data. Municipal budget spending would also require demonstration of impacts from the program to justify either a spend or a reallocation of funds to produce the desired community benefits and results from the Participatory City approach. Additionally, continuing to create and share the stories and narratives produced from the local initiatives could support the business cases and development of relationships with potential funders who need to see the impacts demonstrated through evidence.

Considerations:

• Validate and test the types of funding methods and approaches used to best leverage the available resources, relationships, and factors within the local context. For example, a city implementation with strong political support may be able to leverage public funds to support ongoing sustainability of the Participatory City approach. While another city, without strong political support, may utilize the deep outcomes measurement framework to utilize outcomes based methods or community bond issuances.

• Understand the motivations of funders to better align or position Participatory Canada as a useful tool for cities to employ. Consider that pandemic response and economic recovery e orts in the medium term may pose opportunities or challenges when targeting public funding. Solidifying the deep demonstration site

In this time frame, the Canadian Here&Now campus should be fully operational and sustainable, providing a hub of expertise for cities across Canada. This campus should be the main domestic point of interaction for all communities and cities currently utilizing, or keen to develop, practical participatory ecosystems.

Establishing second cohort of Cities

This phase will look to support an additional four Canadian cities in using the Participatory City approach. Critical to their successful initiation will be the support from the first cohort of cities, through immersive experiences, learning and capacity building, and guidance. The Participatory Canada team should provide coordination support for the new cohort of cities. It should also leverage the first cohort of cities’ expertise in building the capacity for and embedding the Participatory City approach, programs, and learning architectures locally in their cities.

Goals of this Phase

1. Support 4 additional cities by leveraging the first cohort’s lessons learned, expertise and guidance to leap-frog the cities into using the Participatory City approach. 2. Utilize the accessible outcomes architecture and demonstrate the values and impacts of the Participatory City approach to funders and potential partners. 3. Offer guidance and expertise at the Canadian Here&Now campus to help other cities develop the capacity for social systems change.

The Long Term (5-10 years): Building Networks

By the ten year time frame, Participatory Canada should look to deepen relationships and networks that enable long term growth and scaling of the Participatory City approach. The ambition conveyed in the strategic convening sessions suggested that Participatory Canada should aim to support the Participatory City approach where there is clear demand and appropriate conditions in at least 50 Canadian cities or communities by 2030, all of which would support one another to develop the necessary programs, assets, and systems to achieve positive social outcomes. In the ten year time frame, impacts should be felt within the cities that have developed the practical participatory ecosystems, demonstrating clear community value and continuing to propel the growth of Participatory Canada.

Embed Participatory Canada across Five Regions in Canada

As more cities are supported by the Participatory Canada platform beyond the initial two cohorts of cities, Participatory Canada should focus on exploring a geographic network structure as an option to provide more localized support for cities. This structure could help scale to additional cities by developing relationships and building capacity in new cities in a region while supporting the coordination and dissemination of learnings from other cities, regions or global experiments. Each region could focus on building lead cities to create a regional support network and demonstration of the Participatory City approach that could be adopted by neighbouring communities and cities.

Supporting Lead Cities

Deep demonstration cities and more mature implementations should be supported by Participatory Canada in developing learning experiences for other cities. The local learning campuses and stories developed from their implementations of the Participatory City approach should be accessible for shared learning by Participatory Canada and the global learning platform. There may be resources (people capacity and funding) needed to further support the coordination for deeper collaboration and learning opportunities during this expansionary phase of Participatory Canada.

Long term financing and sustainability

In this phase, Participatory Canada should also focus on sustaining existing financing and finding and establishing new, sustainable financing to support ongoing program delivery while catalyzing support for new cities. The national team can help facilitate and support the building of relationships, education for key potential partners and interested groups, and sharing program data to develop new business cases for support.

With a mature Participatory Canada by 2030, various funding methods should be tested to see which best support cities and their networks across the phases of implementation, leading to the development of best practices around financing models.