“What is the change you’d like to spark?” That’s the question that Aurelia Dalinda, project lead at 100in1Day Toronto, wants Torontonians to answer. Started in Bogota, Columbia in 2012, 100in1Day has gone worldwide as a day-long festival of “interventions:” urbanist ideas, community networks, and localized change-making aimed at fostering a greater sense of civic engagement. On June 6, 100in1Day comes to Toronto.
Now in its second year in Toronto, Dalinda says that the idea is for Torontonians to think critically about how to improve the city around them. Residents can submit their ideas through the event’s website. For folks who want to be involved but need a little help, 100in1Day has been offering workshops at the Toronto Public Library on what makes a good intervention and how to organize one. “From art to social change, it’s getting people to think differently about public space. Toronto is so diverse, and each ward’s needs are so diverse. These are people responding to their community’s needs through their interventions.” The interventions are spread out across the city, including eight interventions north of the 401 highway.
This year’s urban intervention leaders include a young man who organizing a basketball tournament at his underused and underutilized community in the Jane and Finch area. “His goal,” Dalina explains, “is to get people to interact.”
Slow Dance: Masquerade is returning after a successful deployment last year; organizers are working towards a “family friendly evening event,” which sees the St Clarens Parkette at Dundas Street and Lansdowne Avenue transformed into a masquerade ball complete with bubbles, music, and dancers in disguise.
The Toronto Foundation is getting in on the act, offering three $10,000 prizes to interventions that can be scaled up to serve more Torontonians. But no matter what the scale or the scope, Dalinda thinks the 100in1Day events will have an impact. “It’s a day of community improvement and random acts of kindness. We sometimes have the reputation as not being so open with one another, and this is a chance to open our selves, our neighborhoods, and our hearts up to one another.”