Early in 1999, concerned agencies, community members and groups came together to discuss the growing needs in East Scarborough. The primary concerns of this group were how services and supports could be brought to the people in this community, especially to those who have been marginalized and living in poverty. Two years of consultation and discussion resulted in this unique collaboration.

With lots of co-operation and enthusiasm, the Storefront opened its doors in Morningside Mall in February of 2001 with the following aims:

1. To develop a fully functioning, accessible and welcoming multi-service resource centre and community space, meeting the needs of the populations in the east Scarborough area.
   
   
2. To build an effective, organized and functioning consortium of partner agencies and supporting organizations providing a wide range of services and programs including an information and referral drop-in resource service.
   
   
3. To work within an open, accountable, transparent and democratic governance structure in which community stakeholders share ownership and control with service provider partners of the consortium.

Over the next few years, the Storefront became a unique community hub. The hub began to be known as the “Storefront model”: a model that co-ordinated the work of agencies from various parts of the City to bring services to a “high risk” neighbourhood. In this model Storefront programs and services are all provided by partner agencies, each agency bringing its expertise to the people of East Scarborough on a particular day at a particular time. Storefront staff link community members to the services and ensure that the agencies have everything that they need to offer the community high quality and effective resources and information.

In the first month of services in 2001, as we looked for furniture, co-ordinated the work of more than forty agencies, and began to build relationships with local residents and businesses, we provided direct service to 43 people: three years later, in March 2005 we saw more than 5400 visits to the Storefront.

Despite having built a thriving “hub” and a new model for effective service delivery, in 2005 a policy change at the federal government meant that the Storefront’s funding was threatened. For a while, it looked as if the Storefront would not be able to carry on. Thanks to its community partners, however, it did:

Community members staged a march to bring attention to the need for services in East Scarborough. Agencies from across the City wrote letters and formed delegations. As funders heard about the Storefront through media, letters and personal interviews with many supporters, they too were excited about the collaborative work happening in East Scarborough and formed their own collaborative approach to funding: five funders committed to supporting the ongoing work of the Storefront.

The struggles faced by the Storefront in 2005 were, however, not yet over. With the demolition of the Morningside Mall slated for the following year, the Storefront was forced to relocate. Again it was the collaboration of community members, agencies, politicians and City Staff that made it possible for the Storefront to move into its new home in the old 42 Division substation at 4040 Lawrence Ave E.

Where we are now

It is impossible to capture all the different facets and elements that have developed at the Storefront in. The following gives a brief outline of what we are doing. The Storefront is ever growing and ever changing working with the community as it changes and grows.

Community Building

The Storefront is committed to community building. To that end, the Storefront staff facilitate groups of community members to voice their visions and concerns, to work together to improve their community and to connect with other groups, politicians, agencies and bureaucrats to get what they need for their community. The following are some of the ways that the Storefront works with people to help improve lives in the community:

Community Resources: Storefront staff have a wealth of knowledge about what services, programs and supports are available to community members to help them, their families and their friends meet their needs and reach their goals. At our community resource centre, community members meet Storefront staff who listen to them and link them to the services that they need.

Community Speaks: Every three months or so, community members gather for dinner, fun activities and facilitated discussion on topics relevant to the community. From these discussions come recommendations which guide the Storefront’s community building activities in the following months.

Community Volunteering: Volunteers make things happen. The Storefront helps them to do so by recruiting, training and supervising groups of volunteers to support events that strengthen the community. Volunteers handle registration at job fairs, organize children’s programs, henna application and barbeques at picnics and celebrations, pitch in at community clean ups, markets and anything else that makes East Scarborough a better place.

Civic Engagement: Community members need ways and means to influence the political forces that shape our City. Storefront staff organize focus groups, voter education, community surveys and issues based campaigns to help community members’ voices to be heard.

Guiding the work of the Storefront: All community members have a voice in guiding the work of the Storefront through Community Speaks. It is, however, the Storefront Steering Committee that, through policy development and capacity building initiatives shape the direction of the Storefront on an ongoing basis. Seven community members, along with seven agency members are nominated and elected to the Steering Committee

Community Capacity Building: In 2008, the Storefront, with its community partners, put forth a proposal to the United Way to take on an Action for Neighbourhood Change project (ANC). This project will look unlike any other ANC project in the City and will concentrate on building a community wide resident engagement strategy which builds the capacity of community members to articulate their visions, define the supports they need and contribute to building good things in Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park.