The CityHive CityShapers in Schools program is a four-session classroom-based workshop series for grades 5–12 that challenges students to think more deeply about climate action, housing affordability, and public space design. By connecting students to governance, civic engagement, and city planning processes within their schools and neighbourhoods, the program uses local issues to nurture their curiosity and give them the tools to make their voices heard in civic processes. The program is offered for free or on a sliding pay scale to public schools throughout the Metro Vancouver region, giving priority to communities that have historically been under-represented in municipal politics and that experience greater barriers to civic participation. The workshops are designed in consultation with certified teachers and co-led by a CityHive educator and a youth leader. Local government staff and elected officials are a key component of the program’s success, and CityHive works with municipalities on a fee-for-service basis to provide student input directly into open engagement projects. Over 300 students have met with municipal staff and elected officials to learn about and engage with such planning projects as the Squamish Nation Climate Action Strategy, the North Vancouver Active Transportation Plan, and the Clayton Corridor Skytrain Expansion Plan. Many students continue to follow projects after the classroom component ends, as the experience has helped to build a sense of agency and connection to issues that affect their communities.

Communities are exploring alternative, safer ways to travel to school through bike bus programs, which organize and schedule times for children to bike to school alongside parent or teacher volunteers. Parents map routes, repair bikes on the way, and invite other families to join. A highly visible critical mass on the street, including a protective barrier of adults, discourages risky behaviour from drivers. This encourages active transportation for vulnerable road users and fosters a sense of community. Communities can also form walking buses for kids using walkers, wheelchairs, and other mobility devices. Bike buses typically operate weekly from the middle of September to the end of October, resuming after March Break – although a warming climate and cheaper equipment are making winter riding more feasible. Bike buses exist across Canada, including two in Toronto (in Davenport and Scarborough) established with the help of Toronto’s “Bicycle Mayor” alongside a coalition of biking groups, non-profits, and parents. The programs require only minimal funding for basic supplies like safety vests and repair kits. Wider community support is critical. Parents rely on principals to help coordinate with school staff and encourage students to join, addressing opposition with proactive empathy by emphasizing the goal of creating safe spaces for the community’s kids. Advocates point out that bike bus programs will have been truly successful when they are not needed, because the city streets are safe enough for cycling children as a matter of course.

Many young people across Canada face barriers to accessing education and employment, particularly in remote, rural, and Indigenous communities, which can affect their long-term well-being. The Tamarack Institute sought to address these challenges through its Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF) network. From 2019 to 2024, it developed the network and implemented programming in 20 communities across 11 provinces and territories. At its core, the initiative provides young people with opportunities to shape local youth support strategies themselves. Rather than giving convening responsibility to existing staff, CBYF compensated local youth for taking on these roles, leading community engagement initiatives, and co-creating solutions with adults. The resulting strategies went beyond traditional employment and educational programs to support young people holistically, including their basic needs, mental health, and cultural identity. Tamarack acted as an intermediary between each community and the federal government, providing a backbone of funding, facilitation, and capacity building throughout the program. It also took on the administrative work of reporting, which allowed community organizations to focus on program implementation. CBYF’s multi-year funding enabled hiring at least one full-time employee in each community, mentored and supported by the CBYF program staff, to build skills and experience. Youth often have ideas for how to address challenges in their own communities, but may lack the support and resources to make substantive change. Initiatives like the CBYF model demonstrate ways to engage them not as subjects of policy, but as active agents with the knowledge and skills to shape it.

Post-secondary students in Hamilton, Ontario, are getting a close-up view of the value of municipal operations while building transferable skills as part of CityLAB Hamilton’s experiential learning program. An innovative partnership between the City of Hamilton, Mohawk College, McMaster University, and Redeemer University, CityLAB Hamilton connects students, faculty, and civic leaders with community-focused projects that align with the City’s strategic priorities. Since its inception in 2017, the program has welcomed more than 4,500 students and supported over 260 hands-on projects across the city.  

Modelled on similar experiential learning programs elsewhere in Canada, CityLAB Hamilton is distinct because it is housed within the City Manager’s Office, which gives the team a level of insight and access into priorities, projects, and staff across multiple municipal divisions. As a result, the projects are varied and represent the city’s current strategic priorities, giving students meaningful opportunities that address specific local needs. Projects may be suggested by city staff, faculty members, or the community, and have encompassed a wide range of academic disciplines and programs of study. They have included designing public awareness campaigns, conducting policy research, analyzing data, and increasing community engagement. Each year, program participants contribute to dozens of projects as part of their coursework, including independent or group research, hands-on participation outside of the classroom, and research competitions such as the Higher Education Analytics Data competition.  

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.  

The impact of climate change is uneven: often, low-income, highly racialized urban areas with fewer resources are harder hit. Young people living in these communities want to be part of the solution, but they are under-represented in environmental leadership spaces and can face significant barriers to participating in climate action. Skills for Change, an employment resources organization based in Toronto, sought to address both of these challenges by creating the Youth Climate Action Initiative (YCAI) in 2023. The program provides climate education and skills-based leadership development for participants aged 16 to 29 and was designed with youth from newcomer, racialized, and underserved communities in mind. Over the course of the 6-to-10 week program, participants develop the knowledge, skills, networks, and confidence they need to take meaningful action in local sustainability initiatives. 

In designing the climate education workshops, Skills for Change sought to include a variety of perspectives and to not just teach knowledge but provide tools for building participants’ confidence. Workshop content includes long-term visioning, community engagement and needs assessments, project management, grant writing, and professional communication skills. Some workshops have explored sustainability through an Indigenous lens, teaching traditional knowledge about our relationship to land and climate action. The program also builds interpersonal connections between participants, most of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of colour, with many living in Toronto's identified Neighbourhood Improvement Areas. YCAI participants value being part of a community that shares similar lived experiences and backgrounds and that offers them a space where they can feel welcome, represented, and fully able to contribute. 

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.

The hyperlocal publication The Green Line uses a unique “action journey” model to transform how young Torontonians engage with democracy – through culture and community-led storytelling. In a time when young people are facing rising anxiety, disillusionment, and civic disengagement, this month-long media model offers a hopeful alternative: journalism that doesn’t just inform but mobilizes people to take action. Each action journey guides participants through four phases: explaining systemic issues, reporting solutions, hosting community events, and amplifying local actions. Topics range from housing to mental health to food insecurity to elections, and all content is co-produced with community partners. Since 2022, The Green Line has completed 17 action journeys across 58 Toronto neighbourhoods. Nearly three-quarters of its audience is under 40 and its creators are mainly Gen Z and millennials, many of whom return again and again – not just as attendees, but as panellists, collaborators, and journalists-in-the-making. The Green Line brings sharper editorial instincts and deeper accountability to the local media landscape. In three years its approach has inspired 30 other newsrooms, earned national recognition, and achieved 48% revenue growth – all while resisting cynicism and rebuilding social trust.

In Calgary’s Beltline neighbourhood, students from Connaught School helped reimagine their daily journey to school, transforming a street near a hazardous intersection into a vibrant, child-friendly space. Through a partnership between Sustainable Calgary and Everactive Schools, the Connaught Open Street project empowered students to assess local safety concerns and co-design solutions that promote walking, wheeling, and well-being. Students identified a nearby intersection with high-speed cut-through traffic as an opportunity for improvement. The resulting project was a street-to-park transformation that calmed traffic, added green space, and created a healthier environment for kids and families. Piloted in 2022 and 2023 with temporary road closures and on-site programming, the initiative quickly gained traction, earning community support, national recognition, and municipal endorsement. In May 2025, Calgary City Council approved the permanent road closure and rezoning, cementing the project as a landmark in youth-driven civic design. The Connaught Open Street now stands as a model for how children’s voices can shape safer, more engaging urban spaces.

The Toronto neighbourhoods of Regent Park, Moss Park, and St. James Town are home to many new Canadians and a large youth population. Seeing the potential of peer support to ease the transition into life in Canada, the non-profit Happy Mom Happy Children employs local youth to help children achieve academic success and help newcomer families navigate life and school. Through their Tutoring and Youth Employment Program, they train local youth tutors (aged 13 to 29) to provide academic tutoring for children in the community (aged 4 to 12). The paid youth tutors receive mentorship, leadership training, and workshops on relevant subjects like communication, child engagement, and career development. For many young people this is their first job, which they use as a stepping stone to develop their careers. Many return to mentor or train new youth tutors. In 2024/25 alone, 63 youth were trained as tutors, who in turn tutored 127 students. Happy Mom Happy Children also provides services that bring mothers together, such as their Let’s Eat Healthy cooking classes, their Let’s Hit the Gym fitness classes, and their Grab a Book & Join Us reading program for mothers and children. By nurturing local youth, Happy Mom Happy Children is creating a cycle of mutual care and expertise that enriches the entire community across multiple generations.

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. 

Black youth can face significant barriers to accessing mental health support, including cost, long wait times, transportation challenges, cultural stigma, and a lack of culturally responsive services. Healing Roots, a youth mental health program run by the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities, was created to address these barriers and support the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of Black youth aged 10 to 29 in Scarborough, Ontario. The program is designed to meet young people where they are through a range of evidence-based supports – such as peer connections, mentorship, mental health workshops, and summer camps – aimed at reducing stigma and building resilience among Black youth and their families. Healing Roots has also developed and filmed several public service announcements to encourage conversations about mental health and help-seeking in the community. The program is committed to ensuring that all services are representative of Black cultures, experiences, and identities. As demand for culturally responsive mental health services continues to grow, Healing Roots is working to expand its programming, increase outreach, strengthen partnerships, and improve service delivery.

Many young people experience climate anxiety, eco-grief, and the stress and uncertainty of growing up in a time of worsening climate impacts such as wildfires, drought, and extreme heat. Saskatchewan-based Break The Divide (BTD) created the Climate Emotions and Resilience Program to support youth in rural, newcomer, Indigenous, and racialized communities that are at the forefront of these changes by providing them with spaces to connect with each other and opportunities to take action in their own communities. The program helps young people process climate-related emotions, build coping skills, strengthen peer connections, and move from isolation toward agency, resilience, and local action. BTD hosts workshops and programming in schools and communities seeing the effects of climate change, using a framework of education, dialogue, storytelling, reflection, and action-oriented activities – often facilitated by near peers of the participants. The initiative moves beyond a focus on awareness and behaviour change to help young people form social connections and confidence that will support their mental health while also building local climate resilience, leadership, and belonging. To date, the program has reached over 2,500 students in schools and communities across Saskatchewan, and has helped to normalize conversations about emotions relating to climate change while equipping young people with practical tools for coping, reflection, and community action.