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In the first of these series, Jamelia explores various hubs available to young people in Regent Park. On September 2012, the Daniel’s Spectrum opened up its doors to the public. Located in the heart of Regent Park, on 585 Dundas Street East, the building was designed specifically as an arts hub, and it shows. The outside building décor is illuminated with vibrant colours and a digital display, symbolizing that there is something bold going on inside. To get more insight into this boldness, I had a conversation with Jermyn Creed, the Community Manager of the Daniels Spectrum, about the role it plays in the community and the broader city. According to Jermyn, Daniels Spectrum is an important part of the Regent Park community because it gives low-income residents of Regent Park access to a wide variety of arts programming that normally would be out of their reach. The building not only gives youth a place to hang out after school but also offers opportunities for children and youth to ge...

Throughout history, the youth have always been at the forefront of activism, boldly demanding change. Today’s youth, Generation Z, is just as passionate in taking a stand as those who stood before. In today’s time, we have passionate, articulate activists such as Greta Thunberg, Emma Gonzalez, and Amariyanna Copeny. Due to the capabilities of social media, the youth also can create a tightly knit online community. This is especially beneficial when it comes to activism, as plans for action, and calls for support are easily shared to many people. However, outside of the social media bubble, the outlook of youth is often criticized and mocked by adults. The main contradictions fall under youthful naivety, or the lack of education. Through speaking out for climate change, Greta Thunberg has been wrongfully ridiculed by President Trump, amongst many others twice or triple her age. This response from so-called leaders breeds frustration, especially as this generation is the one that will be...

Born in St. Jamestown, the newly elected Liberal MP, reflects on her core beliefs and lived experiences. In this episode of Regent Park TV, reporter Dimitrije Martinovic, introduces Regent Park and Toronto Centre to their new Member of Parliament. On September 17, 2020, Marci Ien was announced as the Liberal candidate for the by-election to the 43rd Canadian Parliament for Toronto Centre, following the resignation of Bill Morneau. Marci won the by-election on October 26, 2020, defeating Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul and NDP candidate Brian Chang. Marci Ien is a Black Canadian of Trinidadian descent. Ien graduated with a degree in radio and television arts from Ryerson University in 1991. She began her journalism career at CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario in 1991 as a news writer and general assignment reporter. In 1995 she began reporting from Queen's Park in Toronto, with her reports appearing both on CHCH's local news and on WIC's national newscast Canada Tonight...

The following is a summary of the November 24, 2020, Regent Park Town Hall on Confronting Anti-Black Racism on Daniels Construction Site as reported by Adonis Huggins, staff member of the FOCUS Media Arts Centre. The entire Town Hall Meeting can be viewed on the Regent Park TV YouTube Channel or click this link: https://youtu.be/gBEPb0aPMAA In the week following a hate crime incident at DuEast Condominiums’ Construction Site on June 26th 2020, the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association (RPNA) reached out to The Daniels Corporation (Daniels) requesting information on Daniels' response to the incident. In response to this request, Daniels prepared a comprehensive Report outlining the steps it is taking not only to address the hate crime incident but also confront systemic racism in the construction industry more broadly. The report was released in a Town Hall co-hosted by RPNA and Daniels on November 24, 2020. Daniels and RPNA were joined by Carpenters Union Local 27, LIUNA Loca...

The Monster Mash, a cultural mash-up, a cultural breakdown, a cultural icon of inclusivity. Regent Park in Toronto’s downtown east side is known for many things; however, it is the lingering and often misleading stereotype of being “one of the poorest neighbourhoods,” that shapes most people’s perspective of this area. Despite this misperceived backdrop of despair, the area has always maintained an unshakeable sense of community with generations of families calling the area home. Demographically the area has changed substantially, from a predominantly working class and low-income Irish composition during the early 1900s, to a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic make-up brought on by changes in Canadian Immigration policies from the 1960s and 1970s. Today the make-up in Regent Park (based on ethnicity) consists of the following: Aboriginal 1.52%, Black13.64%, Recent Immigrant 6.06%, White 13.64%, South Asian 19.70%, African 45.45%, Southeast Asian 12.12%, Hispanic 3.03%, West Indian 1...

Regent Park is a community of communities. Demographically the area has changed substantially, from a predominantly working class and low-income Irish composition during the early 1900s, to a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic make-up brought on by changes in Canadian Immigration policies from the 1960s and 1970s. The shifts in the cultural landscape suggests that long-standing Euro-centric traditions, like Halloween would steadily be in decline, especially in a multi-ethnic community such as Regent Park. Halloween, however, remains one of the most celebrated days of the year and thanks to the Friends of Regent Park, will continue to be a fun filled custom in the Regent Park community in spite of Covid-19. Halloween is observed annually on the night of 31 of October. The celebration, marking the division between the light and dark halves of the year, when the boundary between the living and dead was believed to be at its thinnest, is believed to have originated primarily as a Celtic t...

CSI is pivoting from a co-sharing facility to a community support and development model. On Monday October 26, 2020, after eight years of occupancy, the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) announced that they are ceasing operations of CSI – Regent Park. Established in 2012, on the third floor of the Daniels Spectrum building in Regent Park, the CSI co-sharing workspace, is sadly closing its doors. Although CSI has not publicly indicated the actual reasons behind the closure, it is speculated that the cost recovery model for operating the Regent Park facility was not working, and the operating expenses was significantly exceeding the revenues. The closure of the facility due to COVID-19, combined to make a bad situation, only worse. Since its inception in 2004, the Centre for Social Innovation’s vision of facilitating co-sharing spaces that put “people and planet first” has grown to include over 3000 members generating a combined annual revenue of $270 M. The idea of “co-sharing” or...

July 14th, 2021: After a lengthy debate on Wednesday, council voted 17 to 7 in favour of a motion put forward by Mayor John Tory and city staff to change the name of Dundas Street. Dundas Street cuts across an immense swath of neighbourhoods including the community of Regent Park, as it circumnavigates the eastern and western boundaries of Toronto. Beginning in the east end at Kingston Rd. and working its way westward, Dundas Street travels through The Beach, Leslieville, Riverside, Regent Park, Cabbagetown South, ChinaTown, Alexandra Park, Trinity Bellwoods, Little Portugal, Brockton Village, the Junction Triangle, Lambton, Chestnut Hills, Islington, Summerville, Appelwood Heights, Mississauga Valley, and to Erindale at its western edge where it becomes Hwy 5. Each of these neighbourhoods has a distinct cultural vibe and demographic make-up, urban, residential, commercial, suburban and in some case semi-industrial, each locale a mix of rich identities and histories that begs out to...

The Revitalization Working Group, also known as the Revit Working Group or RWG for short, is a committee of Regent Park residents who works with Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) in the development of an engagement strategy for phrases 4 & 5 Request For Proposals (RFP) process. The group is made up of 3 TCHC tenant council members, 3 Regent Park Neighbourhood Association (RPNA) members and 6 community members who aren't involved in either those groups. The purposes of the Revite Working Group is to 1) understand and prioritize issues related to the revitalization of Regent ParK 2) be informed through lessons learned and 3) create a space for stakeholders to work together and report back to the community on their work. According to a recent August 6, 2020, presentation by Revit Group member, Daniel Amin, the group has had two initial priorities. The first was a development of a fair transparent process for community members to be engaged in the phase 4 & 5 Requests For Propo...

Neighbourhood Information Post is a not-for-profit organization located in the Toronto Public Library on Parliament and Gerrard in the Regent Park area. The Neighbourhood Information Post (NIP) serves low-income individuals and households living in the Downtown East Toronto. One of the services that NIP delivers in partnership with the City of Toronto is the Rent Bank. The Rent Bank provides zero-interest loans for people in need of assistance in paying for rent, including those facing evictions, and new renters needing first and last months’ rent. Neighbourhood Information Post provides an array of different services, but the Rent Bank is one of their most widely accessible yet underutilized programs. Despite their grassroots word-of-mouth advertisement, the Rent Bank is rarely mentioned in conversations surrounding Housing Assistance programs in Toronto. In recent months due to the global pandemic, there has been a rise in applicants to the Rent Bank, as many people have su...

Finding strength and solidarity in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc in every sector of society. However, it is in the closely-knit downtown core of large urban centers that fabric of daily life has become even more exacerbated. In Toronto’s downtown east side neighbourhood of Moss Park, a community typically described as occupying east of Jarvis Street to Parliament street, and south of Queen street to Dundas street, coping with the pandemic has been particularly challenging. This is because Moss Park not only comprises of public housing complexes, but also a number of low-income rental units, rooming houses and several homeless shelters all of which contribute to the housing needs of the city’s most vulnerable people, including a significant population of people struggling with poverty, addictions and mental health. For those living in poverty and struggling with mental health and addictions, finding the support to negotia...

In an effort to deter violent crime, police forces across North America heavily rely upon a strategy of highly visible and aggressive patrolling of low-income neighbourhoods often populated by people of colour. In Toronto, the Toronto Police Services called this strategy TAVIS (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy). In Regent Park and other communities these patrols resulted in allegations of carding, racial profiling and police conflicts with community residents and visitors who were stopped by police and asked to confirm their resident status or state the reasons for their visits to the area. In Toronto, the 10-year TAVIS officially ended in 2016, in favour of community policing (where officers are embedded in the community and get to know residents to help identify perpetrators of crime). As we witness the wave of Black Lives Matter protests and outrage over the killing of George Floyd and others by police, many are beginning to critically reflect upon the relationship be...

611 Purple Factory is a barbershop that is located in the Regent Park area, at 611 Dundas Street East, right across for the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre. The shop’s area of service focuses on the hair cuts, shape ups, fading and more. The shop is owned by Martin Ferreira. Barbershops, unfortunately, is one of the non-essential services ordered to close as part of Ontario Premiere Doug Ford’s announcement on Tuesday March 23, 2020, that all non-essential store and services would be ordered to close, in an attempt to slow down the spread of Covid-19. The closure has caused a lot of hardship for small business owners like Martin. Yet, despite the closure and loss of revenue, Martin took the news in stride and was even positive about it. According to Martin, this was his first summer break in over ten years. Most summers, “we just cut hair stand inside and watch the seasons change through the windows. This summer I was able to enjoy the outdoors and have fun,” said Martin. When ...

Supreme cut is a barbershop located in the Regent Park area on 432 Dundas Street east, near parliament and Dundas. Their area of focus is hair cutting, lineups, shape ups & men’s care. The shop is owned by black business owner Flory Wembolwa. Flory Wembolwa was forced to close his shop after Premiere Doug Ford announcement on Tuesday March 23, 2020, that all non-essential store and services would be ordered to close as of Tuesday March 24th, to slow down the spread of Covid-19.    Flory took the time off that he had to plan ahead until the shop opened up again. He learned at an incredibly young age to always prepare and save for “rainy days.” Flory tell us that it is part of the Congolese culture to always have something aside like an emergency insurance. As a result of this attitude, Flory has no sympathy for businesses that had to close down due to the COVID 19 closure. In Flory’ words, “if you don’t have enough money to pay three months rent, you shouldn’t be in b...

Dundas Beauty is a hair salon that is located in the Regent Park area, at 442 Dundas Street East, close to Parliament and Dundas. Their area of service focuses on the versatility of hair including braiding, weaving, wigs, hair dyeing and more. The shop is co-owned by black business owner, Theresa Betou.   Theresa was forced to close her shop shortly after Premiere Doug Ford announcement on Tuesday March 23, 2020, that all non-essential store and services would be ordered to close as of Tuesday March 24th, in an attempt to slow down the spread of Covid-19. Hair salons and barbershops have everything to do with neck up and prior to Covid-19, few people would ever think that they would see a time when you would not be allowed to get a hair cut because it is unsafe. Unfortunately, hair cutting requires close client contact and touching the heads of clients and as a result is considered an easy way for the coronavirus to spread. The closure that was only supposed to last 14 days ...

When it comes to starting a hair salon, even if you have the styling skills, launching a business can be a challenging process. As with any burgeoning industry, competition is fierce and there is no place in the market for mediocre. You will need to find a niche for your business, keep up-to-date with grooming trends, source new products, motivate your staff and socialize with your customers.  Yet there is plenty of opportunities. The Canadian hair and nail industry is valued at $4.2 billion per year. Men and women of all ages enjoy looking their best, and hair salons cater to that. Whether you’ve just graduated with your cosmetology degree or hair-styling certificate or you’re just ready to open your own business, it’s important to consider the cost of opening a hair salon. The cost of opening your own salon is around $60,000 for a basic setup, but it can go up to $500,000 or even more. No matter how much you invest in your new business, you'll want to do everything you can to e...

Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General has allocated 200 million dollars for the years 2019 to 2022, in support of the Community Safety and Well-Being Strategy. A key part of this updated strategy is the idea that, “…the majority of investments, time and resources should be spent on developing and/or enhancing social development, prevention and risk intervention strategies to reduce the number of individuals, families and communities that reach the point of requiring an incident response. Developing strategies that are preventative as opposed to reactive will ensure efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of safety and well-being service delivery across Ontario.” And so you would think this would mean investing most of that funding into community organizations and preventative health strategies. Yet approximately 99% of the 2019 budget went to police forces (Toronto Police Services received $55.4 million on top of their budget of over 1.06 billion). This is one recen...