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🏘️ Transforming Communities Together in Scarborough, Ontario! 🏘️ Discover the revolutionary Connected Community Approach (CCA) - a framework designed ‘by the community for the community’. 🌟 This innovative model shifts the focus from seeing communities as vulnerable recipients to empowering them as active partners in solving today’s biggest challenges. Drawing on social innovation, deep equity, and community development, CCA builds powerful cross-sector coalitions and introduces three game-changing innovations: 1️⃣ Community-based facilitators as backbone organizations. 2️⃣ Strategies for centering community in organizational action planning. 3️⃣ 10 keys to unlock the potential of connected communities at local and systems levels. With a 25-year legacy, CCA strengthens social fabric, creating healthier and more equitable communities. Ready to see how Scarborough is leading the way? 🚀 Read the full article now! 👉

Today, the Economic and Community Development Committee approved a definition of 'Inclusive Economic Development (IED)' alongside guiding principles that will be the basis for the co-development—with community partners—of an IED Framework for the City of Toronto. It is the result of extensive and meaningful collaboration within the City of Toronto (as the impact goes way beyond economic development) and with community partners. This work is long overdue as Toronto has seen significant economic growth in the past decades, yet not the same success in ensuring that opportunities and outcomes are equitably shared across communities, residents, and geographic areas. There is a lot to be done, but this is a strong starting point! You can find the report here: https://lnkd.in/gn2rCg5P

Everyone has a stake in the economy. With decades of high growth, Toronto has experienced deepening inequality, an affordability crisis, and uneven benefits from local economic infrastructure and development projects. The City's new approach to Inclusive Economic Development (IED), being built in consultation with labour, anchor institutions, and community economic development practitioners, aspires to create a sustainable, fair, and affordable city for all. The principles adopted by ECDC represent an important shift away from the trickle down paradigm. They envision economic development shaped by and accountable to communities and rooted in place/neighbourhoods. Economic development that removes systemic barriers to decent work, training and employment, and other avenues of economic participation by using key City levers (hiring, procurement, community benefit agreements, community wealth building measures etc.). A huge thanks to City staff in EDC, SDFA, and beyond for this foundational work that sets the City up to lead and shape the kind of economy we need.

Big day in Toronto today! Today, the Economic and Community Development Committee adopted seven recommendations towards advancing the Mount Dennis Community for All Action Plan. The Plan will be a responsive community focused plan for the Mount Dennis area and will propose specific actions, strategies and quantifiable targets for preserving and building new affordable housing, improving social and economic outcomes including upgraded infrastructure, enhanced community and social services, retaining and expanding local businesses, and cultivating high-quality parks and outdoor amenities. With the hopefully imminent opening of the Eglinton Crosstown, Mount Dennis is set to become one of the most transit-connected neighbourhoods in Toronto. The community already faces significant redevelopment pressures, yet the population is set to more than double over the next 20 years. Affordability is already a challenge in Mount Dennis. There is significant risk that local residents will be displaced by redevelopment if local residents are not an integral part of the process. Mount Dennis residents are excited about future changes and want to remain in their community to enjoy new facilities and amenities. Local community leadership is important in any planning process but it is critical in Mount Dennis. Mount Dennis, as in Jane-Finch and so many other Black and racialized neighbourhoods, is full of inspired young leaders, bright minds and strong community advocates. Planning and municipal policy needs to build on local knowledge to elevate us all towards our shared objectives of growth and equitable prosperity. This can be more than an engagement process, the Community for All Plan can be an opportunity to co-create community. I am excited to see this process continue and will be following along keenly. I'd encourage fellow planners and the development community to follow along as well. Communities will more likely advocate for growth and change when the benefits of that growth and change are shared and when community members are confident that the essence of their community will remain intact to enjoy that future. Good things can happen here. Big applause to Amina Yassin-Omar, Mike Mattos and Cheryll Case who spoke to committee this morning in support of this initiative. A round of applause also to the Learning Enrichment Foundation and the Mount Dennis Community Association for advocating so strongly for their community. Video below. Staff recommendation report is available at the link: https://lnkd.in/e2vS6Gac The item will be considered by Council on April 27.

Thank you Rosie Lynch for sharing the article at the end of this post on the Irish community development sector by Moray Bresnihan. I'd like to pass it on here with some thoughts. INSECURITY - The UNDP's Human Development Report (https://hdr.undp.org/) tells us that half the world's people do not feel that they are in control of their own lives, and 7 out of 10 report that they have little influence in the decisions of their government. Insecurity drives people towards more extreme political views. INTEGRATION - humans have evolved to live holistic lives within family networks and communities of place. The community development sector emerged to support people in families and communities with human needs that were unmet by the State (or the Church). INVISIBILITY - During COVID, this usually unseen sector came to the fore as it led out on the organisation of local people who volunteered to help often unknown others through solidarity and a shared humanity of care relations. The community development sector could do this quickly and meaningfully because these organisations can only flourish through having a web of care relations across its territory. INDEFENSIBLE - the erosion of the community development sector by successive Irish Governments is undermining the humanity of Irish society and demonstrates the invisibility of care relations in the home, in the community and in the environment, on which all life and its flourishing ultimately depend. The Government is blind to care relations and blind to how they are contributing to their unravelling. Hence, suffering among the human and more-than-human is on the rise. INTERWOVEN - human life and environmental life are inseparable, the former cannot be sustained without the latter. And it cannot be sustained without a caring economy that makes visible the care relations on which all humanity depends: the household economy, the unpaid community economy and the natural economy (partnerism.org). https://lnkd.in/eJQ-Rzd9

When I first started in my job around 6 and a half years ago, the term place-based had begun emerging as a new way of working. Government, human services and academia were all discussing ways they could do things differently and involve communities in 'place'. For Neighbourhood Centres, it was all really seen as a return to the way we had always been working. From Settlement Houses in the late 1800s, to post-war memorial community centres in the 1930s, to the rise of Neighbourhood Houses and Centres during the Australian Assistance Plan in the 1970s, we've always been place-based in our approach and led by communities. As the term becomes more popular (and funding becomes available for it), more and more organisations are stating they are place-based in approach. But there seems to be a range of definitions about what this means. In the new shared vision for Neighbourhood Centres, we are described as being place-based and community-led. In the context of so many definitions, we wanted to articulate what this means for our sector and those wishing to work with us. Our position paper articulates what we mean by place and how we are community-led. We unpack how this relates to core community development approaches that are unique to the sector. But we also unpack what place-based community-led work means for procurement (including new Neighbouhood Centre procurement), training and education, collective impact models and the way that state-wide initiatives are rolled out through the sector.

Sitting in a training as a Co-Trainer, my learning ninja's jumped to life when I heard this amazing trainer mention an effective approach to Fiji's rural community development, (and applicable to others too) is the principle of the 3 E's: -Evangelism -Education (drives) -Economic Empowerment #communityempowerment #strategicplanning

🌍 Empowering Global Communities: The Launch of the First Rotary CBBN Powered by Our Mayberry® 🌟 Our Mayberry®, the platform that powers the Community Benefit Business Network™ (CBBN™), launched the first Rotary CBBN in collaboration with District 5030 at the end of February 2023. This groundbreaking initiative quickly set a precedent for social and economic collaboration, inspiring other Rotary Districts and clubs across the United States and Canada to establish their own CBBN networks. The model's powerful appeal and effectiveness have not only gained significant traction in North America but have also sparked interest among Rotary leaders in the United Kingdom, extending its influence on a global scale. Furthermore, the enthusiasm for this community-centric approach has reached as far as India, showcasing the universal relevance and potential impact of connecting businesses and communities through the Rotary network. Powered by Our Mayberry®, this initiative underscores the potential to foster international cooperation, promote economic growth, and support community development worldwide. #RotaryCBBN #CommunityDevelopment #EconomicGrowth #OurMayberry #GlobalImpact