Bentway Dominos. Photo by: Sarah Holman courtesy of The Bentway
Toronto Foundation is proud to support The Bentway’s Community Corps, a volunteer and apprenticeship program that helps turn visitors into participants. By creating opportunities for community members to contribute to public art and civic projects, Community Corps helps people build relationships with peers, develop new skills, and gain the confidence to help shape their neighbourhood.
Since 2018, The Bentway(opens in new tab) has been reimagining the spaces beneath and around the Gardiner Expressway, connecting seven of Toronto's densest communities through public art, programming and civic opportunities. Today, The Bentway welcomes more than 300,000 people each year, with 64% of their visitors saying that their experience improved their sense of social connection and 71% reporting benefits to their physical health.
Those results reflect something we've long believed: public spaces can do more than attract people to the same place. They can create opportunities for people to participate, contribute and build meaningful relationships with each other.
The Community Corps program was inspired by The Bentway’s 2024 Rx for Social Connection(opens in new tab) report, developed in partnership with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. The research explored how public spaces can act as conveners and found that opportunities for volunteering, participation and community leadership can be powerful drivers of relationship-building, belonging and local engagement.
“Great public spaces give people reasons to come together — for enjoyment, connection and purpose,” says Sharon Avery, President and CEO of Toronto Foundation. “Community Corps shows what’s possible when people don’t just enjoy their city, but help shape it too.”
A Lake Story. Photo by: Taku Kumabe courtesy of The Bentway
The program's first major project, A Lake Story, demonstrated the power of collective participation. Presented in fall 2025, the large-scale public artwork saw more than 100 canoes carrying colour-field paintings move across Lake Ontario, powered by 400 local canoeists and supported by 100 volunteers on shore. The project transformed public art into a shared community experience, bringing hundreds of people together to create something no single individual could accomplish alone. One volunteer described the experience as: "Beautiful. Imaginative. Community building."
Paul Ramírez Jonas, Public Trust, 2016, commissioned by Boston Public Art Triennial. Courtesy of The Bentway
This year, Community Corps members are helping bring Public Trust(opens in new tab) to life. It’s a city-wide public artwork exploring trust, democracy and civic participation ahead of Toronto's municipal election. Running from September 15 to October 4, the project invites people to make and share personal promises which are then displayed as part of a large public installation. Community Corps members will play a central role, helping spark conversations, welcome participants into the experience and transform personal promises into elements of the artwork itself.
These are the kinds of experiences that strengthen social connections. The Community Corps team meet people they otherwise might never encounter and contribute to something larger than themselves.
As Ilana Altman, CEO of The Bentway, explains: "Bentway's Community Corps is an exciting initiative that brings together individuals to co-create 'acts of urban joy.' We have seen firsthand the ability for these initiatives to turn strangers into friends, and the everyday into the extraordinary. Toronto Foundation's support is instrumental in mobilizing and connecting individuals and making Toronto a better place to be."
Through partnerships like this one, Toronto Foundation is investing in the social infrastructure that helps cities flourish. Alongside organizations such as The Bentway, we're creating more opportunities for Torontonians to connect with one another, participate in civic life and experience what it means to be part of a City of Neighbours.
