City Staff Presents at The February Executive Directors Network Meeting

By -

 The Regent Park Executive Directors Network, commonly referred as the ED Network, is a network consisting of senior decision-makers of organizations serving the Regent Park neighbourhood. Generally, the network meets monthly to share information, advocate on issues and coordinate delivery service to the Regent Park area.  The ED network is also an opportunity to invite guests and hear from speakers that can help better inform the network of the issues they are concerned about.

On Monday February 13, 2023, the Executive Directors Network held their first meeting of the year.  The meeting was facilitated by Greg Gary, the chair of the network representing Kiwanis K-Club and Leah Katerberg, co-chair representing Young Street Mission. The guest speakers for the meeting were City of Toronto staff members, Richard Kirwan, the Community Development Officer for the Downtown East and Daniella Castello, the City’s Community Development Worker serving the SDP and the Regent Park Neighbourhood.

Richard began the presentation with a brief review of the various City investments dedicated to Regent Park.  These investments included the $50,000 Regent Park Operating Budget to Build Capacity of Resident Leaders and the Working Group, the Regent Park Legacy Funds, the Annual Regent Park SDP Grant that ends in 2024, Access to Capacity Building and Certification Workshops through the Strong Neighbourhood Strategy (the first of which will be Mental Health workshops delivered to the St. James Town neighbourhood), and Access to investments/donations through the Downtown East Cluster.  
Following a top-level overview of these investments, Richard went on to talk about his and Daniella areas of responsibilities. Along with the TCHC Ongoing Revitalization and Community Benefits Network, much of their work revolves around the SDP.  According to Richard, one of the reasons for presenting today was to talk about the ED Network’s alignment with the SDP, which is another area that falls under their responsibilities.  Richard wants to work with the ED Network Table to identify area of supports or knowledge hubs that agencies can offer to the SDP such as staff trainings that SDP members can participate in, to build up their capacity.  Under the area of Community Building and Outreach, Richard would like to explore how agencies in the ED Network can connect with their clients and bring them into the SDP, as well as how the SDP can bring community members into the agencies of the ED Network. Finally, under an area called, Strategic Staffing, Richard would like to see how agency staff can support the SDP and lend their expertise to the various working groups that make up the SDP.  

Next, Daniella Costello talked about some of the City’s priorities related to youth engagement.   Daniella spoke about the $250,000 Chris Billinger fund, that was allocated to youth projects in Regent Park.  Daniella presented on the goal of building the capacities of youth to take on leadership positions within the SDP. Daniella also wanted to work with the ED Network to connect agency youth workers around the community to the SDP for the goal of engaging youth.

 Following her presentation on the youth priorities, Daniella presented on the Legacy funds. She began with providing a brief background. Presently the funds are held in trust with the City of Toronto and are dedicated to community events and developing capacity building among residents in Regent Park.  Daniella is looking for an agency trustee to oversee the funds disbursement, monitoring and reporting as well as training of residents.  

After the presentation, Greg Gary invited Richard and Daniella to provide more information to ED members on the SDP.

After thanking Richard and Daniella for their presentation, the ED Network commenced their work on reviewing their annual priorities. The four major priorities the ED Network identified for 2023 are supporting the SDP and Community Engagement, Network Coordination, Advocacy and Service Coordination.

Next meeting the group will review the terms of reference and how it aligns with the four priority areas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity of
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I jumped in w
Read more