Our Toronto Dialogues series brings together creative minds to develop innovative solutions to some of our city's most pressing issues.

The Dialogues convene diverse stakeholders to explore issues highlighted in our Toronto's Vital Signs® Report and utilize a collaborative approach to develop potential solutions. These gatherings, which consist of public forums and more informal meetings, contribute to our community knowledge, help us build partnerships, inform our grantmaking, and enable us to achieve our mission of connecting philanthropy with community needs and opportunities.

Since developing Toronto Dialogues in 2004, the Toronto Community Foundation has convened Dialogues addressing a number of issues:

Municipal Finance
In 2007, Toronto's Vital Signs® revealed a declining quality of life for many, citing the heavy burdens of "aging infrastructure, growing debt and a seemingly permanent state of fiscal crisis" in the City of Toronto.

In response to the need for new ideas to address the fiscal crisis, the Toronto Community Foundation developed a partnership with the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, and hosted a three-part series on Toronto's fiscal future in 2008. This Toronto Dialogue presented international speakers who offered fresh approaches to the growing challenges of civic debt and lack of strategic investment facing the City of Toronto.

These public forums, held at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre, were followed by meetings with municipal and provincial staff to continue the process of exploring new ideas and developing new solutions for Toronto's fiscal future.

Public Space
Inspired by the Mayor's Clean & Beautiful City Initiative and Toronto Community Foundation stakeholders' concerns about the aesthetics of public spaces in our city, this Toronto Dialogue was initiated to explore how residents, businesses, community organizations, and government might work together to create public space that enhances the livability and social cohesion of our city, and how private interests, including philanthropy, could be integrated into supporting public space.

The Toronto Dialogue on Public Space convened by the Toronto Community Foundation in 2005 brought together a diverse group of donors, stakeholders, and community leaders who worked together to create an unprecedented "public philanthropic partnership". The partnership saw the creation of the Toronto Community Foundation's "Arts on Track" project, which transformed the Museum Subway Station to reflect the recently reinvigorated Royal Ontario Museum at Gardiner Museum above it.

Community Safety
Toronto's Vital Signs®' 2005 Report identified high youth unemployment as a serious concern, dramatic drop-off rates in youth recreational activity, and troubling drop-out rates. The Report also identified an increasing rate of youth violence. During the summer of 2005, residents in the City of Toronto were shaken by high incidence of youth-on-youth gun violence. It has since become known as the "Summer of the Gun".

As a neutral convener, the Toronto Community Foundation brought together leaders in Toronto to address inter-racial conflict in the city created by the perception of disproportional involvement of Black youth in violent crimes and a growing sense of exclusion of the Black community in addressing the problem. The goal of this Toronto Dialogue was to engage Black community leadership in creating opportunities for collaboration and positive change.

Three ideas were developed from this Toronto Dialogue: the African-Canadian Christian Network, Toronto Sport Leadership Program, and ArtReach Toronto.

Affordable Housing
In 2007, Toronto's Vital Signs® indicated unprecedented vacancy rates in rental apartments and at the same time, for those with the least income, it was becoming more challenging to secure affordable housing.

The Toronto Community Foundation convened private landlords and public housing officials to discuss the issue and possible solutions in a Toronto Dialogue, which proposed a cost-shared housing allowance pilot program. The Strong Communities Housing Allowance Pilot, made possible with a $3.6 million contribution from the Government of Ontario, found affordable homes for 400 families.

The success of the pilot helped prompt the City of Toronto to adopt their successful Streets to Homes program, which is providing Toronto's once-vacant apartments to those who need it most. The Government of Ontario approved a further $265 million for housing allowances for thousands of households across Toronto and tens of thousands across Ontario.