Engaging Youth for Mississauga's Official Plan
In November 2020, Urban Minds partnered with the City of Mississauga to host the ‘Our Future City’ event for Mississauga youth to participate in their Official Plan Review.
For this hour-long interactive workshop, the objective was to help teach youth about how Mississauga is planning for the future, who is involved in land use planning and development, and how they can participate and be active in the process. To begin, Urban Minds gave an ‘Urban Planning 101’ presentation, which provided an overview of land use planning and Mississauga’s Official Plan, its purpose and benefits, as well as how youth can participate in this decision making process. |
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Then, the youth were led through an empathy mapping exercise where they were given a set of personas that reflect the themes of the Official Plan and were asked to build a plan for the neighbourhood around their school. To help identify the needs of the community, they were asked to suggest what each persona would “do” and “feel” if they were in that area.
After that, the fun began! Participants broke out into groups to map out what they imagined for their neighbourhood. After brainstorming, everyone came back together and presented their ideas. In the end, participants left with creative ideas for how to help shape the future of Mississauga and got an inside look into the land use planning process. As the City of Mississauga continues to review its Official Plan, there will be ongoing Community Engagement Meetings running from January to June, 2021 with further opportunities for youth to get involved. |
Cover Image: Flickr user: [bastian.] (www.flickr.com/photos/homeofbastian/)