Across Ontario, young people, families, and their friends are gathering on streets, in community centres, and in living rooms — learning together how to work for the betterment of the place they call home.
§ 02
— Bahá'u'lláh
This summons orients everything the Training Institute does. We are concerned with two intertwined movements: the inner transformation of an individual life — its attitudes, its convictions, its habits of service — and the gradual transformation of the social environment in which that life unfolds. Our work is therefore educational in the deepest sense: it is the patient, generational labour of raising up neighbourhoods, villages, and a wider society in which the latent powers of every soul can find expression.
A children's class begins in a home. Devotional gatherings open the door to a wider circle. A junior youth group walks home from school together. From these humble beginnings, a pattern of community life takes shape.
See the activitiesThrough a sequence of institute courses, friends gain the knowledge, the spiritual insights, and the practical skills to host these activities themselves — and, in time, to accompany others to do the same.
Explore the materialsAt the heart of every flourishing neighbourhood is a cohort of young people who have decided that their school years, their gifts, their evenings and weekends, will be spent in service to others.
Read more on the role of youthBonds across difference deepen. Families act together. Service projects emerge. Schools, neighbours, and local agencies take notice of, and begin to participate in, the work. A pattern of life is being woven.
See accounts from across OntarioThe contribution made by the followers of Bahá'u'lláh is distinguished by its focus on building capacity for service; it is an approach founded on faith in the ability of a population to become the protagonists of their own development.
The Universal House of Justice, 30 December 2021
In each Ontario neighbourhood the work takes a particular shape — but everywhere, the underlying conviction is the same: that ordinary people, accompanied by friends, can become the architects of their own communities' progress.
Two youth, recently moved from St. James Town, brought the community-building process to a neighbourhood of busy schools and apartment towers. Six years later, ninety activities are sustained almost entirely by youth from the area itself.
Read the account →An account from London of how a young woman, drawn into a children's class as a guest, was carried through the institute by the friends around her — and is now accompanying others as a tutor.
Read the account →What began as a few children's classes in a suburban neighbourhood has become a tapestry of devotional gatherings, junior youth groups, and family festivals — woven by parents, neighbours, and a steady cohort of teenagers.
Read the account →The activities of the Training Institute are open to anyone who wishes to take part — as a participant, a host, a friend, or a partner. There is, very likely, something already happening near you.