Past Programming

Since the Fall of 2018, PFS instructors and organizers have put on some incredible classes and workshops. Read through to find out what you've missed!

Radical Experiments in Land Stewardship

With Andrew Winchur

November 6th, 2018 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

This reading group will explore the visions and strategies of movements working to expand community control over their local land and economy. Topics we are especially interested in discussing include:

- community housing movements
- indigenous approaches to land stewardship
- local food security initiatives
- anti-gentrification activist tactics
- feminist, anarchist, and/or Marxist perspectives on any and all of these issues.

We invite you to join us and share and expand your own perspectives on a healthy, caring relationship to land.

January 23rd, 2018 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

Self-Discovery, Money and Corporations

With Beryl-Ann Mark

November 6th, 2018 6-7:30pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

This is a 3-part discussion series focused on self-discovery, responsible spending and uncovering corporate manipulation. Participants in the class will explore these topics using different strategies, resources, spiritual practices, interactive activities and texts.

Instructor Beryl-Ann Mark recently completed a leadership training program with the Parkdale People's Economy and The Public and is an active member of the Parkdale community. She graduated from Humber College in the Social Service Worker Program and received the Dorothy Leatch Award from Parkdale Legal Services for being a selfless community member.

November 20th, 2018 6-7:30pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

December 4th, 2018 6-7:30pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

Repair Café Toronto Troubleshooting Workshop

With Paul Magder

November 13th, 2018 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

Have you ever wondered why your toaster or DVD player just stopped working? Don’t know where to begin? Come to our free troubleshooting workshop and learn some simple steps to solving the mystery of broken stuff. Troubleshooting is a method for determining what caused your electrical or electronic equipment (or almost anything) to break.

This workshop will go through the logical process step by step. Bring a broken home appliance or some broken home electronic equipment to practice the troubleshooting method. If you can’t fix it then and there you will know why it isn’t working and if it can be fixed.

Building a Movement for

Community Benefits in Parkdale

With Mercedes Sharpe Zayas and Ana Teresa Portillo

April 3rd, 2019 6-8:30pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

Parkdale has been undergoing a wave of developments and investments that have significantly shifted the affordability of the neighbourhood. The rise of corporate landlords and the encroachment of private development applications along the Eastern border of Parkdale have economically evicted residential and commercial tenants at an unprecedented rate. Rather than accepting the fate of gentrification-driven displacement, the community has mobilized to protect the neighbourhood values of affordability, inclusivity, diversity, and equity.

The movement for Community Benefits centres the voices and interests of equity-seeking communities at the intersections of land use planning, urban growth, and public policy decisions. In Parkdale, we have launched the first neighbourhood-based grassroots Community Benefits Framework of its kind in the Canadian landscape. The Framework is a tool to establish community-driven targets and demands for affordable housing, affordable commercial, decent work, and community assets in new developments and investments throughout the neighbourhood.

Mercedes Sharpe Zayas is the Workforce Planning Coordinator for the Parkdale People’s Economy, a network of over 30 community-based organizations and hundreds of community members organizing towards decent work, shared wealth, and equitable development in Parkdale. Ana Teresa Portillo works in popular education and grass roots housing justice in the community of Parkdale. She currently holds the position of Community Benefits organizer at Parkdale Peoples’ Economy and is the Chair of the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust.

Radicalism, Activism and Change in Parkdale

With Bob Rose and David Ross

November 27th, 2018 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

From "Flowery Suburb" to "Serious Slum" to "Revitalizing Village" and on to "Celebrating Diversity", Parkdale is a neighbourhood with a long and chequered reputation. Are these images a gross simplification of Parkdale's historical and current reality? What kind of neighbourhood is this anyways?

The course will explore the process of anti-procession work which aligns personal engagement and support work with community activism. What prepares the creation of an activist? It is the understanding of radicalism, the formation of radical identity and the ability to see activist options in real time, application frameworks. Anyone can do it if they open their heart.

What Kind of Neighbourhood Is This... Anyways?
With resident instructors: BOB ROSE & DAVID ROSS

Civil Liberties in the Era of COVID-19

With Talayeh Shomali

May 20th, 2020, 7-8:30pm, Virtual

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association ( CCLA) has been protecting and promoting rights of people in Canada for more than 55 years. In a time of a pandemic, thinking critically about our rights and freedoms is more important than ever. In this interactive workshop, we are going to talk about some of the fundamental rights that we have in Canada, who gets these rights and how can we determine if limits to our rights and freedoms is reasonable.

Talayeh Shomali is the CCLA’s Education and Outreach Coordinator. She is passionate about easing the access to justice for diverse groups and she feels lucky that her day to day job includes talking to people about their fundamental rights and freedoms. In her previous jobs, she has coordinated several justice projects, including Family Law Information for Women (FLEW), which is an Ontario-wide, accessible and multilingual legal information campaign.

Talayeh holds an M.A in Women and Gender Studies from University of Toronto, a B.A in Law and Society from York University and a B.A in Civil Law from her home country, Iran, where she worked as a lawyer before immigrating to Canada.

Repair Café Toronto Troubleshooting Workshop

With Paul Magder

November 13th, 2018 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

Against Property: Direct Action

and the Struggle for Housing

With Vicky Osterweil

February 9th, 2021, virtual zoom session

Toronto’s housing and affordability crises worsen as its real estate values continue to rise. In the face of government violence and neglect, creative tactics are necessary for community members to look after each other. In cities like Los Angeles, Oakland, and Philadelphia, homeless organizers have won housing by way of tactics such as squatting on privately-owned property and occupying public space. What are the possibilities and limits of these tactics? What is the radical horizon of the struggle for housing?

On February 9, join Parkdale Free School and Vicky Osterweil to discuss homeless struggle and direct action. Vicky will offer reflections on recent struggles in Philadelphia, where Philadelphia Housing Action has successfully waged a squatting campaign that has housed 20 unhoused families, as well as leveraging a summer-long homeless protest encampment into the creation of a land trust and to bring attention to the corruption of the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

Instructor Vicky Osterweil is a writer, editor, and agitator based in Philadelphia. She is the author of In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action (2020).

Eat, Feel, Create

With Cleopatra Myers, Natalie Bousteaud, Drew Silverthorn, Cheyenne Sundance and Xuan-Yen Cao

February 4th, 2019, 6-8pm, PARC (1499 Queen St W)

On Monday, February 4th the TYFPC hosted a community meeting at Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC) on Youth, Mental Health, and Food called Eat, Feel, Create. The event featured an interactive and engaging panel discussion with Cleopatra Myers, The Stop Community Food Centre, Natalie Bousteaud, FoodShare Toronto, Drew Silverthorn LOFT Community Services, Cheyenne Sundance, Greenest City and Xuan-Yen Cao, The Stop Community Food Centre. As with most conversations around food access and mental health, when you get to the root of the issues, the conversation becomes much more complex. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to bring the community together to create space for these much-needed dialogues.

After our discussion, event attendees participated in creative/artistic activities and a seeding workshop. Folks were invited to create a page in a zine that aimed to explore the nuances, complexities, and wonders of self-care, and common cultural conceptions of it. We are excited to share the results of this workshop with you. Special thanks to Rav Singh and Dimah for putting all the pieces together. You can scroll through the beautiful pages of the Eat, Feel, Create Zine

What’s It Like to Live in a Housing Co-op?

With Jim Paterson, Claire Helene Heese-Boutin, Jim Rootham, Laurita Perez, Katherine Snell, Mathew Zachariah and Emily Brotman

July 8th, 2021, 6-8pm, Virtual

On July 8th, 2021, Parkdale Free School and More Co-operative Housing Collective teamed up o find out all about life in a housing co-op. Four residents of different Toronto co-ops opened up about their experiences, the benefits of the democratic, co-operative approach to housing, and the different ways that it can work in the day-to-day.