Support Available for Local Organizers

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Support Available for Local Organizers

Exploring the alleyways of Seattle

Jane’s Walk is a highly adaptable and flexible program - you decide what level of organization and effort you want to put into it. Regardless of the size of your event, a core principle of Jane’s Walk is that it is self-organizing and self-selecting. Organizers are expected to develop their own programming and walking tours, promote it locally, and solicit feedback from participants.

The Jane’s Walk national office in Toronto provides important structural and administrative support to all local partners. We have only been around for four years and, like the organizations that put on Jane’s Walks, are getting by on limited resources. That said we do our best to connect people, answer requests, get materials developed and delivered, and be a cheerleader that helps organizers move through the steps of putting their event together. We keep in touch through email listservs, a Facebook organizers page and by phone. We help out a lot with the website, posting programming and updates or troubleshooting with organizers.

We provide you with the basics of what you need to organize and promote your event: A press release that can be filled in with local information; poster and postcard templates that you can adapt to local uses; electronic copies of Jane’s Walk logos and photographs from past events; tips for tour guides and organizers; and a community walking tour teaching curriculum that shows you how to involve groups and individuals (of all ages) in your tour programming.

“Helps connect people, places and events, including individual histories, memories, and experiences. And this adds layers which makes a richer urban fabric.” - Marinha Fernandes, Mumbai, India local organizer

“Follow up activities in Peterborough include the group deciding to approach the Public Works department to figure out a shared community approach to clearing the park pond for shinny hockey in the winter with people saying ‘Let’s make better use of this park in all the seasons.’” – local organizer, Peterborough

Community Walks Program
Jane’s Walk has developed a program to help groups create walking tours using a social mapping curriculum adaptable to many ages and interests. It is available free of charge to anyone on our website. In Toronto, this Community Walks program has built partnerships in neighbourhoods that face shared challenges, including increasing racial and economic marginalization, and limited access to social services, schools, transit, housing and employment. A special focus on the city’s inner suburbs/priority neighbourhoods, often considered unwalkable or even unsafe, highlighted the creativity of these diverse communities outside the downtown core in dealing with their existing walking environment. Guides and walkers explored strip malls now filled with community centres, visited independent shops and restaurants, and learned from youth and other residents about the best hangout spots for local food, green space, people-watching and meeting friends. If you or your group would like more information, or is interested in support from one of our facilitators to guide your group and help you lead your own Jane’s Walk, please contact our community walks coordinator, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

“I work for the city and I have found Jane’s Walks to be extremely valuable in helping me do my job. You sit behind your desk and work all day but you don’t necessarily get the chance to get out and meet the people you’re working for. It’s eye-opening and these walks give us a depth of feeling and understanding that you can’t get any other way.” – Toronto walker

Jane’s Walk in Schools
The Jane’s Walk School Edition was launched in 2008 using a modified social mapping curriculum used by community groups. Students from grades 6 to 12 created guided tours of their school’s neighbourhood that were fascinating and entertaining. Tours featured insider explorations of the local Jain Temple, puppet plays about condo developments, ghost stories, tours of “off-limits spaces” (for example, boys and girls washrooms), and thoughtful discussions of post-war suburbs, traffic planning, hydro fields and infrastructure.

Junior Jane’s Walks have also been held - this was a simple walk done with students in grades 1 - 3 where they went out on a walk, with clipboards and ‘Jane Jacobs glasses’ to ‘make observations’ about stuff in their neighbourhood - like sidewalks, playgrounds, curbs, traffic signs, bike lanes, gardens, dog walkers and so on.

The school curriclum is available on our website free of charge to any and all interested teachers and students - it is flexible and adaptable to a range of ages and interests.

Contact info
For further information about bringing Jane’s Walk to your city or town, please get in touch:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
416-642-5779