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This case study is part of the 2024 Canadian City Parks Report, showcasing Inspiring projects, people, and policies from across Canada that offer tangible solutions to the most pressing challenges facing city parks.
Over the past few years, our collective understanding has recognized that systemic racism is prevalent in parks and public spaces. Historically, these areas have been sites where Black, Indigenous, and racialized people face suspicion, surveillance, harassment, violence, and even death.
Year after year, our public survey has shown that about 1 in 10 city residents avoid parks and greenspaces due to fear of discrimination or policing.
This year, when asked whether city parks should do more to address equity and racial justice, over two-thirds (67%) agreed. Similarly, in 2023, 66% of cities recognized the role of parks in combating racism.
While awareness of these issues is growing, action remains limited. Only 17% of cities feel equipped to address racism, allowing the needs of racialized populations to fall through the cracks.
How can municipalities move from awareness to action? We spoke with Jay Pitter about the BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC SURVEY a bi-national survey, developed by Jay Pitter Placemaking (Lead Investigator: Jay Pitter, Co-Investigator: Professor L. Anders Sandberg) and administered by the Institute for Social Research. Overall, the survey asked “What are the public space policies, design approaches and unspoken social attitudes that both diminish and enhance Black peoples’ experiences when navigating cities?”
This research fills gaps in understanding the Black experience in parks and other public spaces in Canada and the United States. Pitter identified a lack of data, particularly in Canada, on how Black communities perceive and experience these spaces. Many institutions measure narrowly defined ideas of inclusion by tracking safety or the absence of anti-Black violence, but Pitter argues that this is insufficient – mitigating violence should be the bare minimum.
Her research also explores how the historical and ongoing trauma from racism, police brutality, and violence in public spaces as well as, mobility inequity and lack of pathways to economic prosperity affect Black people’s well-being, social belonging, and sense of spatial entitlement.
“At the heart of this survey is filling a gap in what the other stats do not—which is to center Black people as wholly, human, spiritual beings. Previous research and stories often omit the impact of incidents related to lack of safety and restriction. What do those numbers mean? To Black people’s mental health, to Black people’s sense of self, to Black people’s belonging, to Black people’s imagination and aspirations? So, one of my main focuses was to re-humanize Black individuals and communities by creating space for their deep reflection, healing and dreaming aloud.”
Jay Pitter, Award-winning placemaker, adjunct urban planning professor and author
The BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC SURVEY uses a trauma-informed, asset-based approach that emphasizes Black joy and knowledge. Respondents were asked about positive experiences and memories in public spaces, with Pitter emphasizing the importance of learning from successes, not just tragedies.
Pitter also highlighted how Black communities contribute to public spaces.
“I didn’t want to reduce our experience in public to strictly a victim experience, because despite the auction block, centuries of anti-Black public space policy, and disproportionate experiences of violence and homelessness, Black peoples’ labour, placemaking expertise and culture have contributed so much to the form and vibrance of public spaces. We make public spaces lit.“
Jay Pitter
This approach of centering joy and honouring Black peoples’ placemaking contributions is a crucial example of how cities can engage with equity-deserving groups without compelling them to relive histories of oppression. Pitter noted that many respondents expressed gratitude for the opportunity to share their positive experiences and knowledge.
The findings from this study will be shared in an action-oriented report in February 2025, offering insights for cities and institutions on fostering real inclusion for Black communities in parks and other public spaces. Pitter shared some early findings: parks are among the most frequented public spaces by Black individuals and generally score well on physical safety. However, her early findings indicated that parks fall short in fostering Black cultural identity, deep belonging, and inclusive programming.
Pitter sees significant opportunities for growth, including co-creation of spaces, representation in park leadership, power-sharing, and park events that elevate Black communities.
To learn more about how your city can enhance inclusion for Black communities in public spaces, stay tuned at jaypitter.com for the full report available in February 2025.
In Metro Vancouver, a ground-breaking agreement between a government agency—Metro Vancouver Regional Parks—and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation shows a different way of managing parks and highlighting their past and present cultural value.
At 2,560 acres, təmtəmíxʷtən/Belcarra Regional Park is two and a half times the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park and receives 1.2 million visitors per year. The park was also the site of the largest ancestral village within the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
Gabriel George, a Tsleil-Waututh Nation member and also the Nation’s Director of Treaty Lands and Resources Development said that a lot of the Nation’s territory falls into parkland “so it’s been something that historically has isolated us and disconnected us from our land. I think the importance of trying to engage and have partnerships…is an important way for us to exert our rights.”
Mike Redpath, Director of Parks for Metro Vancouver Regional Parks said that Metro Vancouver Regional Parks began working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in 2017 on developing a “Cultural Planning and Cooperation Agreement,” which was signed in 2020. The agreement outlines a shared vision, guiding principles, and governance for the park. These include, among others, protection of natural resources, promotion of the site for recreational use, and increased public awareness of Tsleil-Waututh Nation cultural history.
“There’s a strong acknowledgement within the agreement and the relationship that it is public land; however, there was a traditional use of the site and the agreement strives to find a balance between the two,” Redpath said.
Good governance is a cornerstone of a successful partnership. The cooperation agreement contains two mechanisms for joint-governance: a Leadership Committee and a Technical Committee, which include both members from the Nation and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks.
Projects are prioritized in an annual work plan by the Technical Committee, which is then approved by the Leadership Committee and submitted during an annual budget process. Each individual project includes an “engagement agreement,” which outlines deliverables and ensures both partners understand roles and responsibilities.
The agreement also includes economic development policies, such using Tsleil-Waututh approved contractors in the park to support local entrepreneurs.
“We had an economy in place that was basically stripped from us,” George said. “We had currencies older than paper. We had systems of trade. So we lost that.” He noted that his people used to harvest clams for thousands of years, but then had to “sneak around at night…because they weren’t allowed.” so seeking out these economic opportunities is “our inherent right.”
Although the cooperation agreement was signed just four years ago, there have been several significant projects that have been implemented since then, with more on the way.
The first was a park renaming in 2021, which changed the park’s name to təmtəmíxʷtən/Belcarra Regional Park. Prior to this, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks had not engaged in any renaming of the regional park system to traditional place names with First Nations communities.
For George, the term “renaming” doesn’t quite fit, however. “It’s more than that,” he said.
“It’s recognizing the real name of that place. It’s important because we need to be represented. We need to be seen. We need to be heard on our own territory.”
Gabriel George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation member and Nation’s Director of Treaty Lands and Resources Development
Redpath also said it provided Metro Vancouver Parks with a naming precedent that could be used in other places. Indeed, another regional park has just had its name changed from Colony Farm Regional Park to ƛ̓éxətəm (tla-hut-um) Regional Park–a name gifted by the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation that translates to “we welcome you.”
Another joint project was the just completed installation of a welcome pole in the area of the Nation’s traditional village site. Other projects have included environmental restoration work, interpretive programming, and the development of a Cultural Heritage Study that will better understand the depth of cultural history of the park.
While it took time to implement the agreement, Redpath said it provides many benefits. Staff are “able to pick up the phone and talk to someone at the Nation who’s a familiar face. It helps advance projects together and sometimes faster as well.”
The willingness to try doing things differently is key to success. “It’s a change process,” Redpath said, adding that it’s a different way of doing business in many ways. He stressed that early and ongoing communication is key for the trust-building necessary for a strong partnership.
“The agreement is a piece of paper, but the relationships and the conversations are really what make it successful.”
Mike Redpath, Director of Parks for Metro Vancouver Regional Parks
George echoed these sentiments. “It can be so easy to not change things,” he said, but it’s important to push outside of comfort zones and do things differently. “You can’t fix all the issues, but when you approach the work, think about what kind of legacy you can create.”
“I think for Indigenous Nations, parks can be important places to occupy and to reclaim,” he said, adding that they’ve seen big successes in some of their relationships to their parks. “This is our home. We think of it as an extension of our community.”
Designing for inclusivity and accessibility is top of mind for many municipalities. From our surveys, 78% of municipalities indicated that universal accessible design is a high priority in their work. And while many municipalities look to provincial accessibility guidelines to meet basic standards, our 2022 public survey revealed that 10% of city residents say that insufficient accessibility features discourage them from visiting and enjoying city parks. This suggests that parks are still not working for everyone.
Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government agency, noticed gaps in existing provincial and municipal accessibility guidelines when designing new public spaces, specifically spaces around water. Some of these gaps include standards around the design of boat launches, boardwalks, beaches and water entry points.
Waterfront Toronto knew that in order to create truly accessible public spaces they needed to learn from, listen to and involve the people who understand accessibility challenges and opportunities the best – people living with disabilities.
Waterfront Toronto assembled an advisory committee made up of individuals with professional and technical expertise, most of whom are people living with disabilities, to guide the development of their new design guidelines. The guidelines aim to go above and beyond existing requirements and ensure waterfront settings can be enjoyed by all. Notable requirements include standards that all beaches must have accessible pathways into the water and boat launches for adapted canoes and kayaks must be provided.
The process of including community members with lived experience in an advisory committee is not a novel engagement practice. But what really sets this work apart is that the guidelines incorporated a permanent mechanism to include those with lived experience in all future projects.
The advisory committee emphasized the guiding principle of “nothing about us without us”, and the idea that no single voice speaks for the entire disability community. The committee members also highlighted the importance of implementation.
One of the ways Waterfront Toronto addressed this was to create a permanent accessibility committee that reviews all future public realm projects and will advise on future updates to the guidelines. This follow-on committee, known as the Accessibility Advisory Committee, is made up of individuals with professional expertise, advocates and caregivers, most of whom identify as a person with a disability, who receive an honorarium for their time. When composing the committee, Waterfront Toronto sought people with a range of disabilities and experiences to try and represent the diversity of accessibility needs.
For any new parks or public space projects, the Accessibility Advisory Committee is engaged at least twice in the process. The committee provides feedback within the early stages of the design phase to flag any accessibility concerns and again once the construction is complete, with additional opportunities for input as needed. This “roll through” of complete projects identifies any potential areas for improvement. This feedback will be implemented as amendments to the guidelines and applied to future projects, but Waterfront Toronto has also committed to accommodating the feedback at the site when a retrofit or repair is needed.
The guidelines set out a new standard for inclusively designed public spaces by filling gaps and going above and beyond current requirements, and proactively seeking out those with lived experience to guide projects on a long-term basis.
Enhancing accessibility to blue spaces ensures that everyone has access to the restorative power of nature. And while the implementation of the new guidelines ensures that people with disabilities can participate in these public spaces, accessibly designed spaces are good for everyone.
“We know that to create a vibrant waterfront that belongs to everyone, we must have a strong commitment to accessibility in everything we make and do. With the support of the Accessibility Advisory Committee we are making accessibility another area of true design excellence.”
Pina Mallozzi, Senior Vice President, Design at Waterfront Toronto
Further Reading
I will retire from my co-leadership position at Park People at the end of June 2024, thirteen years after I founded the organization.
This milestone has me considering the many positive changes that have happened in urban parks in Canada since 2011 and the special role that Park People has played in advancing them. It’s been quite a journey for me, the organization, and Canada’s incredible ecosystem of city parks.
Since the very beginning, Park People’s work has been about creating new connections—between people and nature, between neighbours when they meet by chance in public spaces, and between leaders and bold ideas that can make our parks even better.
Park People’s own origin story echoes this theme brilliantly. In 2010, I released a paper for the Metcalf Foundation, “Fertile Ground for New Thinking,” with my ideas for improving Toronto’s park system. Its final recommendation was to start a park-focused NGO in the city. At the time, I had absolutely no intention to start or lead such a group, but an enthusiastic group of people were inspired by the paper and pushed me to start an NGO. In return, I cajoled them into becoming our founding board members and volunteers. We then embarked on a bold plan to support more people to see themselves as park leaders and to connect them to the tools they would need to create great parks for everyone.
On April 12, 2011, we officially launched Park People with our Toronto Park Summit. This was our first opportunity to connect park professionals and emerging advocates in our city. Through these lively conversations, we began building the collective power required to support and sustain vibrant green spaces that all urban residents can enjoy.
In the years since our original group of board members and volunteers has expanded exponentially: Park People now has more than 25 staff members, offices in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, and a national board of city and community builders. We’ve also engaged thousands of new supporters — our Park People Network now unites 1,400 local park groups in 35 cities in every province, and we’ve provided grants to grassroots community leaders to animate their parks in 21 urban areas.
When launching Park People, our goal was to spark a city parks movement that could fundamentally change how our society sees the value of these public green spaces. It was an ambitious vision, but I think that through our work with many great partners and community leaders, we’ve achieved it.
Canada’s parks have changed significantly in these last 13 years, mostly for the better. Park People is proud to have been a small part of these shifts, contributing vital research on trends and opportunities and working with governments and park leaders to support progressive park policies.
As a result:
The major increase in park use during the height of the pandemic wasn’t a one-time blip: I’ve never seen so many people using our parks in so many new and creative ways. Parks are where we meet with friends, celebrate occasions, mourn losses, sample great food, hear music, and experience art—they’re key to the diversity, richness, and joy of urban life.
This belief has long guided the design of Park People’s grants, training, and networking programs, which have helped hundreds of people turn their parks into dynamic community hubs. We’ve consistently made the case for the unique value of parks, from our parks-focused platform for the 2014 Toronto election to solutions papers, national conferences and our Canadian City Parks Report.
They aren’t frills—they’re core to the character of our communities. Our research has shown that they measurably improve our physical, mental, and overall well-being and can serve as antidotes to the social isolation and loneliness epidemic.
Who isn’t using parks is as important as who is. Through programs like Sparking Change, Park People centres equity-deserving communities in our program planning and delivery, collaborating with them to ensure their knowledge and experiences make parks accessible for all. As we embark upon this work and share what we have learned from it, we’ve observed that equity metrics have increasingly become a core part of park planning and acquisition strategies in municipalities across the country.
As Rena Soutar of the Vancouver Parks Board says, “There is no such thing as a culturally neutral space that’s been touched by human hands.” The 2022 Park People Conference featured three of Canada’s leading Indigenous park professionals, Rena, Lewis Cardinal, and Spencer Lindsay, who addressed how colonialism plays out in park practices and how we can embed reconciliation and decolonization into the places we call parks. As an example, the Vancouver Park Board has implemented co-management and guardian programs with Indigenous communities. At the same time, Edmonton worked closely with Indigenous leaders on kihcihkaw askî, the country’s first urban Indigenous culture park site.
As our climate changes, urban parks are becoming increasingly important spaces to mitigate heat, absorb stormwater, and protect plants, animals, and people. Park People has been at the forefront of highlighting opportunities for parks to serve as powerful tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The value of a park doesn’t lie in size. Small pockets of green space can be far more meaningful to our well-being. As our cities increasingly densify and the cost of land rises, we’re seeing neglected spaces such as those under highways, roads, electricity corridors, railway lines, and even old landfills being transformed into beautiful natural spaces. Our research and financial support helped spur such innovative parks as Toronto’s Meadoway and Bentway and Calgary’s Flyover Park.
We’re asking a lot of our municipal parks departments. More people are using parks, and staff are now entrusted with addressing issues of homelessness, equity, reconciliation with Indigenous people, climate change mitigation, and adaptation. In my opinion, their work is more interesting and rewarding, and park staff are making a positive difference in our cities and communities. But it’s certainly a tougher job than it used to be. In response, Park People has made supporting and connecting our municipal park staff partners one of our top priorities.
The populations of our cities are rapidly increasing, and park budgets in Canadian cities are frankly not keeping up. If this longtime trend continues, I’m concerned about what our parks will look like 13 years from now. Without appropriate funding, there won’t be enough parks to meet community needs. We’ll slide down into an American-style model, where a lack of government support created a crisis in parks that philanthropy and private conservancies had to address. Partnerships and philanthropy are great, but there is absolutely no replacement for properly funded city parks departments.
Creative community partnerships are no longer the exception for city parks; they’re the norm. From working with local volunteer groups to creating formal park conservancies, park departments are embracing collaborations with unexpected partners to add value to city park resources, not replace them. Park People made the case for such partnerships from our earliest days, and we have helped to nurture and lay the groundwork for some of Canada’s leading park partnership models. Meanwhile, the federal government is becoming an important player in city parks. Canada was once one of the few jurisdictions without a strong federal role in city parks. But after creating Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto, the federal government has initiated a process to create six new national urban parks across Canada in the next few years. Provinces like Ontario, which have traditionally stayed away from pursuing provincial parks in cities, have also committed to new urban parks. Park People has been excited to partner with governments and support these game-changing efforts.
Park People didn’t invent community involvement in parks — there were people across Canada doing that long before 2011. But we played a critical role by bringing them together, amplifying their voices, sharing their successes, inspiring others, and most fundamentally, making it easier for them to unlock resources and address barriers so that they can make their parks more vibrant and their neighbourhoods stronger.
The last 13 years have seen incredibly positive changes in Canada’s urban park system. I’m proud to say that Park People has played an important role in advancing these developments.
Decolonization of park practices, according to Rena Soutar, begins with the recognition that “there is no such thing as a culturally neutral space that’s been touched by human hands.”
On the first day of the 2022 Park People Conference, three of Canada’s leading Indigenous park professionals, Lewis Cardinal, Rena Soutar, and Spencer Lindsay directly addressed how colonialism plays out in park practices and how we can work to embed reconciliation and decolonization into the places we call parks.
Lewis Cardinal’s ceremonial name sîpihko geesik means “blue sky” and was given to him with the understanding that his ultimate purpose on Earth is “to build relationships between two worlds that don’t understand each other.”
In Edmonton, Cardinal is living up to his ceremonial name by devoting his work to building understanding between settlers and Indigenous communities. This lifetime of effort culminated in the recent opening of kihciy askiy, or sacred land, Canada’s first urban Indigenous ceremonial site in Edmonton’s River Valley.
In his presentation at The Park People Conference, Cardinal made it clear that the foundation for the 2022 opening of kihciy askiy was laid eighteen years earlier in 2004, when Aboriginal communities and the City of Edmonton co-created the Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Accord Relationship Agreement. The Agreement’s guiding principles established a new relationship between the two groups, which is best reflected in the statement:
“We believe all people in Edmonton are served well by positive relationships between the City and Aboriginal communities.”
Indigenous approaches to positive relationship-building such as mutual exchange and partnership, listening and storytelling, ceremony and celebration were, according to Cardinal, integral to the process of creating kihciy askiy. Over the long process of seeing the project to fruition, conflicts and challenges, of course, arose. However, Cardinal believes that the Agreement and the practices it codified helped “tamp down the darker forces of humanity” that can undermine visionary projects like Edmonton’s kihciy askiy.
Cardinal emphasized the importance of codifying the tenets of relationship-building in Agreements like the one in Edmonton. Once put in writing, these tenets set an intention for relationships that can be returned to again and again. In fact, one of the core principles of the Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Accord Relationship Agreement is a renewal, which includes the principle of “acknowledging this Agreement as a living document to be reviewed on a periodic basis to maintain accountability, transparency, inclusiveness, and responsiveness.”
Like Cardinal, Rena Soutar, Manager of Decolonization, Arts and Culture, and Spencer Lindsay, Reconciliation Planner, both from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, consider the act of engaging in difficult conversations as the pathway to decolonizing park practices.
The Colonial Audit, which will be released in December, uses conversation as its central tool. In fact, for the audit, Soutar and Lindsay conducted 21 interviews over 5 months across 7 departments. As Soutar and Lindsay see it, only meaningful conversations can reveal the deep-seated colonial assumptions, beliefs and approaches underpinning the organization’s colonial park practices. In the audit, they identified 27 stories that illustrate the current effects of colonialism.
One story of embedded colonialism that Soutar and Lindsay shared at the Conference is the development of Vancouver’s NorthEast False Creek Plan. NorthEast False Creek is a prime downtown waterfront area in Vancouver that was set for redevelopment. Consultations with Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and Urban Indigenous communities revealed that “access to water” was a top priority for the park’s redevelopment. However, when preliminary plans for the site were shared, it was clear that this critical piece of First Nations’ input was lost in translation.
The Park Board hit ‘pause’ on the project to take the time to understand how, after so much consultation with local First Nations, the park’s design could miss the mark. The conversations that ensued helped highlight the importance of “cultural translation” in park design.
As Soutar and Lindsay shared, for the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations “access to water” in the park’s design meant the individuals would have direct access to the shoreline- in an intimate and immersive way. However, colonial mindsets dictated that “access to water” meant enjoying beautiful vistas of water from a distance. In other words, for settlers, access to water means a beautiful vista from which to gaze at nature from a god-like vantage point. For local First Nations, it meant fishing, conducting ceremonies, and placing their hands and feet directly in the water.
As Soutar and Lindsay highlighted, the Northeast False Creek Plan reveals the consequences of unexamined colonial perspectives. The conversation that centered First Nations’ perspectives instead of settler ones, as Soutar says, “turned the narrative upside down to show the embedded colonial perspective.” These conversations made invisible colonial worldview visible, which then opened up the opportunity to “unlearn.”
Cardinal, Soutar, and Lindsay all underscored that decolonizing colonial relationships with nature is an urgent imperative. As Cardinal put it, “we are living in sacred times.”
Decolonizing our relationship with nature means, according to Cardinal, “understanding the connection between ourselves and the natural and spiritual world that surrounds us.” Cardinal shared that reciprocity with nature requires settlers to recognize that humans are not at the “top of the food chain” or at “the center of the universe,” but rather occupy but “one seat in this great circle of life.” As he puts it, “being in a relationship uncentres individuals as the focus,” and helps people view themselves in “a bigger context of family, community, and nature.”
Like Cardinal, Soutar and Lindsay emphasized that decolonization is the only path forward if we are to protect ecological diversity, which is essential for humans to survive. As their presentations underscored, the future of humans is bound up with our relationships with each other and with the rest of nature. As Soutar shared, “plenitude, abundance—that was already here” before settlers arrived and declared Vancouver’s unceded territories ‘parks’ that are ‘for everyone.’
As Soutar, Lindsay, and Cardinal make clear in their presentations on decolonizing parks and relationships, if we are to collectively move in the direction of decolonizing our parks, we must “forget everything we know” about our relationships to each other and the rest of nature. But, before we can forget or unlearn, we need to render the too often invisible colonialist practices visible. The learning, which is the focus of the audit, moves us in the right direction since, as Soutar reminded attendees: “decolonization is a direction, not an outcome.”
Let’s Hike TO is a thriving Toronto organization that intentionally extends a warm invitation to people of colour, newcomers and young adults to join in engaging group hikes. Take note: The hiking group’s name is not just Hike TO, but Let’s Hike TO. The Let’s in the organization’s name signals both the group’s warm and welcoming nature and its core ethos that getting comfortable walking outdoors is best done in a safe and engaging community setting. While anyone can attend their walks regardless of their age or identity, the group has made an intentional effort since its inception in July 2021 to become the city’s diversity-focused hiking group.
In her latest book, Michelle Obama says: “For every door that’s been opened to me, I’ve tried to open my door to others. And here is what I have to say, finally: Let’s invite one another in.”
Speaking to Camara Chambers, one of the four Founders of Let’s Hike TO, it’s clear that her group’s commitment to inviting others into nature underlies the group’s success. To date, Let’s Hike TO has led over 100 hikes attended by 1,300+ attendees. The hikes regularly fill beyond capacity, a phenomenon that’s been fuelled by widespread media attention in outlets ranging from BlogTO to the Guardian UK.Park People played an important role in the group’s early success by providing funding and training through our InTO the Ravines and Sparking Change programs. Now, with the group having recently secured non-profit status, we spoke to Camara to dig deeper into what it really means to invite communities into nature.
Growing up in London, Camara had a decidedly urban upbringing. Nature-based activities like camping, fishing, skiing and hiking were not, as Camara shared, in her family’s wheelhouse. Just to put a fine point on the subject, she tells me, “I definitely did not in any way identify as an outdoorsy person”.
In fact, Camara moved to Toronto as an adult to find a slower pace of life. And, while it may seem surprising that someone would turn to a big city like Toronto for a sense of calm, Camara assures me that the Canadian city is much slower-paced and less intensely urban than her bustling home city of 9 million residents.
As Camara was settling into her new home and career, an older colleague invited her to join her for a hike at a local hiking club. Camara had never heard of the club and had never hiked before. But, that initial invitation led Camara to “immediately fall in love” with hiking:
“It was calm, it was relaxing. I felt at peace with myself, I was immediately addicted.”
On that very first hike, Camara was so smitten that she made the decision to become a volunteer hike leader. Right away she started designing and leading hikes that reflected her own interests and the kind of hikes she’d be keen to join.
“We’d start at a TTC station and we’d end up at a craft brewery,” she tells me. “But, all along the way, we’d hike through lush ravines and green spaces. And, more and more people started coming out.”
Even though her hikes were well attended, Camara noticed that the people attending the club’s hikes tended to be older, long-time hikers and established Canadians. “The demographic was just not anywhere near as diverse as the city,” says Camara.
At the time, Camara was enrolled in a community organizing leadership course at Harvard. She thought the course’s practicum would provide a perfect opportunity to address the hiking club’s lack of diversity. Camara started small, writing a proposal to help the club attract young adults to their hikes. Ultimately, her proposal was rejected by the board.
Speaking of the hiking club, Camara shares: “There was a strong resistance to change and a general feeling that enough was being done already, but I could see so many untapped opportunities and ways to involve more diverse people.”
As academic and outdoor enthusiast Jacqueline L. Scott said in a recent article:
“Many people see nature as a neutral space that’s open to everyone. And while it’s true there isn’t usually any barbed wire preventing racialized people from accessing it, our findings show there are quite a few societal barriers they face.”
Frustrated by the inertia and keen to kickstart a practical solution, Camara decided to work with the three people who became her Co-Founders to create a new grassroots organization focused on inviting new communities into hiking in Toronto. “My colleague invited me to join on a hike, that’s how I got started,” says Camara.
“It’s important to invite people and welcome them into nature. Without that invitation, some people just don’t see themselves there. I know I didn’t.”.
By establishing Let’s Hike T.O., the three Founders set out to invite-in communities that had been systemically left off the hiking invitation list. In so doing, Let’s Hike T.O. sought to redress the embedded racism and exclusion in the hiking community and deliberately connect communities to the benefits of nature.
The iconic phrase ‘build it and they will come” proved to be true for Let’s Hike T.O. When the group extended an invitation to join hikes, a diverse community of hikers showed up.
“To be honest, the barriers didn’t really exist,” says Camara. “People just needed someone to show them that they could hike. To make it feel safe and accessible to them. It’s just that no one had asked them directly.”
How did Let’s Hike T.O. do it? Here are some of the strategies they use to extend the invitation to a new and eager community of Toronto hikers.
Like Camara, not everyone who eventually falls in love with hiking identifies as an “outdoorsy person.”As Camara freely confesses:, “I don’t know that much about like the flora and the fauna and I don’t know if I’m that interested to know that much about it.”
This may sound shocking to a die-hard naturalist, but Let’s Hike T.O,’s approach is:
“There are many ways to hook people on hiking, so why not be creative? There is nothing you can’t pair with hiking. Literally, you can do hiking plus anything.”
The groups’ “hiking + anything” approach has resulted in sold-out hikes on topics ranging from foraging to photography.
Hikes often feature an issue expert who leads the hike alongside the volunteer guide. That means that volunteer hike leaders don’t need to be experts on every topic under the sun and that the hikes always feature fresh content.
Using this approach, Let’s Hike T.O, has hosted hikes that feature equity groups, including hikes on Indigenous knowledge, Jewish history, and Black history. Camara has found this to be a great way to encourage equity-deserving groups to attend hikes.
For example, Park People’s InTO the Ravines program supported a hike in and around Toronto’s Little Jamaica neighbourhood. The hike was called “Walk Good”: after the Jamaican patois expression used to wish a departing traveller good fortune before a trip. The 5km hike led by two Black Torontonian hike leaders introduced participants to Little Jamaica’s Black history, featured Caribbean snacks like plantain chips, and engaged hikers in a 30-minute facilitated discussion about how racial identity impacts experiences in the ravines.
“A lot of people think they have to buy a lot of gear to go hiking and a lot of clubs insist that you need to have hiking boots. Particularly if you’re hiking in Toronto in the summer, you can get away with hiking in running shoes, or whatever shoes you feel comfortable walking in.”
As Camara points out, if people think they need to invest in expensive equipment to participate, they are much more likely to be intimidated and opt-out. Also, equipment costs can be a significant barrier to participation.
If the goal is to encourage people to opt-in, then it’s important to prioritize showing up over gearing up. While Camara emphasizes that people may eventually want to invest in simple gear like crampons during icy winter days, it’s best to solidify buy-in first.
Every Let’s Hike T.O. hike begins and ends at a TTC station or bus stop. The built-in assumption that participants have access to cars not only favours those with the greatest economic privilege but inadvertently punishes people who are choosing a more sustainable mode of transportation. Finally, making all the hikes TTC accessible helps people recognize that they don’t need to have a car to participate in hiking.
Also, as Camara points out, if you organize an event at 2 pm on a Tuesday, anyone who works typical office hours or a day job is automatically unable to attend. So, to reach a broader base of young prospective hikers, Let’s Hike T.O. schedules most of their hikes on weekends. Hikes start at 10 am or later, a time that says “we get it, you want to sleep in on the weekend.”
And, after hikers get their much deserved beauty rest, they don’t need to worry about falling behind because a number of Let’s Hike T.O.’s hikes happen at the comfortable pace of 3-4km per hour. This pace is slightly slower than the average adult walking speed. That means that participants of different ages or beginners don’t need to struggle to keep up. Instead of feeling bad about lagging behind, participants can focus on the positive experience of being in nature together, at any speed.
From the get-go, Let’s Hike T.O. has exclusively used familiar social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to attract new hikers.
Rather than relying on people finding them on the web, Let’s Hike T.O. spends its time where their audience is already hanging. Using a visual platform like Instagram allows the group to profile diverse participants having fun in nature. Pictures help curious types see themselves as potential hikers. It seems to be working as they’ve already secured over 2,000 followers.
Once they’ve been invited into hiking, Camara wants Let’s Hike T.O. participants to get hooked on the benefits of spending time outdoors.
“We’re definitely not the gatekeepers of nature. I always hope that people leave our hikes with an understanding of how they could do it themselves.”
The hikes are designed to build participants’ confidence in several key areas.
First, Camara emphasizes that through hiking, many new hikers build up their confidence in their body’s ability to carry distances. Hiking outdoor terrains gives people the opportunity to explore their body’s capacity and limits, and get hooked on the endorphins produced through physical fitness and activity.
Hiking also helps participants see their city differently. Toronto ravines, in particular, can be hidden in plain sight.
“The hikes give people an opportunity to learn about the natural spaces around them. Particularly if you live in a very urban part of Toronto, you might not have access to natural spaces like the ravines.”
Finally, the hikes provide an opportunity for participants to experience the benefits that come from spending time in nature. As highlighted in Park People’s 2022 Canadian City Parks Report feature on nature connectedness: “When we tune ourselves into the natural world, we feel more positive emotions, like vitality. We also ruminate less and act kinder and more generous to those around us.”
Camara’s own experience of becoming “totally addicted” to hiking happened because her time in nature provided her with the sense of calm she had been craving. She’s watched gleefully as she’s been able to spread this sense of calm and wonder to a new community of hiking participants since the group started only 18 months ago.
While it was a serendipitous invitation that inspired Camara to start Let’s Hike T.O., this inviting spirit underpins everything the organization does. By employing a strategy deliberately designed to invite people of colour, newcomers and young adults into hiking and reduce the barriers to participation, Let’s Hike T.O. has succeeded in connecting new communities to the benefits of spending time in nature. They’ve not only succeeded in redefining what it means to live in the city, they’ve redefined what it means to be an ‘outdoorsy person.”
Park People launches the 2022 Canadian City Parks Report, the fourth annual report featuring the biggest trends, issues, and practices shaping Canada’s city parks.
In the webinar, you can hear directly from the Canadian City Parks Report authors—Adri Stark, Emily Riddle, and Jake Tobin Garrett and get the inside track on:
The session features an in-depth discussion moderated by Park People Board Chair Zahra Ebrahim. The webinar is held in English; French subtitles are available.
Adri Stark is specialized in research and policy at Park People, and co-author of the annual Canadian City Parks Report.…
Emily Riddle is nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation in Treaty 6. She lives in amiskwaciwâskahikan. A…
Jake Tobin Garrett (he/him) is a writer, illustrator and public space policy and research consultant. He was previously Park People’s…
Zahra is a public interest designer and strategist focused on shifting power to people who are typically underrepresented in institutions…
Nawal is a busy person. She has a full-time job helping newcomers settle in Canada. When she isn’t working or spending time with her family, she volunteers in her local Flemingdon, Toronto community. Flemingdon is a community rich with new immigrants that now call Toronto home. However, many need help navigating a new city and making ends meet. Understanding these challenges herself and driven by a passion to help, Nawal co-founded Flemingdon Community Support Services.
This volunteer-led organization helps the community access food, housing and employment. After months of serving the community, something became clear to Nawal. She began to recognize one crucial gap, a persistent need that wasn’t being met: loneliness. So many of her neighbours felt incredibly isolated and alone.
Nawal approached Park People with an idea.
Flemingdon has vast and beautiful parks. Despite it being a dense area of high and low-rise apartment buildings where most residents don’t have a backyard, this neighborhood off the Don Valley offers sprawling, public greenspaces for everyone to share. But they are underused. Some people don’t feel safe in the parks, while others struggle to find the time or a reason to use them.
Fueled by a passion for community and connection, Nawal worked with Park People to start a weekly Health and Wellness meet-up in her local park. Every week, members of her community gather to explore topics of conversation, ranging from sharing nutritious recipes to engaging in storytelling, learning a dance, or simply taking a walk together. The group is inclusive, consistent and caring. Over time, the gathering evolved into a community hub, where new friendships are forged, and people discover a deep sense of belonging.
Recently, a community member told Nawal she was initially nervous about attending, but now she can’t imagine her life without the weekly meet-up at the park, a mental health refuge for her and a bright light in her week.
Read other community leaders’ stories with Marie-Pierre from Vancouver and Geneviève from Montreal. Their stories feature the incredible work being done to foster social connection and community resilience in parks and green spaces across Canada.
According to the Canadian Survey on Disability, 27% of Canadians aged 15 and over have one or more disabilities that limit their daily activities.
Making your event accessible and inclusive is not just a nice thing to do; it is the right thing to do! It ensures that no one is left out from receiving your message, participating in your activities or program, or being part of your network. This inclusive approach that welcomes diverse voices and perspectives benefits our organizations, parks, cities, and society as a whole!
Whether planning a nature walk, park picnic, planting workshop, a music/arts event, or an online webinar, it is essential to create a welcoming, safe, and respectful environment for participants of all abilities, backgrounds, ages, and gender identities!
Here are some valuable tips to help you plan accessible and inclusive events.
“We move together as people with mixed abilities, multiracial, multi-gendered, mixed class, across the sexual spectrum, with a vision that leaves no body-mind behind.”
Julie Nowak, Multiply-disabled and neuroqueer educator, consultant, and writer; and Kristie Cabrera, queer, Latine, neurodivergent, accessibility and inclusivity consultant.
Disability justice is both a framework and a movement dedicated to creating a less ableist and more equitable world. It goes beyond simple governmental compliance and addresses all types of disabilities—not just those related to mobility issues—to promote comprehensive inclusivity.
Learn more:
Planning an event involves juggling many tasks, like finding a venue, arranging food, materials, registrations, and keeping everyone informed. Sometimes, accessibility needs are considered only as an afterthought, if at all.
The key is to consider the many barriers that can exist for people with different abilities and backgrounds and address them at the event’s planning stage. Before you plan anything, develop a checklist of accessibility needs (see the Park People checklist below) and prioritize them based on their importance.
Remember, accessibility is a team effort; every person has a role to play! It involves coordination from budgeting to communications. An important reality is that prioritizing accessibility often requires a larger budget to cover different needs, such as renting a ramp, booking an accessible bus, or welcoming personal support workers at no extra charge.
“Together, through a respectful exchange of information and a commitment to accessibility, we can transform park programs, presentations, events, and activities into inclusive social and physical spaces – where everyone gets to benefit and contribute.”
Kari Krogh, Disabled co-founder of EcoWisdom, a social enterprise that offers Accessible Nature Wellbeing Programs online and in-person as well as Nature and Forest Therapy Guide certification training with an emphasis on disability-environmental justice, accessibility, and intersectional inclusion.
Accessibility means enabling everyone to have access to everything. It means removing access barriers to people with cognitive conditions and hearing, visual, and mobility-related impairments. It also means removing access barriers for people who have non-visible disabilities, such as neurodiversity or chronic illnesses resulting in sensory sensitivities and energy limitations, temporary mobility limitations (a broken leg, for example), seniors who may experience intermittent pain, and people of all body types, backgrounds, religions, and gender identities.
Even participants who don’t have a particular barrier in accessing your events and activities can benefit from accessibility features. For instance, research shows that captions and subtitles improve understanding and memory retention for all viewers.
Here’s a handy checklist to help you ensure your event is accessible and inclusive. This list isn’t exhaustive; additional considerations may be necessary based on your event’s specific needs.
When selecting event venues, it is essential to consider a range of accessibility features:
For outdoor events, confirm that spaces are designed and maintained to allow individuals with limited mobility to navigate safely and comfortably. Avoid venues with uneven terrain or steep inclines, and opt for stable, firm, and slip-resistant surfaces such as pavement, crushed stone or compacted soil. Trails should be at least 36 inches wide to accommodate wheelchairs or walkers.
Additionally, verify that service dogs are permitted in the venue (both indoor and outdoor) and arrangements are in place for a relief area.
Book a visit to conduct a site assessment of accessibility features before securing the location and venue. Consider inviting disabled individuals to visit your top pick venues and help assess the site to ensure it meets their needs.
To make sure everyone can enjoy every aspect of your event, we recommend you to:
Before the Event:
When promoting your event, ensure accessibility information is on the platform you’re using—webpage, FAQ, Eventbrite page, or Facebook event. It should cover various aspects of accessibility regarding the location, transportation, sensory experiences, and interactions one might expect. It will help people determine if they can/want to participate and plan accordingly.
If possible, take a video or photos of the terrain and include a link on the event website so that people can decide whether they can comfortably participate. If possible, allow attendees to check out the site in advance.
Ensure that people with disabilities can bring a support person at no extra cost and that this information is clearly communicated when you launch your event.
You can also provide an email address for accessibility inquiries and add a dedicated question in the registration form so interested people can describe their access needs before the event. Some participants might have specific requests that you hadn’t considered, such as the need to accommodate respirators, for instance.
This approach can reduce stress for participants who have faced barriers in the past and encourage them to consider participating when they may have thought it wasn’t possible. It will also help everyone get ready for the big day. Failing to follow up on these needs can be harmful. It’s important to openly discuss what accommodations can be provided within the available budget, which may require a discussion via email or phone.
During the Event:
Effective communication and clear signage are essential so all attendees can navigate different event venue areas, such as washrooms, reserved seating areas, the low-stimulation rest area and activity zones. Use clear fonts, large sizes, highly contrasting colours, simple language, universal symbols, and consistently strategic signage placement. If possible, provide accessible sign options, such as braille or tactile maps.
Make certain all your activities are safe and inclusive for everyone:
Let’s discuss concrete examples of accessible and inclusive park activities.
Multisensory Art event or installation
Visual art is often prioritized over other mediums, but multisensory installations offer a more inclusive experience. The approach is to use various interactive elements to engage multiple senses, such as sound and touch.
For instance, the “Interconnection Audio Stories: Knowledge, Myths, and Legends” project offers an immersive visual AND audio experience of an existing mural in Paul Martel Park in Toronto. It invites people to stop and listen, engaging their senses beyond just vision.
Another great example is a recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario showcasing the various contributions of women to the visual arts in Europe, which included multisensory experiences with scent and touch stations.
Planting / Stewardship event
Community gardens and stewardship events are very popular among park lovers. To make your garden accessible, use elevated beds and planters for wheelchair users or those unable to knee or bend, and place them near accessible paths (firm, levelled, and free of loose gravel). Have one or several trained staff members dedicated to supporting attendees.
Offer various ways to get involved for those who can’t physically remove invasive plants or participate in planting. They can participate in wildlife or plant inventory projects, site and plant assessments, communication and promotion, public education and nature interpretation whether it’s before, during, or after your event.
To enhance navigation and engagement with your content, prioritize platforms that support accessibility features like screen readers, keyboard navigation, and captioning options.
Enable closed captions or live transcripts for all audio and video content, and check that these features are synchronized to provide the best possible experience.
When creating presentation materials, including slide decks, videos, documents, and web pages, do it with accessibility in mind. Use clear fonts, high contrast, captions for video content, audio playback for PDF, and text description for images (text below the image and/or alt-text).
Learn more on web content accessibility:
Just as with external events, it’s important to include an option in the registration form for participants to specify their accessibility requirements or include an option for them to reach out and share their accessibility needs. It helps identify and accommodate individual needs in advance.
Provide technical support and assistance through multiple channels, including chat, email, and phone, so participants can easily access help if/when needed. Another good practice is to begin the presentation with tips on using the platform, the accessibility features and where to find additional support. This ensures that all participants know and can use the available resources effectively. When you are welcoming a disabled presenter, it can be very helpful to have a tech-check session in advance.
For online events lasting over an hour, we recommend you add one break to accommodate participants with personal care needs who may need time to rest, manage their energy levels, or move to manage chronic pain.
When presenting slides, you’ll describe the text displayed and provide more context and information. Please also provide detailed descriptions of the images, videos, or illustrations shown. It will take a few seconds but improve the experience of attendees who can’t see the images and videos correctly.
“What I liked most was being together with everyone in the first space ever since my body began to change where I felt I could be totally myself without question or explanation.”
EcoWisdom Accessible Nature Wellbeing Program Participant,, Vancouver
We want to acknowledge that we are not a disabled-led organization. The best practices shared here are rooted in our intention to make our events accessible, developed in consultation with disabled-led organizations such as Eco Wisdom. We are sharing this as a companion resource as part of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) commitments.
Park People launched the 2023 Canadian City Parks Report, the fifth annual report highlighting the most significant trends, issues, and practices shaping Canada’s city parks.
Watch the webinar recording to meet the report’s researchers and writers and get the inside scoop on:
The report launch webinar features a lively discussion on the report’s key findings and future directions for city parks.
This hour-long webinar features Adri Stark and Jake Tobin Garett, co-author of the report. It is moderated by Selina Young, member of Park People’s Board of Directors and Director, Indigenous Affairs Office at the City of Toronto.
The webinar is held in English; French subtitles are available.
Selina is Métis from northern Saskatchewan. She has been a guest on Anishnawbe and Haudenosaunee territory in and around Toronto…