Contact city@yorku.ca if you would like to become a partner of the City Institute.
Black Diasporas (2023 – Ongoing)
Black Diasporas has entered into a partnership with CITY Institute. Black Diasporas is a geolocated oral narrative repository that was piloted in NYC and initially executed in Naarm-Melbourne (Australia). The team is working towards producing a similar project with Black people in Tkaronto-Toronto. The Naarm-Melbourne (Australia) was made by 75 Black people from Australia including, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, designers, journalists, doctors, programmers, activists etc. Black Diasporas has interviewed Black people from across African Diasporas in North America, the Caribbean, Europe and the African continent who now call Australia home. Linked here are a couple of stories you might find interesting from the Naarm-Melbourne project about dance, community and belonging, and one from the Manahatta-NYC pilot about childhood memories. The Naarm-Melbourne project was awarded the Victorian State Government Multicultural Excellence award for community innovation and the ArchiTeam innovation and contribution award. The aim of the project is to create space for Black people to tell their own stories, Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto will be made by 100+ Black Canadian community members, creatives, journalists and filmmakers: also providing capacity-building opportunities for Black creatives.
HOUSE Canada (2022- Ongoing)
Housing Our University Students Equitably (HOUSE) is an incorporated non-profit organization set up by students dedicated to developing student-controlled, permanently affordable accommodations across Ontario. HOUSE is associated with other non-profit and student-led organizations like Affordable Housing Committee at York, York Housing Coalition, Canadian Communities Land Trust, York Community Housing Association, York Non-Profit Housing Society Co-operative, and Guyana Community House (please, click here for further information).
To see HOUSE Canada’s organizational chart, please click here.
Our Greenway (2022- Ongoing)
Our Greenway, is a Partner at CITY, which is led by Darnel Harris, MES who is a Visiting Scholar at CITY. Our Greenway is trying to build a 21 KM linear park conservancy and mobility pathway in Toronto’s northwest, which would connect communities, provide extreme weather protection, improve health outcomes and provide a wealth of jobs and financial security for communities that need it greatly. By providing a low speed mobility option that is safe and comfortable and practical, we would open up employment and mobility options for all ages.
Toronto Urban Journal (TUJ) (2018 – Ongoing)
The Toronto Urban Journal, is a new publication that facilitates the extended engagement of outstanding work in the field of urban studies. It is a reviewed publication that affords undergraduate students with a scholarly, anonymous review of their work which is conducted by student editors and established scholars. Partially funded by York University’s Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, the Department of Geography and the Urban Studies Program, The Toronto Urban Journal is located at The City Institute at York University. It is is run by an editorial team of undergraduate students and is presided over by an advisory board composed of faculty members.
The Journal endeavours to be inclusive and support meaningful intellectual excursions into the realm of urban studies, regardless of particular epistemological groundings. It draws upon the academic research expertise of The City Institute at York University and endeavours to partner where appropriate with the Institute. In addition, the Journal cultivates a strong working relationship with York University student federations and caucuses (i.e., Federation of Urban Studies Students, Bachelor of Environmental Studies Student Association, etc.), however, it is independent of these. The Journal’s Editorial Board is staffed from the undergraduate student body in Urban Studies, Environmental Studies and Geography (although students of cognate units may also apply to be members of the Editorial Board). The Advisory Board is likewise composed of Urban Studies, Environmental Studies and Geography program faculty members.
Shared Path (2017-2019)
The Shared Path Consultation Initiative (Shared Path), is a Partner at CITY, with contact maintained through Clara Fraser, Ph.D. Candidate in FES at York University. Shared Path is a not-for-profit organization focused on the intersection of land use planning processes and Aboriginal and Treaty rights in Ontario. Shared Path works towards building bridges between Indigenous communities and local governments. Its main objective is to collect and create resources concerning Aboriginal and Treaty rights and Indigenous interests within the urban and regional planning process, in order to support Indigenous-municipal communications, and to approach collaboration so that it encourages the Indigenous voice as the place from which to begin the conversations around changes in planning and the impacts of the Duty to Consult and Accommodate and Ontario planning legislation. The long-term goal of Shared Path is to develop a comprehensive, coordinated program of educational activities including workshops, symposia, training, collaborative research, and best practice guidelines. Through the use of educational tools and resources, Shared Path and its partners seek to illuminate systemic problems of the current planning and framework, and promote alternative systems of planning that are informed by the Indigenous peoples.