One of the roles that the Storefront plays in the community is to be a foundation upon which community initiatives can be built. To this end, the Storefront is very active in the other two community collaborations.

Residents Rising is a grass roots community development team. Their purpose is to raise community awareness and participation among the people who need a way to connect with their community. Residents Rising brings community members together to speak with their fellow residents about their dreams for the community, to actively participate in community events and to spread the word about what services are available, what events are happening and where people can best connect to make their voices heard. In its first year Residents Rising created a fun and informative community map, developed a comprehensive outreach strategy and a community beautification initiative.

Neighbourhood Action is a City initiative designed to increase the capacity of City departments and non-profit agencies to serve at risk communities through collaboration. In our East Scarborough community (otherwise known as Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park) it is the vehicle by which local the service providers communicate, plan and vision together to help create a thriving community.

The Storefront, Residents Rising and Neighbourhood Action are all interlinked. We all work to strengthen each other and the community.

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Civic Engagement

Poverty reduction/social change is a process that requires a multifaceted approach, a strong foundation, insightful leadership and a great deal of collaboration and co-operation at all levels. These ingredients are present in the Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park community. The Storefront plays a key role within a network of social change agents. The Storefront has a strong civic engagement agenda and nurtures the interconnectedness of the various community projects in the neighbourhood in a variety of ways:

• The Storefront acts as a bridge between residents of the community and projects and initiatives taking place locally, and across the city
• The Storefront mobilizes and motivates individuals to participate in the political process that can affect change
• The Storefront educates community members in the ways and means of affecting change at both micro and the macro levels

Storefront Community Speaks:

Community Speaks are the mechanism that we use to make sure that the work that we are doing, be it service delivery or community development is relevant to the community. It has proven to be the foundation upon which much of our work has been built. For instance, when we were in crisis in 2005, it was at a Community Speak that the plan to host a march, letter writing campaign etc was hatched by the community. Although Storefront Community Speaks started out as a forum for people to give feedback and provide ideas for the running of the Storefront, over time, community members took more ownership of the events, they told us they wanted to use the Community Speak forum to address broader community issues.

The Community Speak structure is simple and effective. Basically, we invite community members to dinner. We use personal invitations (just like being invited to a party) to community members or key community stakeholders. The entire evening is facilitated by a lively fun-loving person. People sit in small groups of 6-8 people with a facilitator at each table. We engage in numerous activities designed to elicit constructive feedback to key issues in the community. The feedback the community members provide is used by the Storefront, the Neighbourhood Action Partnership and other community stakeholders to ensure that the work being done on behalf of community members is driven by a community agenda. The information from the community is summarized in a brochure and mailed to the participants, the politicians and other stakeholders in the community. We hold these events every three months.

Examples of Community Speak Summaries:

• “Safety”
• “Use of Space”
• “Community Mapping”
• “Gaps in Service”

Mobilization and Education:

The Storefront acts as a vehicle to mobilize people to participate in the social action activities that are relevant to them. It seems (and we would like to confirm it through a future visioning process) that this is the role people expect us to play.

There are many strong advocacy groups in the City of Toronto; what they need is help getting their message out, especially to communities such as Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park where people are often marginalized and isolated from what is going on in other parts of the City. The Storefront is in a prime position to match people’s interests with the appropriate advocacy groups. For instance, the Storefront provided staff accompaniment to people who wanted to attend their first anti-poverty protest, or who wanted to lend their opinion to the City budget consultations. Storefront staff also invited advocacy groups to the Storefront to meet with people who had something important to say on subjects such as welfare, immigration and safety in schools.

Most people want to have their voice heard. What we learned over the course of this project is that different people require different supports to help them gain the confidence and practical tools they need to speak out. One of our successes has been the ability of Storefront staff to match the supports with the individuals. The supports that the Storefront has been able to offer thanks to the Metcalf Foundation include:

• Physically accompanying individuals to focus groups, consultations, demonstrations etc
• Providing transportation
• Hosting focus groups, discussion groups and Community Speaks at the Storefront and providing a warm friendly environment, including food and child care
• Providing background information on what to expect from any given event
• Telling people that we would like to hear about their experience with a particular event, focus group or discussion
• Providing opportunities for community members to play a leadership role in supporting others to speak out
• Acting as a bridge, introducing people to their politicians, making appointments or gathering groups together who want to address the same issue

This work is ongoing, and is about relationship building, knowing when to help and knowing when to let go. The Storefront is in a great position to continue to learn and grow in these areas.

The Volunteer/Civic Engagement Continuum

The Storefront staff member who took primary responsibility for the community engagement project was the Co-ordinator of Volunteers. Originally, we had looked at this one person having two distinct roles. We quickly learned that the very people who want to volunteer in their community, often want to engage with their community in other ways. Storefront volunteers represent the full diversity of Scarborough; when they heard about civic engagement opportunities, many of these volunteers were extremely enthusiastic, taking on leadership roles and participating fully. An early example of this came at the 2005 Scarborough Summit. We had recruited volunteers to help with the set up, registration, food service and clean up; these volunteers became some of the most engaged participants at the Summit and were also the ones interested in the follow up work. These volunteers are now in a position to support others to make their voices heard. The two programs now work hand in hand.

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