Collective Futures GTA Roundtable Zine

What does it take to build emergency systems that truly work for everyone? The Collective Futures GTA Zine, created by the Access Lab, with funding from IHEP, offers a community‑led answer.

Born out of a November 2025 roundtable, “Mobilizing Knowledge on Disability, Race, and Immigrant Health to Inform Planning for Pandemics and Other Public Health Emergencies,” which brought together community members, service providers, researchers, and policymakers to tackle systemic inequities in emergency preparedness, the zine transforms raw dialogue, full of honesty, grief, resistance, and insight, into a visually striking piece illustrated by artist Jenn Woodall. “The stories in this zine make clear that inequities during the pandemic were not accidental. Our systems were designed in ways that prioritized some lives over others, even if that was never the stated intention. If we want different outcomes in the next emergency, we have to redesign how planning happens, whose knowledge counts, and who is at the table from the start,” says principal investigator and project lead Professor Chavon Niles (Department of Physical Therapy). Participants spoke about time “pausing,” years lost, and the dual reality of isolation as both harm and protection. Many described living through not one crisis, but two: the COVID‑19 pandemic and the realities of racism and ableism.

Threaded throughout the pages is one truth that came through, when systems faltered, community stepped in. Neighbours, caregivers, organizers, and disabled community members built networks of care that kept people afloat. Their message for the future is unequivocal, public health systems must be shaped with communities from the start. Accessibility can’t be temporary and lived experience is expertise.

This GTA edition is the first in a four-part zine series, each grounded in the insights of local communities across Ontario.

The Collective Futures GTA Zine is now available to download and share through the Institute’s website [here]. This is more than a publication, it’s an invitation to build an equitable future together.