Urban Data Science Corps (UDSC)

Founded in 1973, Arts Etobicoke is a not-for-profit community arts organization with a long-standing commitment to ensuring equitable access to arts and culture in West Toronto. Their mission is to create an inclusive and vibrant cultural landscape where everyone can experience the transformative power of the arts.

Rooted in the belief that the arts have the power to unite, inspire, and empower, Arts Etobicoke works in diverse communities to foster connection, celebrate culture, and develop neighborhood pride. We are an equity-focused organization, committed to serving seniors, youth, children, newcomers, low-income, and marginalized communities. We see the arts as a tool to break down barriers, build understanding, and create safe spaces for people to explore their identities and connect with one another.

Our programs are organized around four core pillars: arts education, community celebrations, public art and support for local artists. These pillars guide our efforts to nurture creativity, enhance public engagement, and build strong community ties. Through arts education, we offer a range of workshops and programs that empower individuals to discover and develop their creative skills, regardless of age or experience.

Arts Etobicoke is seeking a creative Community Research Coordinator student intern to support ongoing data collection, analysis, and visualization. More information about this work can be found on their website – Exploring Community Arts and Culture in Etobicoke. This role will focus on engaging diverse audiences to understand arts participation across Toronto, especially in areas beyond the downtown core, and to explore creative and alternative ways to gather data from a wide range of communities.

The Community Research Coordinator will help them tackle two challenges that will help grow their current data project.

1. The student intern will collaborate with partner organizations to develop, coordinate, and analyze arts engagement data, and present data in innovative, accessible ways that can inform arts engagement throughout West Toronto.
   
2. They will experiment with creative and engaging ways to survey Torontonians about their arts interests, utilizing tools like social media or Buzzfeed-style quizzes, and experimenting beyond traditional survey methods to attract broader engagement.

The student intern will:

• Lead their ongoing data collection process, ensuring inclusivity and broad representation.
• Analyze data, identifying trends and insights into arts engagement across diverse neighbourhoods
• Develop methods to visualize data, including mapping
• Report and present findings with both internal teams and partner arts organizations.
• Work alongside partner arts organizations to share data and insights
• Attend community events to gather data
• Attend community consultations and partner meetings to gather feedback and assess need
• Assist in developing a long-term plan for ongoing, sustainable data collection, analysis, and sharing beyond the project timeline.
• Report findings and progress
• Share community feedback, concerns, and insights with the team

CUI is a national platform that houses the best in Canadian city building — where policymakers, urban professionals, civic and business leaders, community activists and academics can learn, share and collaborate with one another from coast to coast to coast.

The student intern(s) will be primarily working on the Transit Orient Development (TOD) on Main Streets project in partnership with the School of Cities, Digital Public Square, and Environics Analytics. This $2.7 million project is funded through the Research and Knowledge Initiative (RKI) administered by Housing, Infrastructure, and Communities Canada. The project aims to use data analytics to make the case for the benefits of complete communities built in major transit station areas (MTSAs) in Canada. This will involve collecting, analyzing, and visualizing datasets relevant to infill housing in MTSA and main streets as well as the composition of complete communities across the country. Student interns are expected to explore new and novel techniques and provide valuable innovations for the project and wider CUI data science. In addition to standard public datasets on local communities, students can expect to work with new and emerging data sources such as GPS-cell phones, AI interpreted Google streets view (GSR) images, card payments, and others. Students will work closely with the CUI’s research team in a hybrid environment.

CivicAction elevates civic engagement that builds livable, inclusive cities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). For over two decades, they have been mobilizing leaders and changemakers to champion innovative solutions, to accelerate the alignment of actions, and to invest in the leadership of tomorrow. Their high impact leadership programs open doors, minds, and opportunities for young, emerging, and under-represented leaders in the GTHA.

The Data Visualization Student Intern will focus on creating accessible, engaging digital data tools on data about housing affordability in the GTHA, including: 

1. an interactive data visualization, grounded in available existing and newly emergent research, to demonstrate the interaction of change levers (e.g. housing stock, fees, land to build on) and how activating one or many of them will lead to more or less housing affordability in the GTHA.

2. infographics and other sharable images/videos show compelling facts and data on housing affordability matters in the GTHA.

The student will work closely with CivicAction’s researcher partners and team members to ensure alignment to our housing project’s goals/objectives and access to our forming research. The student will, where possible, use open-source data to ensure the interactive visualization tool(s) continues to function and remain useful after their tenure. Digital data tools will be used to support a public awareness and action campaign as well as assist CivicAction’s persuasiveness on solutions with partners in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors.

Clean Air Partnership (CAP) is a charitable environmental organization launched in June, 2000. They enable communities to improve air quality, advance active transportation, and take bold climate action. They convene networks, lead research and knowledge transfer, and catalyze transformative action. Their vision is that Canadian communities are sustainable, healthy and resilient.

CAP responds to emerging needs through provision of services across three key areas: 1) We deliver timely research and distill emerging knowledge into accessible formats for decision-makers; 2) We bring together experts to share their experiences, minimize redundancy and maximize use of resources; and 3) We advance the scale-up and implementation of climate action.

The intern’s primary focus would be to support a project with one of the Clean Air Partnership’s municipal partners, in which the Sustainability Solutions Group’s Land Use Impact Calculator would be used to calculate the financial impacts, infrastructure costs, and greenhouse gas emissions related to the municipality’s growth management plan, potentially focused on just one development area. The objective would be to estimate the potential impacts of different growth scenarios (for example, in terms of density and intensification).

Separately, depending on interest and capacity, the student intern could also contribute to another project focused on the development of residential energy archetypes for a partner municipality (see https://www.cleanairpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Archetyping-Guide-For-Energy-Efficiency-Programs-1.pdf).

Daily Bread Food Bank serves the immediate needs of people facing food insecurity while working towards long-term solutions to end hunger and poverty. They do this by running innovative programs that support low-income people and by distributing fresh, shelf-stable food and cooked meals to over 200 member agencies and food programs across Toronto. The Research & Advocacy team advocates for long-term and evidence-based solutions to food insecurity through various means including its Who’s Hungry report – an annual analysis of hunger and poverty trends in Toronto.

The Research Analyst Intern will play a key role in supporting the Who’s Hungry 2025 report through data cleaning, analysis, and verification. Responsibilities include cross-verifying cleaned data, ensuring accurate data transfer between SPSS and reporting documents, validating data sources, and, if skilled in SPSS syntaxes, reviewing scripts for accuracy and consistency. The intern will also help create processes to ensure data accuracy throughout the data and report.

The intern may also assist with tasks such as conducting literature reviews, supporting surveys, focus groups, and interviews with food bank clients, analyzing demographic trends, and assisting in the development and implementation of advocacy initiatives.

This role offers hands-on experience in data analysis, research methodologies, and policy-relevant reporting in a dynamic non-profit setting. Work may be conducted on-site or remotely, as needed.

Evergreen is a national non-profit that transforms public spaces in cities to build a healthier future for people and our planet. They work with community builders across sectors to solve some of the most pressing issues cities face: climate change, housing affordability, and access to nature and public spaces.

The student intern will be a part of the Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning team. The role consists of three main areas:

1- Supporting the Program Manager in analysis of data gathered as part of subjective well-being research conducted at Evergreen Brick Works

2- Visualizing the results of the subjective well-being research

3- Assisting the Program Manager in building staff members’ capacity in data visualization and statistical analysis

This role will also provide a valuable practice and learning opportunity for the student to enhance their skills in data analysis, visualization, and team collaboration with real life examples.

This project is deeply aligned with one of Evergreen’s core purposes of making the case for place by demonstrating the connection between the well-being of people and great public spaces. Through this research, we can provide evidence-based insights that highlight the critical role of well-designed and maintained public spaces in fostering subjective well-being, an essential component of overall quality of life.

Data science plays a pivotal role in this effort, enabling Evergreen to measure and analyze these impacts effectively. Each instance of data collection and analysis not only strengthens Evergreen’s understanding but also enhances the tools and methodologies they use, allowing them to refine and improve their approach.

Located in Toronto, Maximum City brings together a multidisciplinary team to provide learning, engagement and policy development on urban related topics. They work at the intersection of urbanism and education, collaborating with cities, schools, and nonprofit organizations to build integrated and stronger connections – between people, to places, and across decisions that affect them. As child- and youth-friendly experts and IAP2-trained facilitators, they design and facilitate rich engagement processes, develop digital tools for change, and craft context-sensitive strategy and solutions for their clients.

The student intern will assist with the design, collection, analysis, and mapping of data sets across a small number of projects, including an investigation of how children and youth in four host cities experience Major Sporting Events like the upcoming FIFA Men’s World Cup. Data analysis and visualization skills would be an asset, including spatial mapping.

UWGT fights local poverty by supporting the people impacted by it and the neighbourhoods they live in. They do this by building and strengthening a network of 300+ community agencies that is the GTA’s social safety net. Each and every day, they’re on the ground in Peel, Toronto and York Region ensuring their friends and neighbours have the support and resources they need to not just survive but thrive. Their work is rooted in ground-breaking research, strategic leadership, local advocacy and cross-sectoral partnerships committed to building equitable and lasting solutions so that the challenges facing our region today don’t define our future. 

The student intern will assist with spatial mapping for the Toronto Neighborhoods Assessment Framework (TNAF), which includes both quantitative and qualitative components. They will focus on mapping quantitative data, such as indicators, rankings, and clusters, at the neighborhood level, with the option to include census tract data where relevant. Additionally, the student will analyze the data to identify trends, highlight issue areas, and provide insights based on the mapped results. If qualitative data (from a pilot, which will happen during summer) becomes available during the internship, and if timing allows, the student will collaborate with the research team to explore visualization approaches that complement the quantitative analysis.

Since 1896, YSM has provided wraparound support and services making it possible for individuals, families and communities to move forward from poverty. As a developmental agency specializing in poverty-related challenges, they work closely with individuals, families, children, youth, and entire communities living with chronic poverty.

Working with the Director of Impact Measurement, the successful candidate will gain an understanding of the needs of impoverished communities and the roles that their programs play in addressing them. The intern will support the organization’s goals through data analytics and data visualization, with an emphasis on data completeness, timeliness and consistency. They will provide analysis that sheds light on how the programs activities (in: housing, food bank, employment services, vulnerable street youth, community development and family services) impact the journeys of their community members allowing YSM to tell impactful stories that are more empirical than anecdotal.

The intern will primarily be using data collected by the YSM staff via Salesforce to generate ad-hoc reports, visualizations and dashboard to effectively communicate data driven facts, trends, and insights. YSM needs the student to be well versed in quantitative methods, research, big data and business analysis as well as demonstrate a strong sense of social responsibility. The intern will be using their skills in Python, R, CRM Analytics/Tableau, Excel and Power BI to get to “the root of the matter”.