IT’S MY FUTURE
What if kids made the city’s design decisions?
It’s My Future Toronto (IMFTO) is a special program bringing together education, industry, and government to provide the opportunity for 8-14 years old BIPOC youth to design Toronto’s future. Themes have included recovery from COVID-19, systemic racism and biodiversity.
Youth participants are guided through the process via “how to” videos on the website and workshops by professional journalists, designers, advertisers, community activists, movie directors, and policy experts.
Empowering youth to design for themselves
In year one, we were invited to internally support the OCAD team launch with format development, partnered with Microsoft. We led testing of the Minecraft learning space, and managed community engagement and workshop facilitation. IMFTO’s first cohort targeted 8-14 years old BIPOC youth focused on future solutions for COVID-19 and systemic racism through design thinking.
A yearly format
Annually, students from Toronto District School Board (TDSB) schools are invited to imagine, make, and share fresh ideas through journalism, tactical advertising, and policy ideas for implementation in the design, journalism, policy, and advertising workshops. Their ideas are shown in a culminating workshop to be showcased annually.