Sunday October 5th – Join us for a joyful gathering. Topic: Placemaking: Building connected and resilient communities.
1110 Hillside Ave.
Victoria, BC
V8T 2A7
We can build community by designing better public spaces! This talk introduces listeners to placemaking, and then provides detailed examples of how two forms of placemaking – little free libraries and road murals – can be used to build safe, connected, and resilient communities. Teale explores ways in which individuals, community groups, and municipal governments can support placemaking, and the role that visualization and data can play in promoting placemaking. Since 2017, Teale has been mapping, helping build, and stocking little free libraries around the CRD. They began with 111 in the region, and in September 2025 they celebrated the 1,000th LFL! To date, their project has distributed over 126,000 books to LFLs across the CRD.
Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff is a Councillor in the District of Saanich, a researcher and a community organizer. He works as the Director of Research for OceansAsia, which tackles marine wildlife crime, and he is the world-leading expert on sea cucumber fisheries crime. Teale is the Chair and Co-founder of the AccessBC Campaign, which successfully advocated for free prescription contraception in BC. He also works as the Research Coordinator for the BC Humanist Association, which supports the separation of religion and government in BC and across Canada. His academic research examines the strategic use of international law by non-state actors and the strategies of marine conservation organizations. He is passionate about placemaking and in particular little free libraries, and enjoys playing hockey, board games, and kayaking.
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