Innovation Lab 2026: Centering Community Participatory Knowledge Co-Creation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Event Summary
An exploratory space for dialogue about AI around shared concerns, hesitations, and opportunities; to identify the aspects of our work we want to protect, preserve, and uplift.
Event Details
Date: January 30 & 31, 2026
Location: Regent Park Community Centre
402 Shuter St, Toronto, ON M5A 1X6
Kick-off International Development Week 2026 with the Knowledge for Change (K4C) Tkaronto Hub – the Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC), the Center for Community Learning and Development (CL&D), the Knowledge Equity Lab at the University of Toronto Scarborough – for our Innovation Lab 2026: Centering Community Participatory Knowledge Co-Creation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
With the emergence of new technologies, particularly AI, knowledge creation, validation, and application in local and global development are rapidly evolving. Knowledge production is inherently political, shaped by power dynamics over whose knowledge counts, who is included or excluded, and who benefits or is affected. As AI increasingly mediates these processes, it raises urgent questions of equity, inclusion, and justice.
Designed for participants across the K4C Tkaronto Hub—including leaders within global and local development organizations, members of the Youth Policy-Makers Hub, early-career practitioners and students, and newcomer community researchers and organizers—the Innovation Lab aims to create an exploratory space for dialogue about AI around shared concerns, hesitations, and opportunities; to identify the aspects of our work we want to protect, preserve, and uplift; and to consider what we wish AI designers understood about our communities.
The Innovation Lab is a two-day, in-person, hands-on space grounded in Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR). This approach is relational, justice-oriented, and rooted in lived experience, treating knowledge as co-created rather than extracted. By centering community agency, CBPAR ensures those most affected by decisions are active in shaping them. We hope you’ll join us to co-create knowledge and imagine ethical, community-centered approaches to AI in development.
Attendance is free for selected participants. Please share your expression of interest by Wednesday, January 21, 2026: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2qblx0eygyLt08oP4Hsq3Z2s3QlFnj2-5qkH3rpN1MsREyw/viewform?usp=header
Register
