Building Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy
Sowing the seeds of community change
Granville Foger eagerly anticipates the arrival of spring in Rexdale. A member of Action for Neighbourhood Change, he’s been working with his neighbours to plant a community garden — now he can’t wait to see the bulbs bloom.
Lotherton Heights: An urban village on the path to change
With a range of projects, from a community garden to making videos to renewed basketball courts, residents of Lotherton Pathway in Lawrence Heights are giving their community a boost.
The Building Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy is the foundation of United Way Toronto’s efforts to create lasting change at a community level. It was developed in response to research and consultations that identified thirteen neighbourhoods across Toronto that lack access to services, social infrastructure and community space. Our strategy is to target efforts to those areas through a place-based approach that includes a variety of initiatives and strategies.
- In response to rising needs in the inner suburbs, United Way Toronto is targeting funding to agencies and programs in those neighbourhoods most in need of support.
- This approach of targeting investment to neighbourhoods where it’s needed most is a place-based strategy. United Way Toronto is a champion of this approach, engaging governments and other partners in developing policies and disbursing investments that focus on improving conditions across entire communities.
- Action for Neighbourhood Change (ANC), a resident capacity-building initiative, is working in 13 inner suburban neighbourhoods to build local leadership and engage people in changing their communities for the better.
- The Community Hubs initiative brings together social service agencies with the private sector and all levels of government to improve access to programs and services in inner suburban neighbourhoods. In neighbourhoods without access to community space, hubs are providing places where people can come together.
- Resident Action Grants (RAGs) are small one-time investments that give residents in the inner suburbs the tools they need to make immediate changes in their communities. These grants fund a wide variety of projects—from community kitchens to sewing clubs—that bring people together and engage residents from all walks of life in making positive changes in their neighbourhoods.
