Conference helps youth find their voice in city-building

By Ryan Lo

Youth engagement is an increasingly important priority in our city, and young people today are making sure their voices are heard more loudly than ever before. Over 60 high school students from across the GTA participated in the Tomorrow Starts Today Conference last Sunday at Ryerson University to discuss youth’s role in the city-building process.

 Ryan Lo, a graduate student at McGill University’s School of Urban Planning and Vice Chair of Vision Youth Leadership Program Executive committee, is the organizer of this conference. Rather than writing a conventional thesis for his research project, he decided to create this event to explore different ways to better engage youth. Through various formats of presentations and workshops, Lo wants to find out what works best when presenting urban issues to young people.

“Tomorrow Starts Today Conference has two main goals: to educate youth on planning, urban design and public engagement; and to empower youth by providing them with tangible tools to participate. Youth need to have the knowledge and language to communicate and engage in civic matters,” says Lo.

From his research, as well as his experience growing up in the GTA, Lo found that the Ontario secondary school curriculum in geography and civics do not provide much exposure to urban planning. The lack of awareness limits the public discussion on local issues, such as infrastructure and transit, to an often small and well-versed group in the community. The needs of youth, as a result, are often neglected in the decision-making process.

As the organizer of the conference, Lo invited guest speakers from the Toronto Youth Cabinet, consulting firm Steer Davies Gleave, Studio Y of MaRS Discovery District, and Bike and Walk DeFuniak, a Florida-based youth activist group. Facilitators also included graduate students from the University of Toronto, Waterloo, Ryerson and McGill. Local youth organizations such as the City Youth Council of Toronto, Vision Youth Leadership Program, Project 5K and Engineers Without Borders were also key supporters of the event.

Lo envisions the conference as a starting point in bridging the gap between decision makers and marginalized groups such as youth. He would like to share his experience and analysis of the conference with other planners and officials to help improve the effectiveness of youth engagement in the city. He also hopes that the youth participants will become more involved and drive positive change in their communities with the new skills and opportunities presented to them.

To find out more, visit https://www.facebook.com/TSTconference/ or follow @TSTconference on Twitter.