Making Spaces Lab
Welcome to the Making Spaces Lab
Making Spaces Lab is a research and community-engaged initiative at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. The Lab advances the education, health, and social well-being of Black families, youth, adults, and communities through community-engaged research, education and training, mentorship, program development, evaluation, and collaborative partnerships.
Bringing together scholarship, practice, and community knowledge, Making Spaces Lab works alongside communities and organizations to understand pressing challenges, develop and evaluate responsive programs and interventions, strengthen community capacity, and translate research into meaningful action. Through this work, the Lab creates spaces for learning, leadership, belonging, and social transformation.
Our Mission
Making Spaces Lab is committed to advancing the education, health, and social well-being of Black families, youth, adults, and communities by building a sustained program of community-engaged research, education and training, mentorship, program development, evaluation, and community-based innovation.
Through community-engaged research, education and training, mentorship, program development, evaluation, and collaborative partnerships, the Lab works to understand and address inequities, strengthen community capacity, and develop culturally responsive approaches that improve educational, health, and social outcomes. Our work connects knowledge with action to support meaningful and lasting change in communities and the systems that serve them.
Our Core Values
Community-Centred Engagement
We believe meaningful research, education, and innovation emerge through authentic partnerships with communities. Our work is grounded in collaboration, mutual respect, reciprocity, and shared learning, recognizing community members as partners in generating knowledge and developing solutions.
Equity and Social Justice
We are committed to addressing systemic barriers and advancing equitable opportunities that support the education, health, and social well-being of Black families, youth, adults, and communities. Our work seeks to understand inequities while contributing to meaningful change in communities, programs, institutions, and systems.
Cultural Responsiveness
We value approaches that recognize, affirm, and build upon the strengths, histories, identities, knowledge, relationships, and lived experiences of African, Caribbean, and Black communities. Cultural responsiveness informs how we conduct research, develop programs, educate and train, mentor, and build partnerships.
Mentorship and Capacity Building
We invest in developing the next generation of scholars, educators, practitioners, researchers, and community leaders through mentorship, training, experiential learning, and professional development. We also work with community partners to strengthen the knowledge, skills, relationships, and resources needed to develop and sustain community-led initiatives.
Research Excellence
We pursue rigorous, ethical, impactful, and community-informed scholarship that advances knowledge while contributing to improved educational, health, and social outcomes. We value research that is both intellectually meaningful and relevant to the communities with whom we work.
Innovation and Transformation
We embrace creative, interdisciplinary, and participatory approaches to research, education and training, program development, evaluation, and knowledge mobilization. We seek to translate knowledge into action by developing and strengthening programs, practices, partnerships, and interventions that contribute to individual, community, and systemic change.
Our Work
Making Spaces Lab works across interconnected areas of education, health, and social well-being, with a particular focus on Black families, youth, adults, and communities.
Our areas of work include:
- Educational equity, opportunity, and achievement
- Health, wellness, and health equity
- Access to education, healthcare, social supports, and opportunities for well-being
- Youth transitions, pathways, and belonging, including transitions to adulthood, from care, into postsecondary education, and across educational, health, and social systems
- Black family and community well-being
- Community-engaged and participatory research
- Program development, evaluation, and implementation
- Mentorship, leadership, and capacity building
- Arts-based and popular education approaches
- Knowledge mobilization and community empowerment
Across these areas, the Lab brings together community-engaged research, education and training, mentorship, program development, evaluation, and collaborative partnerships to understand pressing challenges, strengthen community capacity, develop and evaluate culturally responsive approaches, and translate knowledge into meaningful action.
Building Spaces for Change
The idea of “making spaces” reflects our commitment to creating and strengthening spaces where Black families, youth, adults, and communities can learn, connect, lead, and thrive.
We believe research should do more than generate knowledge. It should help communities understand challenges, recognize strengths, develop solutions, build capacity, and create possibilities for change.
Through community-engaged research, education and training, mentorship, program development, evaluation, and collaborative partnerships, Making Spaces Lab connects knowledge with action to advance education, health, and social well-being and contribute to lasting community and social transformation.
Making Spaces Lab: Research. Mentorship. Community. Transformation.
Leadership
Making Spaces Lab is led by Dr. Lance T. McCready, Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at OISE, University of Toronto.
Dr. McCready is a researcher, educator, and community-engaged scholar whose work focuses on the education, health, and social well-being of Black families, youth, adults, and communities.
