Working with residents in the development of their neighbourhood has always been a focus for the Storefront. As part of the priority neighbourhood of Kingston Galloway – Orton Park (KGO) Storefront sees its role in community development as an effective means to help residents make their community thrive.

Our approach to community development work has always been to:

• Ensure that residents take the lead role the development of their community
• Build the leadership capacity of residents
• Work collaboratively with all stakeholders to bring about social change and justice

The Storefront’s community development team is helping residents move their community forward by supporting a number of dynamic initiatives such as:

• Community Volunteering
• Action for Neighbourhood Change
• Community Speaks (links to summary)
• Neighbourhood Action Partnership (link to web)
• Neighbourhood Trust

Action for Neighbourhood Change
Thanks to funding provided by the United Way (link to web) the Storefront is able to support the newly opened Action for Neighbourhood Change office just down the street from us. The Action for Neighbourhood Change project will work with community members on neighbourhood wide issues by engaging them in relevant issues and building their capacity as community leaders.

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. Storefront Volunteers support all local initiatives in Kingston-Galloway including Job Fairs, Community Festivals, Family Fun Days, Community Market, Community Garden, Community Clean Up Days, and anything else that makes East Scarborough a better place.

Community Speaks
Community Speaks is a monthly opportunity for residents of KGO to come together and discuss the issues that are important to them. At these discussions residents also have the chance to be heard by the staff of different agencies in the community as well as from the offices of local politicians. Some of our topics have included: Going Green…?

Community Speaks have been a very effective community tool for organizing and mobilizing community members in Kingston-Galloway. Results from the community speaks had a very clear direction about community engagement and participating at community wide issues.

Community development partners are key links to larger community. The Storefront is a very active participant in community initiatives where we not only work with service providing agencies, but faith groups, neighbourhood associations, the community police liaison committee and more. Each of these groups are connected to each other primarily through the work of three community collaborations:
• East Scarborough Storefront
• Residents Rising
• Kingston-Galloway/Orton Park Neighbourhood Action Partnership (NAP)

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 (with the support of ANC) and Neighbourhood Action are all interlinked. We all work to strengthen each other and the community.