What to know
- United Way Greater Toronto partnered with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Democratic Engagement Exchange to launch Voice the Vote.
- Affordability, housing, homelessness and youth unemployment are among the top concerns residents have raised.
- The initiative has hired 15 emerging leaders, awarded 47 microgrants and supported 60 community events across the GTA.
- Organizers are providing multilingual resources and simulated voting exercises to help residents overcome barriers to participation.
As voters across Toronto and the GTA prepare to head to the polls on Monday, United Way Greater Toronto is highlighting the issues that matter most to residents through a new voter engagement initiative.
This election season, the organization partnered with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Democratic Engagement Exchange to launch Voice the Vote, an initiative aimed at helping communities participate in the democratic process and ensuring their concerns are heard.
Lori Galway, UWGT’s director of public policy and public affairs, tells Now Toronto that the initiative has offered valuable insight into what residents care about, with many of their concerns reflecting the challenges of everyday life.
“We continue to hear that affordability is an issue that touches almost every aspect of life, from housing and transportation to food and childcare,” she said in an interview.
Galway also identified affordable housing and homelessness as major concerns, alongside employment opportunities for young people.
“Youth unemployment is a significant issue that people are raising, students are raising, because of course they need to be able to access those opportunities in order to stay in the city,” she said.
Galway says these concerns reflect a broader desire among residents to remain connected to their communities and have a say in decisions that affect their lives. However, she says many people are unsure how to participate.
“Many people feel that the decisions are being made without them, or they don’t really know how to get involved,” she said.
That is where Voice the Vote comes in. The initiative aims to bridge the gap by creating more accessible opportunities for residents to participate in civic life and engage with local issues.
Making voting more accessible
Galway says one of the biggest barriers to voter participation is a lack of accessible information about how to vote, particularly when voting rules and procedures differ across municipalities.
Community agencies often play a key role in helping residents navigate the process, she says, with Voice the Vote providing resources and support to help them engage their communities.
Through the initiative, UWGT has hired 15 emerging leaders from communities with historically lower voter turnout and provided them with a month of leadership and engagement training. They are now working with community agencies to organize local events and encourage civic participation.
The initiative has also awarded 47 microgrants and supported 60 community events across the GTA, with another 30 scheduled for October. In addition, 14,000 tools and resources have been distributed to agencies.
Among those resources is a simulated voting exercise designed to help residents understand what to expect when casting a ballot. The initiative also provides information in multiple languages to make the process more accessible.
Galway says these efforts are about more than simply encouraging people to vote. They are also intended to create spaces where residents can discuss the issues affecting their lives and feel more confident participating in decisions that shape their communities.
“Meaningful participation, it doesn’t begin at the ballot box. It begins much earlier. It begins in conversations between neighbours or in community centres, places of worship, local organisations,” Galway said.
Addressing low voter turnout
The initiative comes amid longstanding concerns about low turnout in municipal elections.
“In the last municipal elections, fewer than one in three eligible voters actually cast their ballot, and so Voice the Vote again was created to help bridge that gap,” Galway said.
By working with trusted community organizations, the initiative aims to make reliable voting information easier to access while helping residents feel more connected to the democratic process.
As election day approaches, Galway says the goal extends beyond getting people to cast a ballot. It is also about ensuring residents understand how local government affects their lives and feel empowered to participate in shaping their communities.
Toronto’s municipal election will take place on Oct. 26.
