(Re)Imagining Our Community

(Re)imagining Our Community was founded on the principle that youth have unique solutions to the housing crisis they are facing on reserve. Using a variety of media, Eabametoong First Nation youth were given the opportunity to discuss, vision and create a new future for their community, based on their own goals and values. This interactive approach was designed to create a pathway into discussions about community planning, housing and future development for a group who often feel excluded from this conversation. 

From building understandings of how youth use community space now, to what spaces youth need in the future, this collaborative project centres youth experiences in the process of long-term community planning. While we often here that youth are our future, and that we want to plan for youth- rarely are they included in these processes. By removing technical barriers and instead encouraging iteration and trial in mapping and design processes youth felt welcomed to participate. 

Guided by curiosity, the projects began by asking: 

How do you imagine your community growing and changing in the future? How can your lived environment change to better suit the needs of young people in your community?

Who was involved?

This project built on a Fall 2014 studio project, (re)imagining our community. TDL partnered with Eabametoong First Nation to work with youth to understand how youth use community space. TDL collaborated with community leadership, school staff and youth-serving sports coaches to facilitate engagements in seven classrooms over two visits and with a variety of youth outside the classroom. 

What types of engagement occurred?

Engagements were designed to work with youth through discussions and visual materials such as maps, pictures and other visualizations of the community. Three key organizing principles were used when designing materials and engaging youth: 

• Breaking the contributor/beneficiary dichotomy 

• Rejecting perpetual capacity development and valuing other ways of knowing

• Valuing based community development and recognizing the unique perspective of children and youth

What was learned? 

A community-driven, user-focused model becomes even more important when working with youth.

The learning produced from these workshops was shared both by team members and youth themselves to community leaders and decision-makers. The relationships built however lasted beyond the length of this particular project and have allowed for youth to be active participants in community discussions moving forward. This model has presented internationally as an approach for bringing youth voices into planning discussions and as a framework for partnering settler planners with Indigenous communities as co-creators.