The goal of the DodoLab program in Greater Sudbury is to encourage young people to become active, engaged participants in their city. Not only do we want to bring them into conversations about the future of their city, we also want to provide them with tools and models for effecting change. This program is being designed to get more young people involved in positively impacting the future of Sudbury by identifying potentials and barriers and developing concrete proposals and projects to be shared publicly and within official circles. The program employs applied design methods to encourage real outcomes and is being developed to enhance the Musagetes Café (September 2011). In 2010, DodoLab lead the Musagetes Youth Café, a two part program of lab and field explorations that involved local highschool and university youth and SACY (Street Action Centre for Youth). A strong emphasis was placed on involving a representative group of youth from Greater Sudbury. Over the week, youth used a variety of field research tools to explore, document and share their perceptions and experiences of the city core.
   
One of the key goals of this program was to seed subsequent labs in the community, the first of which was developed and staged in collaboration with SACY and explored the defining and control of public space through a performative project called the Tournament of Beasts (November, documented on our website and video online). This project seeded the next program for February 2011 featuring workshops and the development of a documentary video about mobility and is designed as a chance to explore both transit issues and further engage with the challenges facing young people in Greater Sudbury. We are are currently developing additional labs for 2011 and 2012. DodoLab’s work is being funded by the Trillium Foundation in a collaborative program with Musagetes and various local organizations. The program also links with our ongoing work in Rijeka, Croatia.