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News & Events Event Reports

Sixth Global Summit: Safeguarding Public Spaces in Polarised Environments

Publication Date:
22/01/2026
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community resilienceSafeguarding Public SpacesSixth Global SummitTorontoUrban safety

— 7 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

The Summit agenda included a parallel session on Safeguarding Public Spaces in Polarised Environments to explore how cities are managing violent incidents, preventing intimidation in shared spaces and maintaining community cohesion. The session highlighted the spectrum of security challenges facing cities and the intentional steps leaders are taking to foster belonging through community engagement and create response plans for incidents in public spaces.

The discussion brought together leaders across diverse political and security contexts to share practical experiences and policy approaches to city-led efforts to maintain social cohesion and public safety.

Scene-Setters:

Key Takeaways

  1. To build community cohesion, local governments should support the creation of spaces designed for inter-community engagement. Such spaces should seek to attract residents from different neighbourhoods.  
  2. Every municipality, including small and rural ones, should have a plan in place for how to respond to incidents in public spaces that impact residents. These should be co-designed with residents, community-based partners and local businesses.
  3. Post-incident communications, including city press releases, need to be complemented by personal engagement from city leaders. Post-incident response should include outreach to community leaders to build trust and connect with affected communities.

Key Themes 

1. Intentional Spaces for Community Engagement

Session speakers highlighted the importance of creating or otherwise supporting intentional spaces for community engagement to facilitate social cohesion. These spaces help reduce social isolation and counter polarisation by allowing residents to encounter one another as neighbours rather than as stereotypes, which strengthens mutual understanding and trust. Several speakers underscored the importance of these spaces, particularly as local governments grapple with the rapid demographic shifts in and increasing polarisation among their residents. When cities intentionally use these spaces to increase cohesion and connection, residents are more likely to see their local government as one that values inclusion, dialogue and shared responsibility for civic life.

Monika Chabior, Deputy Mayor, City of Gdansk (Poland), described how social cohesion in her city is being impacted by global crises such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She said that targeted Russian disinformation campaigns have exacerbated polarisation and growing right-wing extremism as Gdansk and other cities in Poland work to integrate Ukrainian war refugees.

She explained how Gdansk’s community cohesion strategy prioritises working with a network of community houses and clubs run by non-governmental organisations and funded by the local government. These houses and clubs play an integral role in helping her municipality connect to and better serve elderly, refugee and other hard-to-reach populations, especially during crises.

Francis Dwira Darko, City Manager, City of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (Ghana), shared that Kumasi’s central business district is the centre of much of the country’s economic and civic activity, with markets and businesses serving as spaces for community connection. Understanding the vital importance of these spaces to community cohesion and to better protect the health and safety of residents travelling to and gathering in these spaces, the local government implemented phased infrastructure improvements across the central business district.

2. Response Plan for Incidents in Public Spaces

The discussion highlighted how co-designed and tested response plans are more effective and credible in moments of crisis. Establishing proactive partnerships with key community partners and stakeholders ensures shared ownership and responsibility, reduces confusion, misinformation and escalation during a crisis or incident.

Kendy Alvarez, Mayor, City of Lewisburg (Pennsylvania, USA), shared that following a series of swatting incidents at the local university, city leadership recognised the need for better coordination and communication among the university, police, local government and residents in incident response. To better align emergency response and communication and create protocols for information sharing during incidents, the municipality implemented an emergency alert system and the local university’s chief of police hosted training sessions with all area police departments.

Francis Dwira Darko, City Manager, City of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (Ghana), reflected on the importance of proactive communication. Ahead of public events, his municipality collaborates with security agencies and the media to share important event information and protocols. Together with the regional business community, these partners develop strategies to safeguard and support local events.

Deputy Mayor Chabior shared information on her city’s safety and response measures to prevent and respond to violent incidents. These include a monitoring and coordination centre equipped with cameras to observe public spaces, as well as centres to secure internet networks. The city also has a security plan with risk assessment procedures and safety measures implemented through trained stewards and more formalised security services. In response to violent incidents, the local government also provides psychological and legal support services to victims. The municipality also supports conflict resolution training and peer violence prevention programmes in local schools.

By treating public space safety as a shared civic responsibility, local governments and leaders demonstrate respect for community expertise and reinforce the idea that public spaces belong to everyone, and that protecting them requires collective effort and collaboration.

3. Post-incident Response

Speakers highlighted the need for city leaders to humanise post-incident responses and prioritise support to impacted communities. By centring the response around these communities, leaders demonstrate empathy, accountability and moral leadership. Engaging directly with affected communities improves the effectiveness of city responses and may help prevent retaliatory or repeat incidents. A leader’s response after an incident can become a defining moment that can help de-escalate tensions, communities heal and rebuild confidence in public spaces.

For example, Cam Guthrie, Mayor, City of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), underscored the importance of moving beyond a typical press release to connect directly with residents through authentic conversations in a city’s post-incident response. To help achieve this, he suggests collaborating with community leaders to better inform city decision-making and help calm and support impacted communities.  

Next Steps

Strong Cities will continue to create opportunities for city-to-city learning and knowledge sharing focused on safeguarding public spaces in polarised environments. Building on the themes and lessons discussed during this parallel session, upcoming activities, events and webinars will prioritise supporting local leaders in sharing and advancing practical guidance to prevent violent incidents in public spaces, effectively implement crisis response and recovery and support community safety and security.

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

Further Resources

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

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