Making an Impact from the Outside
Going into this 6-week intensive course in collaboration with Munk and Evergreen, I was excited and open to what was in store. My only expectations were having a unique graduate learning experience outside of the confines of UofT and delving into community policy work. Accordingly, our first class was a great way to transition into our learning at Evergreen Brick Works in the coming weeks.
We started the class with a conversation about policies that have impacted us personally; whether directly or indirectly. Everyone shared their policy stories ranging from immigration to education policy and encompassing vulnerability and urgency. It shed light to how policy is around us all the time, not only in professional settings but also in the mundane and regularity of life. It was also nice to see everyone making connections based on each other’s stories and providing insight.
Our policy stories were then followed by a discussion about what the word ‘community’ means including the words ‘impact’ and ‘community-based policy-making’. We first defined these terms ourselves and then in small groups of three, agreed upon a mutual definition. Once mutual definitions of each of the four groups were identified, we put our ideas on the whiteboard. It was interesting to see the commonalities across definitions but also the many visible differences.
The difficulty in reaching a consensus reflected the real challenges community organizations face in defining such terms for working purposes. How words such as ‘community’ and ‘impact’ are defined have implications for community projects and policy-making. That being said, I look forward to visiting Evergreen, meeting policy professionals and venturing off campus.
