About Us
Why We Exist
In brief, we're regular Torontonians who believe:
- Finding out what is happening that is relevant to you in your local (municipal/provincial) government and what you can do about it should be universally accessible.
- A democracy is only democratic if it's accessible, and ours currently isn't for the vast majority of its residents.
- A more engaged democracy is a more representative and effective one.
- Democratic engagement should be a clear, actionable, meaningful, and satisfying response to wanting to see a change in the place you live. It should be at least as good an option as stewing in frustration, or ranting to a friend, or tweeting, or just plain old apathy.
We think that people care a lot, they just aren't given the right tools to translate that passion into democratic engagement. We believe a more accessible, lower-friction democracy will be adopted more widely, will be more representative of our city's population and its desires, will be engaged with far more often than just during elections, and will contribute to a more bought-in, people-centric, and flourishing city - and that that's worth working on.
Lastly, we believe that a small group of humble, ambitious, curious, hopeful, collaborative, and coordinated volunteers can make meaningful strides towards a more democratic Toronto.
Learn more about our Theory of Change here.
About Our Organization
Here are the core things to know about our team!
- We're not for profit - no one is making money off of this, and no one ever will. This is made by people who care and come together, so that people can more easily care and come together, for the benefit of all.
- We keep costs low, we use volunteer labour, and we are thoughtful and self-critical about the pressures and incentives we exist under. We're building this as long-term critical public infrastructure - thoughtfully, prioritizing public input and stability, and without profit in mind.
- We're 100% volunteer driven - and we welcome all contributions! Democracy's not gonna upgrade itself.
Learn more about the team and how you can contribute/join here.
We're an open organization - that means we default to showing everyone everything, including our works in progress! As a start, you can find:
- Our organization's core documents and directory
- Our code and associated documentation
- Our communications and action items (in the #proj-civic-dashboard channel)
If there's something you want to know about our organization or work but can't see below, it's due to one of:
- The ever-present gap between documentation and reality
- The privacy of our contributors and/or users
- An oversight on the part of our incredible, but human and therefore fallible, team
If you have questions, concerns, curiosities, or comments, shoot us an email at teamcivicdashboard@gmail.com, join our newsletter, follow us on BlueSky or find us in the #proj-civic-dashboard channel in the Civic Tech Toronto Slack!
We are a project of Civic Tech Toronto - a completely volunteer-run weekly civic tech lecture and work session series that hasn't missed a Tuesday in almost a decade! If you're interested in learning more about projects like this one, the civic technology space, and meeting folks passionate about it in Toronto, come to one of the weekly hacknights - they happen every Tuesday 7-9pm somewhere in Toronto and on Zoom.