In 2023, the City of Toronto collaborated with Social Planning Toronto to initiate a capacity-building project. Through this collaboration, Social Planning Toronto developed "The Community Playbook," designed to assist community leaders with concrete knowledge and tools they could use in their local community engagement work across the city.

The Community Playbook is an interactive guide with more than 100 pages of resources for residents involved in community engagement projects within their respective networks and neighbourhoods to help them in their planning, engagement, funding applications, project coordination, and more. 

The Community Playbook is structured with step-by-step instructions and resources to guide community leaders from the inception of community engagement project planning to steps necessary to ensure the project is not only successful, but also accountable to community members. This includes evaluation techniques, grant-writing tips, and project monitoring resources. 

We have incorporated exercise sheets into the playbook to serve as interactive components where community leaders can input information, practice concepts relevant to the section, and track their progress. We highly encourage community leaders to use these sheets in community events, meetings, and initiatives!

The Community Playbook is not intended to be an exhaustive document but rather a dynamic and interactive resource that supports and motivates community leaders in delivering and monitoring community engagement activities, projects, and events. It helps create engagement strategies and reinforces connections among leaders and community members. 

If you have any questions or suggestions for the Community Playbook, please contact Hazim Ismail at [email protected].