For our first community profile, we are highlighting one of our newest partners: Social Planning Toronto. SPT provides analysis and tools for civic engagement related to social and economic justice. Currently, they are leading the City For All campaign leading up to Toronto’s municipal election.
We are excited to share our conversation with the folks at SPT. They told us about the work they do and why they’ve joined GTADC.
Tell us a little bit about your organization.
Social Planning Toronto is a social planning council, our work involves community-focused research and policy analysis; convening a cross-section of community-based groups to take action on equitable policy change, and civic engagement and capacity building for communities and organizations. A key part of our work is bringing people together to talk about how to make our city more liveable, accessible and inclusive and organizing together to address growing inequality.
Our organization has been operating for almost 70 years!
Why did you want to join the coalition?
We wanted to join the coalition because our work at Social Planning Toronto is deeply aligned with the coalition’s priorities and principles.
We have partnered with the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto for several years and more recently the GTA Disability Coalition has been an active collaborator in our City Budget work. Joining the coalition feels like a natural progression for us, as it allows us to strengthen our commitments to accessibility, disability Inclusion, disability-led advocacy, and to work alongside disabled residents and organizations to push for a more equitable and accessible Toronto.
What is one small action you’d like to encourage people to take that advocates for disabled Toronto residents?
We would like to encourage people to continue speaking with tenant groups, neighbours and community groups about barriers to accessibility in their own buildings and neighbourhoods, and to learn how the AODA can be an important tool to address them and to normalize conversations about disability rights and justice.
Can you tell us about the City For All Campaign and why it’s important for disabled people to participate?
The City For All Campaign is a community-led effort to push for a Toronto where everyone has what they need to live with dignity: affordable housing, accessible transit, strong public services, and neighbourhoods where people can thrive. This work must include centring the experiences of residents with disabilities because income security, housing and community safety and wellbeing are also disability issues. When disabled residents participate and offer guidance the campaign is further grounded in lived experience, more accountable, and more effective. That lived expertise and leadership ensures that the solutions we advocate for are deeply reflective of the realities of communities most impacted by inequity.