Regent Park Celebrates The Social Development Plan

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The Regent Park Community Meets to Hear About the Regent Park Redevelopment and the Social Development Plan.

On March 23, 2022, the Regent Park Community came together to celebrate the Regent Park Social Development Plan and hear about its activities. The event was held in the Daniels Spectrum Arts Centre located at 585 Dundas Street East.

The first part of the event, taking place from noon to 5 pm, featured a market place of community vendors as well as the official launch of the Community Living room hosted by Centre for Social Innovation (CSI). Located on the first floor of Daniels, the Community Living Room is a partnership between CSI, Daniels and Artscape. The space, consisting of tables, lounge chairs, books, children’s toys, a café and a TV, was designed as a public living room for residents and community members to informally gather and use as they see fit. The launch of the space featured a variety of vendors and speeches by Denise Soueidan-O’Leary and Tonya Surman from CSI, Farid Jalil from Artscape and Heela Omarkhail from Daniels.

The second part of the event called Celebrating the Regent Park SDP began at 5 pm and was held in the Ada Sleight Hall of the Daniels Spectrum. This part of the event featured a community dinner; updates on the Regent Park redevelopment from TCHC, Daniels and Tridel; presentations from various committees involved in the Social Development Plan; and entertainment featuring Snooky Tynes funk band, juggling from Square Circle, Chinese dancing from Happy Dancers and spoken word from Spoken by T and Southside Santana. The following is a report of the Celebrating the SDP Event held in the Ada Sleight Hall.

After a delicious dinner, the Celebrating the Regent Park SDP event began with introductions of the three co-chairs, Greg Gary -the co-chair representing the Executive Directors Network, Ismail Afrah- the TCHC resident co-chair and Marlene Degenova-the Market resident co-chair. After the land acknowledgement, Greg Gary invited City Councillor Kristen Wong Tam to give opening remarks.

“I know that the social development plan is a contract between the community, TCHC, their developer partner and the City of Toronto. It’s a document that guides us and our work on your behalf and with you and so that contract is one that we build upon, one that we shape to make sure that it does what it’s suppose to do and keeps us accountable to each other. That work is not easy and it’s done with community and with the leadership of the SDP and the stake holder’s table.” said Kristen Wong.

In her remarks, Kristen Wong-Tam evoked the memory of Councillor Pam McConnel. “I know that Pam would have been so proud to see this community that she loved so dearly.” said Councillor Wong-Tam.

Kristen Wong Tam concluded her remarks with a thank you to the leadership of the SDP and a presentation of certificates honouring SDP and its partnership community organizations.

Following Councillor Kristen Wong Tam opening remarks, the community viewed a video message from MPP Suze Morrison. “Neighbourhoods are only as strong as the community of people who live in them and Regent Park has showed time and time again that community and connectedness is something that exists here in droves.” Said Suze Morrison.

Ismail Afrah, the TCHC resident co-chair of the SDP started the evening presentations by providing information on the structure of the SDP. According to Ismail, the Regent Park Redevelopment consists of a physical plan related to the construction of bricks and mortar and a social development plan related to social development of the community. The Regent Park Social Development Plan, explained Ismail, is a community wide initiative aimed at fostering social inclusion and cohesion. The initiative is focused around four priority areas. The priority areas are Communication, Community Building, Employment and Economic Development and Safety. Each priority area is represented by a working committee comprised of TCHC residents, market residents, grassroots groups and agencies.

Ismail then invited Tereza Todorova from TCHC, to do a joint presentation about the Community Benefits Oversight Working Group and the newly developed terms of reference. The Community Benefits Oversight Working Group will be a newly formed committee that will work with TCHC and Tridel to assist in the allocation of the 26.8 million dollars of community benefits promised to the community. In reviewing the terms of reference for the working group, Tereza explained that in keeping with the values of the values of the social development plan, half of the voting members on the working group will be TCHC tenants and the other half will be Market residents. Other members will be non-voting content experts. Tereza announced that they will soon be looking to recruit residents to the working group and that anyone that is interested should reach out to her.

After hearing the updates from TCHC, Daniels and Tridel, the community now had an opportunity to hear short presentations on the activities of each of the four working groups.

Joel Klassen and Walied Khogali reported on the activities of the community building table. Next the community heard a video presentation from Gail Lynch and Ismail Afrah, who reported on the activities of the Employment and Economic Development. Ines Garcia, a member of the Safety Committee, talked about the delivery of Speaking With Confidence Training Workshops and the Mental Health First Aid Training to residents.

Ibrahim Afra and Adonis Huggins of the communication committee reported on the release of Hello Neighbour, a newly developed community app serving Regent Park. They also reported on the creation of the Regent Park TV Weekly news and the Regent Park monthly newsletter.

Diana Mavunduse concluded the business of the SDP with a video presentation talking about the role of the SDP Planning Committee and its successes.

Following the SDP presentations, the community was treated to a variety of entertainers including a juggling act by Square Circle, Snooky Tynes Funk Band, spoken word performances by Spoken by T and Southside Satana, and Chinese dances from the Happy Dancers. All and all, Celebrating the SDP was a successful evening of food, information and entertainment.


Written by
Adonis Huggins

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre


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