2020: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
How do you even begin to unpack everything that happened in 2020?
I asked myself as I began to realize what I signed up for after volunteering to write a 2020 recap post for Urban Minds.
Looking back, in 2018, our youth participants would get together and build models with mini pom-poms and pipe cleaners. In 2019, we would share Timbits at our pop-up booth while talking to young people at the mall. This year, well, this year hasn’t been like any other years before.
Since the founding of Urban Minds, our team prized human interaction in everything we do. Our 1UP Youth City Builders program emphasized experiential learning, where our participants would come together in person to learn by doing and making things. Our workshops and Strategy + Design projects were no different — we have always designed activities and experiences that were tactile and interactive.
As the world was shutting down earlier this year, we had to rethink what youth engagement would look like in a pandemic. Although the lockdown has affected all of us, we were aware that the lived experience of each individual, especially among youth, could be drastically different. While some might be thriving in a remote learning environment, others might feel more isolated without the level of social interaction they had before. We knew we needed to be extra flexible and mindful in the ways we reach out to youth and be present where youth would be, in physical or digital spaces.
Despite the challenges, I’m proud to say that our wonderful team didn’t let the pandemic stop us in our tracks. With creativity and hard work, we were able to adapt to the circumstances and engaged more than 200 youth in the Greater Toronto Area through eight events and projects.
We reimagined the future of our urban centres.
This year we partnered with municipalities and planning firms to hear from youth about their visions of urban living. At our last in-person event before the pandemic, the 1UP Toronto Conference, we worked with the City of Toronto and Gladki Planning Associates to challenge our youth participants to design the future of Scarborough Centre. During our online 1UP Leaders Lab, in collaboration with the City of Richmond Hill and Urban Strategies, we asked our participants how they would transform Richmond Hill Centre as the future terminus of the Yonge subway line. In the fall, we renewed our partnership with the City of Markham and Gladki Planning Associates to engage youth on the future of Markham Centre through an online idea board activity.
Planners and designers wanted to learn from youth because they knew that young people would be the ones most attracted to a vibrant, thriving downtown with lots of things to see and do. Drawing from our experience working with youth in person, our team explored different formats and tools that would achieve that goal in an online setting. From promotion to registration, icebreakers to group collaboration, we redesigned the entire youth engagement experience so that our participants could still interact with each other and express their ideas in a way that was meaningful to each project.
We reflected on what living in the city means to each one of us.
“You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.” We didn’t know how much we loved exploring the city until we had to stay home, and it turned out that we weren’t the only ones sharing the same sentiment. Our great friend Pamela Robinson, the Director of Ryerson University’s School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP), reached out to us and together we launched #10veYourCity, a 10-day social media challenge. We asked people on Instagram and Twitter to complete a different challenge each day to show us a glimpse of the city they love. From homemade CN Towers to quirky things about our neighbourhoods, what people shared with us was both eye-opening and heartwarming in a time where we needed hope and relief.
There were also moments this year that were heart-wrenching. As a team, we were challenged to think deeply about each person’s lived experience, and how our words and actions could either help dismantle or contribute to the social and racial inequities in the city-building process. During the most difficult days of the Black Lives Matter movement, I was very grateful to be able to speak to my Black team members, Santessa and Matthew, about their views on systemic racism. We also made the decision to donate all our sponsorship proceeds from the 1UP Leaders Lab this summer to organizations that serve Black youth in Toronto, including Frontlines and the CEE Centre For Young Black Professionals, because we knew they needed the support at this critical time.
This fall, I had the opportunity to run a workshop on behalf of Urban Minds for the DesignTO Youth program at the SKETCH Working Arts studio. It was another deep learning experience for me, even as a facilitator, as I heard from these talented youth artists share their lived experiences and perspectives on what makes public spaces safe and inclusive. Our goal as an organization is to continue working and learning with youth from diverse backgrounds to make our cities more equitable.
We reached out to homes, classrooms, and offices.
In June, we held “105 Bond-ing”, a series of online weekly “warm-ups” with students who were about to start the new school year at Ryerson SURP. We played games, organized university and career panels, and even held a friendly debate session on hot topics from whether shopping malls are outdated to whether transit should be free for all.
In November, we teamed up with the City of Mississauga to run online workshops about the City’s Official Plan Review with different high schools and youth groups. Through a virtual whiteboard, we had our participants reimagine their neighbourhood in Mississauga from a youth perspective.
Throughout the fall, our 1UP Executive Team hosted 1UP Connect, a biweekly series of video interviews with special guests on Instagram Live. Our guests shared their personal and professional experiences, as well as tips and advice for our youth audience.
We didn’t forget our professional audience, of course. We held Lunch & Learn and Happy Hour webinars with companies, such as Perkins & Will and MJMA, to share our approach to youth engagement in city building. We hope to host more of these webinars in the new year.
What’s next?
Many of us can’t wait for the arrival of 2021, with good reasons. As Urban Minds steps into its fifth year — a global pandemic can’t and won’t stop us! — what are we most looking forward to?
1. 1UP Design Competition
In January, we will be announcing the launch of our very first 1UP Design Competition. We are partnering with Friends of Wychwood Barns Park to host a design challenge on the theme of outdoor learning. If you are between the ages of 13 and 19, we invite you to follow us on social and sign up here! If you’re a working professional, you can support us through volunteering or sponsoring our competition.
2. Lunch & Learn
If you and your colleagues are interested in learning more about youth engagement, we are happy to host a free Lunch & Learn webinar for your office. Send us a note and we’ll follow up with you.
3. Join our team
We’re recruiting more volunteers to join our team! If you’re an event planning pro and interested in our work, let us know.
Thank you notes
My partner Angela and I would like to thank our current and past team members who have been truly amazing to work with in an especially difficult year: Alex Furneaux, Alex Smiciklas, Andy Fang, Cynthia Chiu Chen, Enosh Chen, Giannella Bonilla, Sanjana Sharma, and Santessa Henriques.
We would like to thank our incredible 1UP Executive Team for their hard work: Alex Lian, Catherine Wang, Christina Wang, Elmirah Ahmad, Gloria Li, Jessica Yuan, Joshua Ye, Joy Cheng, Katie Wang, Lucy Qi, Matthew James, Max Lei, Maya Lekhi, Ranveer Sahrawat, and Wendy Wang.
We also wanted to express our gratitude to our Advisory Board members who have provided such great mentorship and guidance throughout the year: Amuna Baraka-Clarke, Arnaud Marthouret, Catriona Moggach, Dave Rose, Lia Milito, Ryan O’Connor, and Sheila Boudreau.
Finally, we would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support, as well as our clients and partners for the wonderful opportunities to work with them.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Ryan Lo and Angela
Co-Founders
