Don’t Sleep on Civic Tech Toronto, It’s What a Civic Technologist’s Dreams are Made Of
If you’ve traded counting sheep for doom scrolling, here is a bedtime story to get you dreaming of all the possibilities for change available to an organization steered by the notion that civic tech should be built for, built with, and built by communities.
I have a terrible track record of being asleep during the most eventful moments of life. It’s ironic, because like so many, I am now a troubled sleeper. But in my youth, I was a champion of sleep.
If asked if I possessed a superpower, I would answer that I had the ability to sleep anywhere and through anything.
A testament to my powers, as the front passenger in my first car crash, I was confused why I had to shimmy out the driver’s side, because I had been snoozing when my door was crushed in place. During an emergency landing of a flight back to Toronto, what I thought was the gentle awakening by an attendant to take my order, was a less gentle request to hop down some inflatable slides due to a leak in our cabin. At dim sum on Sunday mornings, I could happily doze through earth-shattering family announcements and the sounds of dumplings carts rolling by. The list of events under my supernatural talent goes on and on. My cavern of catnaps was impenetrable.
Story time…
So it was to no one’s surprise that on a trip to Japan in 1999, I managed to sleep through one of the most eventful travel experiences in my family’s history. This story is still referenced at weddings and birthdays to this day, and begins with nearly two dozen of my family members flying to Japan to take in the hot springs and sights around Kyoto.
As the youngest in a big family, I was no stranger to the attention of my many relatives, however, that did not protect me from fearing the high levels of enthusiasm from one or more eccentric aunties. Too young to join the rest in the hot springs, a very well-intentioned auntie agreed to stay and entertain me one evening. While the rest of the family enjoyed the outdoor hot springs, my aunt tried to convince me — a very timid six year old, that she was too scared to get ready for bed in her own room, and that it would better if we got ready together in my hotel room. Being the silver tongued trickster that I was, I in turn convinced her to “be a big girl” and shower in her own room.
The moment my hotel room door closed, I deadbolted the door and buried myself under the covers in fear of her return. I willed myself to sleep to protect against the monster of my aunt’s enthusiasm and the inevitable spree of language “games,” featuring Cantonese flashcards. To my surprise, I woke up to the gentle touch of my sister waking me up for breakfast and questions whether I remembered the rest of my evening. As fate would have it, my plan worked too well. For not only did I keep my aunt out, but I kept my whole family out as well. After several hours of knocking, two hours of calling my hotel room, and one desperate hotel manager’s futile attempt to getting my attention by jumping to a locked balcony, a locksmith was called and the deadbolt was cut out of the door.
My decision to sleep through my fears caused me to lose an opportunity to spend time with my aunt —which I now deeply regret taking for granted, and placed undue stress on my family, the hotel, and its staff. It can be a difficult habit to shake when there is a sunny promise that after a good sleep the problem might go away. Like so many others this year, I felt the temptation to take a nice long nap in hopes that the gaping holes in our global democracies and the severe impact of the pandemic on vulnerable communities would melt away into the cozy comfort of a thick duvet. The despair, helplessness, and the uncertainty of the future can feel overwhelming and it’s not uncommon to feel a desire to bury those feelings. But this time —well armed with the wisdom gained from my adventures in Japan, I knew better than to sleep away the opportunity to make a change.
So what does my story my story have to do with Civic Tech?
If you’ve been dreaming of a warm community that cares about civic challenges as much as you do, Civic Tech Toronto (CTTO) is the place to be.
Civic Tech Toronto at first glance…
CTTO can be very intimidating with the level of talent and knowledge in its community. When you look at the projects that have come out of CTTO (such as Law and Design Collab) it feels like superheroes lead these projects and that CTTO is the meeting grounds for the Avengers of Civic Technology.
In reality, they are simply a group of volunteers interested in working on civic challenges, using technology and design. They’ve been running weekly hacknights since August 2015, often featuring a different speaker introducing topics about civic challenges, tools, and triumphs. Their hacknights are not what you might imagine — like the cold dimly lit basements you see in the movies. They are more akin to a warm umbrella of connections and resources for projects — open project space, community network, information, and advice.
If I can impart a little bit of wisdom for those who battle with sleeping through the important moments but are interested in civic tech, it would be this:
Get comfy with a community full of opportunity
CTTO is a great place to connect and discover new opportunities within your interests. Through CTTO I had the opportunity to experience the Ryerson Leadership Lab and Open Democracy Project’s Democracy Xchange, Fwd50, workshops, and speakers that pushed the boundaries of what I believed we could accomplish as a community.
Reawaken your drive for personal development
This community is a great place to share and refine your skills. Even if you don’t have a fully baked idea or the intention of building the next big thing, take these opportunities to share what you have to offer and take in opportunities to better yourself.
Embrace virtual friendship-building
Although many of the connections you make through the community are made by virtue of Zoom and Slack instead of a handshake, every member is very much real. The impact of the friendships and connections made in this community goes beyond breakout rooms.
The energy at CTTO is infectious. Right out of the gate, I was welcomed by members who were interested in my journey and wanted to energize the work I dreamed of accomplishing. Not a single Tuesday has gone by where I’ve walked out of a hacknight uninspired, or regretful that I hadn’t done more with my evening.
Their notion of building out projects for, with, and by communities sets them apart from any other group I’ve had the privilege of working with. This spirit of collaboration, listening with empathy, and working in the open so others may benefit has breathed new life into my imagination of what we can accomplish as a community.
Check out Civic Tech Toronto
If the doom scrolling makes you sleepy, and you’re struggling to find human connections in an increasingly digital world, I hope you will consider joining CTTO for a hacknight on your next available Tuesday and see what dreams are made of.
I encourage everyone to check out the CTTO website and stay connected on their socials, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and Meetup page for updates on the great work that they do.
