All Saints’ Anglican Church in Waterloo, Ontario, purpose-built the SideWalk Community Centre as part of an extensive redevelopment of its property to provide one of the only in-neighbourhood community centres in the city. The creation of the community centre stemmed from the realization that there was a lack of spaces for recreation and connection in this rapidly changing neighbourhood with a large percentage of new Canadians, visible minorities, and families with limited disposable income. To ensure that it met the community’s needs, leaders and church volunteers collected data from nearby residents, local politicians, and social services in interviews and conversations over a multi-year planning period.

Young people need spaces in their neighborhoods where they feel safe, are heard, and can be themselves. In 2016, the City of Mississauga recognized that youth in Malton – an ethnically diverse and geographically isolated neighbourhood in the city’s northeast – lacked sufficient access to health and community services, as well as dedicated spaces for recreation and arts programming. In response, they created the Malton Youth Hub, a one-stop destination for the area’s youth. The Hub, a converted swimming pool, houses in its 18,000+ square feet of space a recording studio, a commercial kitchen, multipurpose rooms, and a spacious atrium space for casual meet-ups and performances on a pop-up stage. Since its opening in Fall 2023, the Hub has become a vibrant destination for Malton residents aged 12 to 25, who find there a place to access services, express themselves without judgment, learn, grow, and have fun.  

Seeking a new venue where its teaching, research, and performance could connect meaningfully with the public, Carleton University embarked on a unique collaboration with a historic former church to build an off-campus performing arts facility in downtown Ottawa. In 2018, the university acquired property from the former Dominion-Chalmers United Church and created an innovative tenant agreement that allowed the church to continue hosting some services and programming for the community while the university gained access to a unique and beautiful space. The Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC) now serves as Carleton’s arts, performance, and learning centre – a vibrant academic and cultural hub used for lectures, workshops, panels, conferences, and interdisciplinary events, often hosted in partnership with community groups. Beyond university programming, CDCC is a vital space for Ottawa’s arts and non-profit sectors, hosting concerts, classes, meetings, festivals, and special events. Its arts programming includes Ottawa Chamberfest, the Ottawa Children’s Theatre, and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, among others. As many universities struggle with reduced enrollment, and churches struggle with deferred maintenance and declining congregation attendance, this partnership is a solution that benefits both while keeping vibrant, often historic, spaces in use. With the CDCC, Carleton has created a welcoming multidisciplinary home for learning and the arts that enriches the student experience while fostering an inclusive space for community programming.

Mabelle Avenue in Central Etobicoke is a dense, low-income, and historically underserved neighbourhood with a very diverse population, including many new Canadians. Like many suburban communities based around towers, Mabelle Avenue lacks access to parks, community centres, and cultural spaces, and its outdoor areas are often neglected and underused – even as rapid new development has increased the need for social connection in the area. For the past 18 years, Mabelle Arts has worked alongside local residents, artists, and architects to raise over $3.5 million and co-create a unique community park that fosters connection, creativity, and belonging: Mabelle Park, which opened in October 2024. What makes this initiative special is its transformation of an overlooked space owned by Toronto Community Housing into a vibrant community hub that responds directly to the needs of this high-density, low-income community. The first park in Canada designed specifically to the needs and desires of lower-income tower residents, Mabelle Park offers a space for residents to connect with nature and with their neighbours, and creates opportunities for social connection through events and workshops. Ongoing park care – such as gardening and maintenance – is often undertaken by community members, which not only fosters stewardship but also supports economic development and employment opportunities, making the park a place for community building and resilience.

The Ritson and Olive Commons Placemaking Project addresses the long-standing challenge of vacant public land by transforming an unused site at 350 Ritson Road South in Oshawa into a lively, community-driven space. This regionally owned property has sat dormant as one of several parcels purchased for future road work – an approach that left gaps in the neighbourhood fabric. The site is located within a neighbourhood that faces significant social and health challenges, including higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment compared with other Durham Region communities and the provincial average. Residents wished to bring some life to the spot until it was needed for other uses. Through a competitive design process, a local artist created murals celebrating pollinators, while new amenities – picnic tables, shade sails, a public book-sharing box, and thoughtfully designed green infrastructure – invite people to gather, read, and relax. Developed collaboratively with those living in the area, the initiative emphasizes authentic engagement, strong partnerships, and solutions rooted in local priorities and assets. Launched in June 2025 under Durham Region’s new Public Art and Placemaking Program, the project shows how a creative temporary use can generate pride and engagement without requiring a major capital investment.

In the Rideau/Vanier neighbourhood of Ottawa, a network of social service organizations has transformed the decommissioned Rideau High School into a vibrant centre for connection, learning, and support. The Rideau Community Hub is a centralized resource located in a community facing high rates of inequality, food insecurity, social isolation, and persistent poverty. Managed by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, it hosts around 30 non-profit organizations that provide childcare, a food bank, immigration resources, after-school programs, vaccinations, Indigenous cultural services, supports for seniors, and entrepreneurship training for newcomers. It employs 150–200 people and serves up to 500 visitors each day, building community cohesion and strengthening the local social fabric. The Hub offers versatile spaces that include a 700-seat auditorium, a black box theatre, a full gymnasium, a cafeteria, a children’s play area, two soccer fields, and a community garden. And it strengthens social infrastructure, bringing residents together for cultural, recreational, and health-related programs while improving access to essential services, supporting small business development, and fostering a stronger, more inclusive community.

The role of churches in community life is evolving, and Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in Toronto, like many places of worship, has increasingly needed to rent out space for programming and performances to generate enough revenue to keep its doors open. Located in the Annex neighbourhood, Trinity-St. Paul’s is an affirming congregation that is heavily involved in activism and the arts. By renting to 60 community groups and booking numerous special events, its Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts provides an important service to the wider community while balancing the books – but the church has much less space available to run shelters and food services. As another way to extend help to those in need, Trinity-St. Paul’s created a Community Resources Booklet that outlines available services, shelters, food, help lines, and other social assistance groups and locations in and around the neighbourhood. The booklet also connects people who want to help with organizations that are in need of volunteers. The church’s staff undertake the daunting task of keeping this ever-changing list of resources up to date and making the booklet available both on site and in nearby locations. In future, they plan to turn this into a network that matches available spaces and volunteers with those seeking services.

With guidance from the community, the Vanier BIA in Ottawa turned a little-used parking lot into the Vanier HUB, a community space for events and programming. It began with a public art project – painting a mural on a shipping container – in 2021, and quickly drew strong community interest, confirming that a simple, accessible venue could spark new life in the area. Support from the My Main Street grant program allowed the lot to be redesigned as a more permanent feature, and the HUB has become a vibrant local anchor, drawing people to the area to shop, learn, and connect through programming centred on arts, culture, sports, and community engagement. Events are designed for a wide range of residents, including francophone, Indigenous, and newcomer communities, and keeping families, youth, and 2SLGBTQ+ participants in mind. The aim is to foster inclusion and a sense of belonging. In 2023 the project won the Downtown Achievement Award of Excellence from the International Downtown Association. The HUB is at the centre of the city’s larger Montreal Road revitalization project, a major streetscape redesign that will add a number of new safety and artistic elements, transforming the area once complete. By turning an underutilized site into a lively gathering place, the BIA has boosted traffic to Vanier’s main street, reframing how the neighbourhood is seen and building pride among residents.

ActivateYYC is a micro-grant program designed to help community associations, businesses, not-for-profits, and individuals bring placemaking and tactical urbanism projects to life across Calgary. The program encourages people to transform untapped neighbourhood spaces into vibrant, people-focused places by providing resources for temporary, low-cost, and engaging interventions in the range of $500 to $5,000. Placemaking projects funded by ActivateYYC include murals, “paint the pavement" projects, public space infrastructure such as seating – and anything else citizens can creatively imagine for their community. Over the years, ActivateYYC has grown consistently, supporting more than 40 projects from new and repeat participants and expanding its annual funding from $60,000 to $400,000. They have secured $2.85 million for the next three years to expand the program further and establish a placemaking innovation lab. Funding comes from the City of Calgary, and the Federation of Calgary Communities is an overarching support organization and civic partner. The program’s adaptable model has proven especially vital during periods of social disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, by strengthening neighbourhood connections and activating public spaces. Through micro-grants and hands-on interventions, ActivateYYC continues to foster community creativity, engagement, and a shared sense of place across Calgary.

Like many downtowns across the country, Downtown Victoria has experienced many challenges since the arrival of the pandemic in 2020 – challenges that threatened its vitality as a cultural, economic, and social hub for the Greater Victoria region. Even after restrictions eased, the high cost of living, a worsening housing crisis, and mental health and addiction issues, combined with enduring work-from-home patterns, reduced the number of visitors to the core. Many local businesses struggled with rising costs and declining revenue streams amid public perception of higher crime and lack of safety, leading to historic retail and commercial vacancies. The City of Victoria responded by creating the OUR DWTN Program. Initiated in 2023 and funded through an increase in paid parking revenue, the program prioritizes safety, cleanliness, activation, and beautification in the downtown area. Enhanced lighting improves security in darker areas, and around-the-clock street cleaning keeps public spaces tidy. A forthcoming Storefronts program will encourage arts and culture activations in vacant spaces, while public art, seasonal lighting, and horticultural displays enhance the area’s vibrancy and appeal. Together, these placemaking efforts are helping to restore confidence in Downtown Victoria, creating a safer, cleaner, and more vibrant core that supports local businesses, fosters community connections, and celebrates the city’s cultural and economic heart.

Urban alleyways are often neglected spaces that can make pedestrians and adjacent property owners feel unsafe. The Rainbow Ramblas initiative in Calgary is a pilot project to reimagine the city’s alleys as welcoming, multi-functional spaces: it promotes comfort and safety through increased public presence and new uses by adding features such as murals, plants, and inviting street furniture. The project is a collaborative effort between the University of Calgary, municipal leadership, and a number of industry partners. Supported by the Calgary Downtown Association and the City of Calgary’s Downtown Strategy team, this pilot forms part of the broader Green Alley Project (GAP), which is tied to the city’s Greater Downtown Plan. While not intending to displace vulnerable populations, Rainbow Ramblas activates alleys while preserving their service functions, repositioning them from back-of-house zones to front-facing, people-oriented places of creativity, culture, and walkability. Launched in summer 2025, the project includes a pre- and post-installation study to measure impacts on pedestrian activity, visitation, and public life, while building a business case for pedestrianized alleyways.

Across Canada, there remains a profound gap in accessibility when it comes to our built environment. Even though more than 8 million Canadians over age 15 live with disabilities, many workplaces, health centres, recreational facilities, and spiritual spaces remain out of reach. The StopGap Foundation advances accessibility and builds community through advocacy, education, and hands-on action, providing customized ramps, workshops, and partnerships to remove physical barriers and inspire inclusive design. Since its inception, the organization has eliminated thousands of single-step obstacles across Canada, facilitating greater independence and community participation for people with mobility challenges. Through workshops, talks, and social media, StopGap also educates the public about accessibility, highlighting challenges faced by people with disabilities and our shared responsibility to address them. Their colourful ramps, built in partnership with volunteers, builders, and businesses, remove barriers and spark vital conversations about inclusion. They collaborate with policy-makers, planners, developers, and property owners to embed accessibility into design and maintenance, advancing long-term change.

STACKT Market in Toronto is the largest shipping container market in North America. It has become a shared space for small businesses, global brands, and community events, one that also supports the local economy. Building on this model, STACKT launched STACKTˣ in 2023, a national platform designed to help small businesses launch and grow. At its core, STACKTˣ is an eight-week accelerator program that offers entrepreneurs mentorship, marketing, and operations support along with a one-month free retail lease in a high-foot-traffic area in its modular market space. Operating in Toronto and Ottawa, with expansions planned for Calgary, Vancouver, and beyond, STACKTˣ has already attracted over 7,500 small businesses and 1,600 Storefront Grant applicants, enabling 30 recipients to open pop-up shops. By providing real-world exposure, expert guidance, and accessible retail opportunities, STACKTˣ fills a gap in Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Programs like this not only help emerging businesses thrive but also generate local jobs, activate communities, and strengthen urban resilience. STACKTˣ shows how place-based innovation can translate into national impact – empowering entrepreneurs while redefining how cities grow, collaborate, and sustain economic vitality.

Toronto is home to over 160 public markets: farmers' markets, vintage and antique markets, artisan and craft markets, affordable fresh food markets, and more. The key role that such markets play in supporting local businesses and building strong, connected communities is often overlooked. Enter marketcityTO, led by a growing grassroots network of former market managers supporting Toronto’s public markets sector through collaborative projects and advocacy that help residents and municipal representatives recognize the value of public markets. Working with market managers, marketcityTO has led initiatives such as Toronto’s first interactive market map, the Scarborough Fresh Food Pilot, and the 11th International Public Market Conference. Their engagement with councillors, City staff, and other stakeholders informed the City’s first-ever Public Markets Action Plan and led to a dedicated full-time staff position. In 2025, marketcityTO partnered with the City to expand Public Markets Week – a citywide celebration of the culture, diversity, and entrepreneurship that markets bring to Toronto’s neighbourhoods. A pilot program provided funding for markets to host programming as part of the event. Ten markets across Toronto collaborated with local organizations and small businesses on initiatives such as Indigenous-led medicine bag workshops, willow weaving, and cooking demonstrations. Leveraging Toronto’s Love Local campaign, marketcityTO continues to highlight that supporting public markets is one of the most effective ways to strengthen a municipality’s small business ecosystem and community connections.

In Toronto’s Niagara neighbourhood, two siblings created an edible children’s garden to bring greenery, joy, and connection to their community. Motivated by the lack of child-friendly areas nearby, they envisioned a space where area children could gather, play, and learn about nature. With support from their condo corporation, they transformed a modest plot of dirt near the condo into a vibrant, edible oasis. Now in its third year, the garden features native plants and seasonal vegetables, inviting children to explore, taste, and tend to the land. It has become a hub of activity: kids ride bikes, play soccer in the laneway, and build friendships rooted in shared care for the space. This volunteer-led initiative is powered by community donations and a spirit of collaboration. Its goals remain simple but powerful: create a welcoming spot for children, foster a stronger sense of community, and spread happiness through nature. The garden is more than a patch of green – it’s a living example of how small, local efforts can reshape urban life for the better.

While the COVID-19 pandemic amplified social isolation, the problem long predates it – and has persisted even as restrictions have been lifted. Rx for Social Connection is an applied research project that used The Bentway, a revitalized public space under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, as a living lab to examine how “softer” city-building strategies – prioritizing care, repair, intimacy, and co-creation – can nurture more socially connected urban environments and combat loneliness. The project focused on The Bentway’s 2024 programming season, which positioned public art and shared spaces as case studies for urban research, using public life observation, public health surveys, and expert interviews. The project invited participants to reflect on public space design and programming, along with the role they play in fostering social connection. The study demonstrated that public spaces are powerful public health tools that encourage connection, reduce loneliness, and promote well-being. As the population’s health needs evolve, public space design and programming should be recognized as essential interventions – ones that invite people to gather, linger, and feel that they matter.

Government Street, one of the most visited public places in Victoria, remains strongly defined by its colonial history, with little acknowledgement of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations whose unceded territories the city occupies. The City of Victoria is working to repair that narrative, incorporating Indigenous language, culture, and history into the space to make it more welcoming and to foster a sense of belonging and recognition for Indigenous peoples. Rather than a fixed plan or timeline, the Government Street Refresh initiative envisions long-term, incremental transformation through collaboration, experimentation, and investment. Current efforts include introducing car-free zones – some timed, some permanent – for outdoor seating and cultural programming; co-developing, with the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, a cultural interpretive strategy and a set of guiding principles for reconciliation-based public-realm design; and advancing detailed design for two flexible pedestrian-priority blocks that incorporate plantings and trees, reflecting Indigenous cultural expression at the site. Together, these efforts signal a shift toward a more inclusive and responsive urban landscape – one that honours Indigenous presence, invites shared stewardship, and reimagines Government Street as a place for the whole community.

Synapcity, a non-profit focused on civic connection and community action, launched the Pulses program to help strengthen Ottawa’s civic fabric and give people opportunities to socialize with neighbours through regular, facilitated, in-person conversations. The program operates with a chapter-based model similar to that of Scouts and Guides, providing an avenue for hyper-local dialogue and creating welcoming spaces where residents can connect, flex their civic muscles, and engage meaningfully with their communities. The program began in summer 2025 in partnership with the Ottawa Public Library, which has an existing network of spaces to meet. Priorities evolved organically based on the participants in each individual chapter, with tailored outcomes for each group. One embraced themes of civic action and is now working on launching local initiatives in their neighbourhood, while another prioritized the notion of deep dialogue and developed a civics book club. Moving forward, a program to train group leaders in facilitation techniques is in the works (pending funding) and will enable to program to scale as a sandbox for civic curiosity, sparking vibrant conversations across Ottawa and nurturing a more connected, resilient city.

The East Scarborough Storefront is a community hub in east Toronto that responds to local challenges in a comprehensive way. Its Connected Community Approach (CCA) helps create the conditions for transformative change with, and in, communities. Developed over 25 years, CCA is a model that works to remove barriers to opportunity, build capacity, and respond to community problems with solutions that are grounded in local contexts. Rather than focusing on isolated programs, CCA at The Storefront nurtures the conditions for collaboration, civic trust, and community-led resilience in responding to various challenges, from climate change to food insecurity to the need for public spaces. For example, food security projects include the Food for Good project to improve resilience and equity in the local food system; a community garden; and the Eco-Food Hub, where resident leaders served 10,000 meals in 2023. The Storefront is a connector, a communicator, and a convenor: it referred over 8,800 people to community resources in 2023, and facilitates partnerships among over 90 local leaders, non-profits, governments, and institutions, including Native Child and Family Services, East Scarborough Boys and Girls Club, University of Toronto Scarborough, and the Toronto Zoo. The CCA lens is now being applied to procurement, supply chains, and arts and culture. This approach offers a powerful alternative to fragmented systems, showing what’s possible when communities are connected, trusted, and empowered.

Taking inspiration from the Little Free Libraries that have become a common sight in many neighbourhoods, the youth group Finding Present established a Free Little Art Gallery in the foyer of the Timms Community Centre in downtown Langley, B.C., as a space for young artists to connect, share supplies, and exchange works of art. The gallery is specifically aimed at local youth, who often lack access to low-cost, welcoming places to socialize. With support from the Neighbourhood Small Grants program of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia, as well as from the City of Langley Youth Program, the Free Little Art Gallery opened in 2025 with a launch party that brought together youth of all ages to build connections and learn new artistic skills. The community has since taken collective ownership of the project, donating supplies and expanding the exhibition space. In 2026, additional grant funding helped the group create a series of summer programs linked to the gallery, including free crafting circles for youth artists and a program of “art drops” that encourage artists to leave small artworks in their favourite community spaces. By giving young people the space and materials to be creative, the Free Little Art Gallery is also fostering a culture of connection in Langley.