Equitable Community Planning and Engagement

Partner lead: Isabel Cascante - United Way Greater Toronto

For many decades, grassroots organizations have led efforts to make our cities more equitable. At the same time, many of our existing planning processes have failed to include meaningful input from marginalized communities, leading to unequal or ineffective outcomes. 

The Equitable Planning working group will use collaborative research methods to understand how the activities of community groups, planners, and decision-makers can better support equitable planning processes. This will include the creation of case studies celebrating the work of community-based transportation efforts. The working group will also conduct a survey and focus groups of elected officials to understand the barriers and opportunities for creating more equitable transportation planning processes and outcomes. Finally, the Equitable Planning working group will produce a transportation planning process map to guide governments and planners on the integration of equity into transportation planning.