Jane’s Walk 2023
Free, Guided Walks Celebrating Windsor and Essex County
What is a Jane’s Walk?
Jane’s Walks are free citizen-led walks of neighbourhoods. Jane’s Walk celebrates the legacy and ideas of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs by getting people out exploring neighbourhoods and meeting their neighbours. Since the COVID Pandemic, the festival has embraced both in-person walks and digital formats (podcasts, videos, maps, artwork).
When is the Jane’s Walk Weekend?
The Global Festival Weekend takes place annually on the first weekend of May (close to Jane Jacobs’ birthday). This year, Windsor-Essex Jane's Walk grows to two weekends: Friday, April 28 - Sunday, April 30 for Essex County tours and Friday, May 5 - Sunday, May 7th for Windsor tours.
Who was Jane Jacobs?
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve, and fail that have become commonsense cannon for today’s architects, planners, policymakers, activists, and other city builders.
Hosting a Walk
Who can host a walk?
Anyone! We encourage citizens, groups, and organizations to take part. Don’t feel like you have to be an expert—adding local voices and a variety of perspectives makes for an even more dynamic walk.
Deadline to sign up to host a live tour isWednesday, March 1 2023.
Prerecorded videos, digital tours, or art submissions deadline is Friday, April 21, 2023.
How much do they cost?
Volunteers lead Jane’s Walks and participation is free.
How do I plan a walk?
You can start by thinking about what you love about your neighbourhood. What do you wish people knew about it? Everyone's an expert in their own community, and anyone can lead a Jane’s Walk.
New for 2023: All in-person walks must loop back to where they begin. This helps attendees get back to public transit or their vehicles quickly so they can attend multiple walks.
Hosting an in person walk:
Everyone experiences space differently, so think broadly and empathetically about how others might feel along your route and try to find ways to accommodate different needs wherever possible. Be mindful of terrain, curbs, staircases, gates, and other barriers that could hinder someone’s ease of movement. Think about whether there are portions of your walk with dim lighting, underpasses, strong odours, excessively loud noises, traffic, or large crowds.
Digital options for walks:
Live Stream: Using your phone, broadcast your walk live to Zoom and on the official Windsor Jane’s Walk Facebook page. This works best if you have someone to film you present the walk, but selfie style works too!
Presentation: You have an hour on Zoom to present your tour - guide them through a PowerPoint Presentation, talk over videos or images, or use your own storytelling!
Pre-Recorded: Tell the stories ahead of time. Upload a video of your tour to either a Youtube or Vimeo video. Please do not send video files.
Self-Guided Tour: Create a map, podcast, written story, or another format for people to explore on their own.
Examples of types of walks:
Advocacy
Art & Architecture
Environment
Food & Entertainment
History & Culture
Who will set up the Zoom?
Volunteers will help set up Zoom. We will help you to test out any technology beforehand.
How long should a walk be?
For in-person walking tours, time slots are 30 minutes, 45 minutes or 60 minutes. Live digital tours, Zoom time slots are an hour or less. Prerecorded tours can be any length.
How are Jane’s Walks promoted?
Jane’s Walk Windsor promotes the festival as a whole, but participating individuals and organizations agree to identify themselves as part of Jane’s Walk through inclusion of the event logo and language in their respective communications (e.g. email, social media, printed material) leading up to the event.
A press release will be sent out with details of each walk and it will be promoted through various social media channels.
Can I use Jane’s Walk as a promotional opportunity?
The festival can serve as an opportunity to share information about a particular project, initiative, or event with fellow urbanists as it relates to your walk.
How do I sign up to be a Walk Leader?
The deadline to submit a walk is Wednesday, March 1 2023.