Youth for Food-Climate Justice Podcast
Between the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024 Cheyenne Sundance, Aden Fisher and Michael Classens held 6 knowledge co-creation workshops with youth in the Greater Toronto Area working at the intersection of food justice and climate justice. The Youth for Food-Climate Justice project was meant to bring youth together to imagine what a more just and sustainable local food system looks like, and to develop policy and program recommendations to get us there. This work was part of a broader initiative, Youth Climate Action in Toronto, a project supported by the City of Toronto and University of Toronto aimed at developing a strategy to support broader youth engagement in climate action as a part of the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy.
As you’ll hear, participants underscored the need for deep structural transformation in how we think about food, but also how we think about, and re-organize the priorities of our cities.
- Find Cheyenne Sundance at www.sundancecommons.com and on Instagram – sundanceharvest and sundancecommons
- Find Aden Fisher at aden[dot]fisher[at]mail[dot]utoronto[dot]ca
- Find Michael Classens at michael[dot]classens[at]utoronto[dot]ca, foodandchange.com and on Instagram at michael_classens
Airborne Avengers Assemble: An Interactive Climate Audio Experience
Airborne Avengers Assemble! is a joyful, interactive audio experience to help kids learn about and feel empowered to help pollinators and ecosystems! Participants immerse themselves in the interactive guided play experience that runs just under 15 minutes and learn about pollinator-friendly practices. The content is geared towards families and the audio experience is especially catered towards kids 5 to 10, but kids of all ages are welcome and adults have enjoyed tapping into their inner child and playing along, too!
The audio experience draws from social science highlighting the importance of building kids’ sense of action and agency to help foster their resilience in the face of growing climate anxiety. Feel free to use this audio to run your own interactive experience.
Written and voiced by Grace Nosek.
Audio engineered and designed by Karim Rizakallah.
Thanks to Karim, Moth, Plantain, Funnybones, and the Commons for your addition writing, research, and amazing voice work!
Created as part of the Youth Climate Action in Toronto (YCAT) project.
Just and Accountable Futures
This report, Just and Accountable Futures: Developing a Proposed Climate Policy Accountability Approach for the City of Toronto, was completed by Ayesha Ali, Ibtesaam Mohamed Afroz Moosa, Erum Naqvi, Zoha Sojoudi, and Imara Ajani Rolston. In Toronto, Black and racialized youth, particularly those in neighbourhoods designated as Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs), face disproportionate impacts from climate change. Decades of systemic disinvestment and racial injustice have left these communities vulnerable to environmental hazards such as excessive heat, pollution, and flooding, with limited resources to respond. As the City of Toronto works to advance its climate goals through initiatives such as the TransformTO Net Zero Strategy, a gap remains in ensuring that these communities, particularly the youth, have a role in holding the City accountable for its climate promises.
This report proposes an accountability approach for the City of Toronto designed to bridge this gap by centring the voices and experiences of Black and racialized youth in NIAs. The approach highlights four key accountability principles, namely being accessible, being representative and relatable, creating shared understanding, and “walking the talk.” Black and racialized youth deserve more than a city that simply acknowledges its problems — they deserve a city that stands with them, acts on their behalf, and lets them shape their future.
Youth Dreaming and Designing Relations to Lands and Waters
An afterschool land education program was designed by the @tkarontocirclelab for Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous youth to talk about the climate crisis and urban land relations, and to design land education programs. It was one of the engagement project piloted by the Y-CAT project, which are all feeding into the creation of the Youth Climate Action Engagement Strategy for the City of Toronto.
In this podcast episode, youth researchers (ages 14 to 18) and graduate facilitators from the afterschool land education program reflect on climate justice and Land relations, focusing on the impacts of colonization, urbanization, and gentrification on both human and more-than-human beings. Through rants, poems, and stories, they challenge anthropocentrism, express desires for more reciprocal relations with Land and water in the city, and envision just climate futures for their communities.
Podcast episode available on the following platforms:
Best Practices to Support Youth Climate Action in Toronto
This report provides an overview of potential pathways for civic youth engagement in climate action drawing on examples from existing programs in North America. It also outlines key principles to support broader youth engagement in climate action.
This report is just the first step. It’s based on a jurisdictional scan and literature review of relevant best-practices, as well as interviews with relevant stakeholders including City staff, youth climate activists and youth engagement specialists.
Youth Climate Action in Toronto 