About Our Board

In the past year our sector and human services in general have faced a challenging policy and funding environment that has created uncertainty for service providers and undermined community health and well-being. It has also been a tough year for Social Planning Toronto as we worked through a leadership transition. We thank our members and service partners for supporting us during this period.

We are full of energy and passion as we embark on the work to build bridges, to find common ground, to work in a coordinated and strategic way, and to shine a light on the healthy and vibrant city we have set our sights on. We will build from SPT’s 62 years of advancing social justice and equity.

— Jasmin Earle, Board Chair, June 2019

Find out more about our Board members »

Board Resources

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The Board of Directors of Social Planning Toronto

Invite you to attend the 2019
Annual General Meeting

Call for Nominations to the Social Planning Toronto Board of Directors

Social Planning Toronto is a non-profit, charitable community organization that works to improve equity, social justice, and quality of life in Toronto through community capacity building, community education and advocacy, policy research and analysis, and social reporting.

Reforms Ignore Strong Proposals From In-Depth Income Security Study and Leave People With Disabilities in Jeopardy

“The Ontario government’s announcement to reform social assistance promised a compassionate and empowering system while offering few specifics, dropping many of the important reforms that were on the table before the election, and committing to a new definition of disability that will likely block many Ontarians with disabilities from getting the income support they desperately need,” said Peter Clutterbuck, Interim Executive Director of Social Planning Toronto, in response to the Province’s proposed changes to Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

After a rigorous selection process, Social Planning Toronto enthusiastically announces and welcomes Devika Shah as our new Executive Director.

Devika is passionate about building a civic society in Toronto—the city she loves—that is grounded in diversity, equity, social and economic justice, and active democratic engagement. Her interdisciplinary background and experience in the environmental sector have strengthened her commitment to advancing grassroots, community-led, multi-stakeholder solutions, which she views as the most powerful lever for achieving systems change.

In the lead-up to Toronto’s municipal election, community groups and coalitions asked candidates for Mayor and Council to commit to actions around poverty, housing, road safety, and ranked ballots. 

On October 22, Toronto elected its new City Council. Social Planning Toronto has produced this election update to show which members of the new Toronto City Council supported these progressive campaigns to make Toronto more liveable and its elections more fair.

Do you belong to a resident-led group that has a great event idea and needs funding?

Apply for a Neighbourhood Grant! 

Update (November 12, 2018): City Councillors Cynthia Lai and Jennifer McKelvie have recently endorsed the Prosperity Pledge, bringing the total number of Council members (including Mayor Tory) who have signed it to 19.

Of the 26 members of Council elected in Toronto on Monday night, 17 signed a “prosperity pledge,” committing to fully fund and implement the city’s first poverty reduction strategy, adopted unanimously by the previous Council in 2015.

The “Prosperity Platform” campaign, led by a community and faith coalition, demands that the new City Council take action and fully fund, implement, and monitor progress on the poverty reduction strategy. In the months leading up to the election, the campaign sought signed pledges from 239 candidates (for whom contact information was available) registered for election.

The Ontario Government was bound and determined to have its way in forcing a 25-ward system on the City of Toronto, regardless of how disruptive its actions have been on the City’s election process.

This has come at great cost to the City and also to the many new candidates for municipal office whose hopes were dashed with this abuse of provincial powers. For a brief moment, the courts tried to protect our local democracy under Charter Rights, but in the end, the courts upheld provincial authority, which the Premier was prepared to impose legislatively in any case through the unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause.