Ending my time here at Yorspace feels bittersweet, as one might expect. I'm sad to leave behind my new friends and a city I have come to adore, but I'm also beyond excited to see my loved ones and be back home again. What I feel most, though, is gratitude, cliche as it might sound. Not every university student gets to go abroad for six weeks and work for an organization that is making a real difference in the world, in the exact sector they want to work in.  That gratitude won't just be a nice feeling; it will push me to actively apply everything I've learned here to my research and work in housing in the future. 

My last week was action-packed.  I launched a funding directory that will enable Yorspace to easily flick through what grant funds are available as they prepare for future projects. I also set up an automated status update form for residents of Lowfield Green Housing Co-op who want to see the status of their complaint or request about their home. That was quite interesting because it got me a look into the maintenance side of housing -- just like with other infrastructure, we love to talk about construction, but far less attention tends to be paid to the critically important work of maintenance. 

Finally, I wrote up a grant funding proposal for Morrell House, a project that would turn a currently vacant former care home into a mixed-use community hub, with social enterprises, shared facilities and gardens, and an affordable housing cooperative. Getting to be the one to write that (with guidance from my supervisor) felt like a big step, and I can't wait to follow it from afar as the project progresses! 

We had lots of events this week, including a gathering of organizations participating in the New Horizons research partnership with University of York and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Yorspace is one of three projects being funded by this initiative, which brings together academics with practitioners to tackle urgent problems. Yorspace's project is called 'Construction Impossible', and it investigates why there are so many barriers to building community-led housing and how they could be broken down. At the gathering, which was hosted in the beautiful 15th century York Guidhall, I got to hear from people doing research that will really affect policy on everything from unaccompanied minors in the refugee system to mapping land ownership and wealth in York (as a geography student, that one was my favorite). I also go to have a conversation with a York City Councillor!

Last but not least, the first England game of the World Cup was on Wednesday night, and so of course I got together with friends to join in the excitement. We beat Croatia 4-2!

I have a few closing rambles and reflections. Not only has my time here taught me the nuts and bolts of delivering community-led housing, it has also burst a bit of my cynicism bubble and taught me that it really is possible to start with an idea and join together with others to turn it into a real thing that helps people in the world. Yorspace began as an idea between flatmates in their twenties; now it is building entire sustainable and affordable neighbourhoods. It is really worth it to give good ideas a shot. It is possible to build something that makes a difference to you but also to many generations after you.

York, with its unique history of social justice activism and innovative social policy experiments led by the Quakers, was a very appropriate place to learn such a lesson.

A fun fact to sign off: my city, Toronto, used to be called York, from 1793-1834. That's where neighbourhood terms like East York and North York, which my fellow UofT scholars will be familiar with, come from. That little piece of serendipity, that unexpected link through history between these two very different places, made me smile. I hope it does for you too.