Unify Toronto Dialogues: A Retrospective
by Natalie Zend, January 2020
The challenge:
These are unprecedented times. Humanity has never before faced such uncertainty. As the danger of nuclear war, climate change, mass species extinction, growing inequality and exclusion as well as food insecurity converge, we can no longer take for granted the continuation of complex life on Earth.
Toronto activists and change agents are working in this uncharted territory to address the ecological, socio-economic, and spiritual crises of our time. But they are often stove-piped within their issue, and on the verge of burnout. Leaders and interested citizens need spaces and processes to help them transform despair and apathy in the face of overwhelming planetary crises into collaborative action, across issues and organizations, toward a life-sustaining society. They need a broader context for their social change work, one that will help them draw on reserves of energy larger than their own. They need a place to experiment with possible futures—a local lab for the Great Turning.
Toronto activists and change agents are working in this uncharted territory to address the ecological, socio-economic, and spiritual crises of our time. But they are often stove-piped within their issue, and on the verge of burnout. Leaders and interested citizens need spaces and processes to help them transform despair and apathy in the face of overwhelming planetary crises into collaborative action, across issues and organizations, toward a life-sustaining society. They need a broader context for their social change work, one that will help them draw on reserves of energy larger than their own. They need a place to experiment with possible futures—a local lab for the Great Turning.
The core team (with much support from many over the years):
- Natalie Zend, co-host of Unify Toronto Dialogues (2013-17)
- Peter Jones, co-host of Unify Toronto Dialogues, host of Design with Dialogue
- Satya Robinson Love, founding member of Unify Toronto and Drawdown Toronto
- Jon Love, founding member of Unify Toronto and Drawdown Toronto
- David Burman, co-host of Unify Toronto Dialogues
- Paul Overy, co-host of Unify Toronto Dialogues
Partners:
A variety of guest curators, speakers, facilitators, and venue hosts
The work:
Responding to the fragmentation and isolation of change efforts in Toronto, in 2012 our group of Unify Toronto volunteer leaders began to host public meetings. In 2013 we partnered with Design with Dialogues to create the Unify Toronto Dialogues monthly dialogues and other events at various venues in the city. Anchored in a common perspective as Awakening the Dreamer Symposium facilitators, we brought change agents together--leaders and interested citizens from social justice movements; indigenous leaders, ecology, democracy and social justice activists, and faith-based communities. Our hope was that our gatherings would help people get emboldened for their part in creating the next culture, renew their inspiration, and find connections and support for action.
Highlights of our programming over the years include the following:
In 2013:
In 2014:
In 2015: Remaking a Living: Money and Meaning: Economies That Work for All of Us.
In this 8-part series we explored new ways of thinking about wealth and money, of doing business, and of exchanging with each other and with the earth. Our guiding questions included: What will the new economy look like? How can we reclaim our rights to economic arrangements that work for our planet, for us, our families and citizens in urban communities? What would our communities be like if we could grow our food, produce the energy we need, and create structures that enhance the interaction with each other and the environment?
Sessions included a look at complementary currency systems such as LETS, Theory U and moving from egosystem to ecosystem economies (3 sessions), a World Café on The Leap Manifesto, and a session on how reconciliation with First Nations can lead to economies that work for everyone. Participant response to this latter session led to a sustained focus on these issues.
In 2016 and 2017: “Indigenize or Die”: curated by Kevin Best.
In this two-year, 18-part series, we deconstructed the myths of the dominant culture, and explored a more truthful historical perspective and how that manifests today. Then, through the lens of decolonization and re-indigenization, we explored together possibilities for an ecologically sustainable and socially-just way forward. We asked, how can we ensure the survival of complex life on this land in accordance with its legitimate laws and the laws of Nature?
The series included an evening with Ojibwe wisdom keeper Wendy Phillips, a KAIROS Blanket Exercise, several gatherings with Naadmaagit Ki Group along the Humber River, a workshop with Moyo Mutamba on the Ubuntu learning village in Zimbabwe, and a consultation on the TOcore Parks and Public Realm Plan.
In 2018-2019: Drawdown Toronto: How we can reverse global warming and the part you can play
Inspired by Project Drawdown, the world's only comprehensive framework of solutions to global warming, we wanted to spread the word and inspire action in Toronto. Started by environmental journalist and author Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown is an ongoing effort to map, model and calculate emissions reductions and financial benefits by 2050 of the top 100 tools and technologies. The first results from Project Drawdown were published in a book in 2017 and further information about Drawdown Toronto is available at www.drawdowntoronto.ca.
Unify Toronto's Drawdown program so far (Jan 2018-Sept 2019) has included nine introductions to Drawdown, eight sectoral events, four 4/5-part courses, as well as several media appearances, panel presentations and info-fairs (e.g., Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett’s town hall; the Eco-Fair at Wychwood Barns), and participation in several conferences (e.g., University of Toronto Post-Carbon World Symposium; the Minden Symposium on the Environment). A Solutions Summit took place on September 28, 2019.
Highlights of our programming over the years include the following:
In 2013:
- Envisioning Unify Toronto: A workshop facilitated by Kate Sutherland (Vancouver) and Natalie Zend in which we connected with the energetic essence of Toronto to gain insight for the future of Unify Toronto and of the Unify Toronto Dialogues.
- Embodying Emotions to Energize your Change Work:Two workshops designed and guest-facilitated by Ryan Genereaux, in which participants explored embodying emotions that excite them and call them to action.
- The Question of Direction—Growth in the Face of Limits: An evening with sustainability guru Mike Nickerson, with a Transition Town-inspired exercise to envision Toronto in 2030.
- Permaculturing our activism: A workshop at a Permaculture GTA gathering, in which we used an exercise from Process Work to help participants explore from an intuitive place what would keep them involved, sane and sustained in their change work.
In 2014:
- Being Allies--Creating harmony between indigenous people and settlers in Canada with professor Hayden King and indigenous artist Mike Ormsby
- Embodied Leadership--methods, practices and background: A four-part series with Jon Love, Satya Love Robinson and Gary Diggins
- Where is Home? Leadership and the Soul of Placemaking: A dialogue with leadership educator, author and Juno-nominated pianist Michael Jones
- How Nature can Sustain and Guide us in our Change Work: A feet-on-the ground exploration in High Park facilitated by author Mark Hathaway, PhD
- “A New Story” Series—how to face the global mess we’re in and co-create a new story for humanity: A three-part series incorporating the “Awakening the Dreamer” Symposium/Generation Waking Up’s “Wake-Up Experience, and The Work that Reconnects
In 2015: Remaking a Living: Money and Meaning: Economies That Work for All of Us.
In this 8-part series we explored new ways of thinking about wealth and money, of doing business, and of exchanging with each other and with the earth. Our guiding questions included: What will the new economy look like? How can we reclaim our rights to economic arrangements that work for our planet, for us, our families and citizens in urban communities? What would our communities be like if we could grow our food, produce the energy we need, and create structures that enhance the interaction with each other and the environment?
Sessions included a look at complementary currency systems such as LETS, Theory U and moving from egosystem to ecosystem economies (3 sessions), a World Café on The Leap Manifesto, and a session on how reconciliation with First Nations can lead to economies that work for everyone. Participant response to this latter session led to a sustained focus on these issues.
In 2016 and 2017: “Indigenize or Die”: curated by Kevin Best.
In this two-year, 18-part series, we deconstructed the myths of the dominant culture, and explored a more truthful historical perspective and how that manifests today. Then, through the lens of decolonization and re-indigenization, we explored together possibilities for an ecologically sustainable and socially-just way forward. We asked, how can we ensure the survival of complex life on this land in accordance with its legitimate laws and the laws of Nature?
The series included an evening with Ojibwe wisdom keeper Wendy Phillips, a KAIROS Blanket Exercise, several gatherings with Naadmaagit Ki Group along the Humber River, a workshop with Moyo Mutamba on the Ubuntu learning village in Zimbabwe, and a consultation on the TOcore Parks and Public Realm Plan.
In 2018-2019: Drawdown Toronto: How we can reverse global warming and the part you can play
Inspired by Project Drawdown, the world's only comprehensive framework of solutions to global warming, we wanted to spread the word and inspire action in Toronto. Started by environmental journalist and author Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown is an ongoing effort to map, model and calculate emissions reductions and financial benefits by 2050 of the top 100 tools and technologies. The first results from Project Drawdown were published in a book in 2017 and further information about Drawdown Toronto is available at www.drawdowntoronto.ca.
Unify Toronto's Drawdown program so far (Jan 2018-Sept 2019) has included nine introductions to Drawdown, eight sectoral events, four 4/5-part courses, as well as several media appearances, panel presentations and info-fairs (e.g., Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett’s town hall; the Eco-Fair at Wychwood Barns), and participation in several conferences (e.g., University of Toronto Post-Carbon World Symposium; the Minden Symposium on the Environment). A Solutions Summit took place on September 28, 2019.
What changed:
Well over 1500 people have participated in our events and remain connected with us through our mailing list. Anecdotal evidence tells us that our events have nourished, inspired, and informed participants, helping them contribute to creating a life-sustaining society. To name our two most substantive and salient dialogue series and their impacts:
The “Indigenize or Die” series made an important contribution to the conversation in Toronto about reconciliation with indigenous peoples, shifting the hearts and minds of the mostly settler participants at our events, and elevating the voices of local indigenous leaders. Through one of our dialogues, we offered direct input into the TOcore Parks and Public Realm Plan with the aim of re-indigenizing public spaces in Toronto. A spin-off of this consultation was a deputation to the City of Toronto Parks and Environment Committee leading to a unanimously passed motion.
The series incubated the giiwayeonjigayeiwn Initiative, a grass-roots phenomenon overseen by Indigenous women, whose goal is the restoration of indigenous governance in the “Toronto area.” This has evolved into the recognition that to reindigenize in this territory means to restore governance based on watershed. The Credit and Gagenkaanang Zibi (Humber) rivers have emerged as the first two watersheds to be worked in. Initially guided by four ceremonies led by Mississauga ceremonial keeper Nancy Rowe, this initiative has emerged as the Integrated Community Development approach which has received traction with the University of Toronto School of Public health and the School of Environment and there are nascent projects in Spain, New Brunswick and Africa.
The Drawdown Toronto series has put vital information about how we can reverse global warming in participants' hands (including selling about 100 Drawdown books), connected over 650 participants with other change makers, and given over 35 people engaged in Drawdown solutions in the Toronto area opportunities to showcase their work and deepen their action networks. It has galvanized climate action in Toronto with a new sense of optimism and agency, providing a forum for other climate action groups to come together.
We have gained credibility among Toronto government and academic leaders in the climate change arena, and have been invited to provide input into the Ontario Climate Plan and the design of a new TransformTO community website.
Drawdown Toronto has now been seeded as an initiative in its own right. It has a core team of over 20 members, a vision and mission statement, a website, and a fundraising partnership with the Ontario organization Ecologos. As participants attend multiple Drawdown Toronto events, a community of passionate, caring, active people is building. Drawdown Toronto has ignited Drawdown hubs in nearby Richmond Hill, Markham, and York Region, and engaged in mutual support with other hubs, for example in Caledon, Waterloo, Vancouver, Nova Scotia, several US cities, Australia, and Ghana.
The “Indigenize or Die” series made an important contribution to the conversation in Toronto about reconciliation with indigenous peoples, shifting the hearts and minds of the mostly settler participants at our events, and elevating the voices of local indigenous leaders. Through one of our dialogues, we offered direct input into the TOcore Parks and Public Realm Plan with the aim of re-indigenizing public spaces in Toronto. A spin-off of this consultation was a deputation to the City of Toronto Parks and Environment Committee leading to a unanimously passed motion.
The series incubated the giiwayeonjigayeiwn Initiative, a grass-roots phenomenon overseen by Indigenous women, whose goal is the restoration of indigenous governance in the “Toronto area.” This has evolved into the recognition that to reindigenize in this territory means to restore governance based on watershed. The Credit and Gagenkaanang Zibi (Humber) rivers have emerged as the first two watersheds to be worked in. Initially guided by four ceremonies led by Mississauga ceremonial keeper Nancy Rowe, this initiative has emerged as the Integrated Community Development approach which has received traction with the University of Toronto School of Public health and the School of Environment and there are nascent projects in Spain, New Brunswick and Africa.
The Drawdown Toronto series has put vital information about how we can reverse global warming in participants' hands (including selling about 100 Drawdown books), connected over 650 participants with other change makers, and given over 35 people engaged in Drawdown solutions in the Toronto area opportunities to showcase their work and deepen their action networks. It has galvanized climate action in Toronto with a new sense of optimism and agency, providing a forum for other climate action groups to come together.
We have gained credibility among Toronto government and academic leaders in the climate change arena, and have been invited to provide input into the Ontario Climate Plan and the design of a new TransformTO community website.
Drawdown Toronto has now been seeded as an initiative in its own right. It has a core team of over 20 members, a vision and mission statement, a website, and a fundraising partnership with the Ontario organization Ecologos. As participants attend multiple Drawdown Toronto events, a community of passionate, caring, active people is building. Drawdown Toronto has ignited Drawdown hubs in nearby Richmond Hill, Markham, and York Region, and engaged in mutual support with other hubs, for example in Caledon, Waterloo, Vancouver, Nova Scotia, several US cities, Australia, and Ghana.
Looking back on outcomes so far...
From our initial response to the challenge and motivation described above, we have succeeded in generating dynamic networks of committed, knowledgeable activists from a growing range of communities throughout the region and beyond. The “Dialogues” model of initiating locally focused courses of community action on themes of clear interest, which then take on “a life of their own,” has been effective, and merits replication elsewhere. Click on the "Connect" button below to stay informed and join us in the next leg of our journey as it unfolds.