Students pitch the Toronto Transit Commission with new solutions on homelessness, transit equity and women’s safety
Third-year students (from left to right) Madalina Beloia-Cheres, Heather McCarrol, Farah Fatima, Shannon Carroll and Abigail White, present on Women and Safety in the inaugural TTCxTMU Social Policy Challenge on May 8, 2024. The team won the $5,000 grand prize. Photo by Campbell Kaye
Undergraduate voices at the policy table of one of Canada’s largest transit agencies? Not your everyday occurrence. But in May, five teams of social work students got their chance at the inaugural TTCxTMU Social Policy Challenge.
The event was styled after juried case competitions — a mainstay in business programs, but still rare in social work. This time, rather than pitching new product ideas, the students identified gaps in Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) policies that impact riders and staff on three urgent social issues:
- Women and safety
- Transit equity
- Under-housed and unhoused residents
The initiative exemplifies TMU’s focus on innovative experiential learning and win-win partnerships between academia and industry. The TTC gained access to TMU’s talent pool. The School of Social Work forged a new pathway to social inclusion, shared resources and enriched curriculum. All of the students got real-world, hands-on experience and valuable connections at a major city institution.
But the winning team finished with the most vivid impact: a follow-up meeting with the TTC to formally present their findings and contribute to solutions implementation — and the $5,000 grand prize.
“This is the first time our students could provide direct policy recommendations to the TTC — and the agency gave them the green light to be creative, bold and unapologetically critical.”
Students: the agents of future change
The pitch presentation in May was the culmination of weeks spent in research, analysis, and problem solving under the mentorship of professors and TTC representatives.
Existing policies need to better reflect changed world conditions and pressing human needs. Through the Social Policy Challenge, TMU students provided the TTC with fresh policy perspectives using updated lenses: critical feminism, intersectionality, anti-oppression, anti-racism, critical disability theory, trauma-informed care, and more.
Marlon Merraro (Social Work ‘06), a director in the Diversity and Culture Group at the TTC and himself a TMU alumnus, was a key figure in developing the learning event.
“We need to partner with social service academic streams to mine the innovative ideas and talent that exist in these programs — and to ensure that those voices whom we represent are included in the future structures of care and the implementation of our social contract.”
“The students were well presented and their work was outstanding. I witnessed well-learned student groups, with innovative ideas that should make TMU proud.”
— Marlon Merraro, a director in the Diversity and Culture Group at the TTC
“The most awe-inspiring aspect of this collaboration is a shift away from traditional approaches to social policy, which tend to limit recommendations to the cost of the transformation. Instead, the students applied new approaches that promote social inclusion and more direct engagement with the communities they serve.”
— Valerie Borum, social work professor, TMU
Under the partnership, additional annual TTCxTMU Social Policy Challenges are scheduled. While it’s currently running out of the School of Social Work, contemporary social issues are multifaceted, and there could be potential for expanded, transdisciplinary events aimed at generating more comprehensive solutions to complex social problems.
Inclusive research methods yielded eye-opening data — such as candid bystander comments harvested by the Transit Equity Team about differential treatment of upaying riders. The team recommended training covering anti-oppression, power dynamics, empathetic practices, but also adaptive stress management for staff in high-stress roles.
Innovative solutions included supports for homeless riders who view public transit as a safer alternative to sleeping on the streets — such as the runner-up team’s pilot program to retrofit decommissioned subways/streetcars as overnight emergency shelters, complete with multi-agency wrap-around services.
The Expert Panel
The juried expert panel listens as students pitch their policy recommendations. The panel included, from left to right:
- Areej Al-Hamad (professor of nursing, TMU)
- Asare Kester-Akrofi (manager, strategic initiatives, Office of the Deputy City Manager, Infrastructure Services, City of Toronto)
- Eunice Yeboah (anti-racism policy consultant, Racial Equity Office, Diversity, TTC)
- Marlon Merraro (director, Diversity, TTC)
- Usha George (professor of social work, TMU - not pictured)
The Winning Team
“The most exciting part was validation that the TTC could directly apply our work”
Members:
Madalina Beloia-Cheres, Heather McCarrol, Farah Fatima, Shannon Carroll and Abigail White
Policy focus:
Women and safety
Highlights:
The team identified and proposed solutions to numerous missing, underutilized or ineffective safety measures — such as gender-based safety audits; enhancements to the existing SafeTTC app; rebranding “designated waiting areas” into more easily identifiable “Safety Zones”.
What insights or reality checks did you gain?
“Confirmation that changing social policies is not easy! The event gave us a behind-the-scenes peek into its intricacies — the complex give-and-take relationships, the need to build mutual trust and to find shared interests, and that insufficient data can be a big hurdle.”
What did you enjoy most?
“It was especially rewarding to collaborate with TTC staff and stakeholders such as the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto. Giant institutions don’t often consider the perspectives of students, but here we could do that while advocating for an issue we’re passionate about and developing our skill set.”
Ranking |
Prize |
Policy Theme |
Team Members |
|---|---|---|---|
1st place |
$5000 |
Women and Safety |
|
Runners up |
$3000 |
Unhoused and Underhoused |
|
3rd place |
$2000 |
Women and Safety |
|
4th place |
$1000 |
Unhoused and Underhoused |
|
5th place |
$500 |
Transit Equity |
|
Special Thanks
The School of Social Work would like to thank everyone who helped make a success of the TTCxTMU Social Policy Challenge, with gratitude to Marlon Merraro, Director, Diversity, TTC for spearheading this project and choosing the TMU School of Social Work in partnership; and Anthony Bakerdjian, Interim Associate Director of Development, Faculty of Community Services, for working with the TTC to secure the partnership.
Special thanks and appreciation to the Faculty of Community Services Society (external link) for its generous support in providing catering for the presentation event.
Project Co-Leads:
- Dr. Valerie Borum, professor, School of Social Work, TMU
- Dr. Mahbub Hasan, contract lecturer, TMU and professor, Centennial College
- Alexandria Hamilton, diversity consultant, TTC
- Marlon Merraro, director, Diversity, TTC
- Lenworth (Lenny) Wallace, manager, Diversity, TTC