Receive the Community Leaders Newsletter to stay up to date on opportunities to participate! Sign up now
The Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) is the City of Toronto’s action plan for building partnerships in Toronto’s neighbourhoods so they can succeed and thrive. The strategy supports community well-being by partnering with residents, community agencies and businesses to invest in people, services, programs and facilities in Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs). The strategy strengthens the social, economic and physical conditions and delivers local impact for city-wide change.
To achieve equitable opportunities across all Toronto neighbourhoods by:
No matter what neighbourhood Torontonians call home, there are equitable opportunities for well-being.
City staff recently worked with Social Planning Toronto to support the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) Advisory Group. The TSNS Advisory Group was made up of passionate leaders from Neighbourhood Improvement Areas and Emerging Neighbourhoods. These leaders engaged in research, community engagement, civic decision making, networking and capacity building opportunities throughout their membership term.
The TSNS Advisory Group also provided input on:
The next call for TSNS Advisory Group applications will launch in July 2024. Please sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter to stay up to date on membership application dates.
In partnership with Social Planning Toronto, a selection of TSNS Advisory Group members developed a Resident Engagement Toolkit designed to support community-based organizations and City partners in deepening their understanding of the best practices for engagement, particularly with equity-deserving groups. This workshop toolkit was a collaborative project and is the outcome of community consultations carried out between August and December 2022. The consultations aimed to center resident leaders’ expertise, current realities, identify tools and approaches to facilitate meaningful engagement and partnerships, and support enhanced community development outcomes for sustainable, resident-led neighbourhood work in Toronto. Everyone is welcome to review and use the Resident Engagement Toolkit to inform their ongoing work and engagement with equity-deserving communities.
In 2022, City staff surveyed over 90 community and resident-led groups to deepen the City’s understanding of community-based leadership, engagement activities, and how they might be better supported through the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS). Based on these survey responses City staff engaged external community consultants to host four virtual discussion sessions with community and resident-led groups to help further inform the TSNS engagement plan.
Key findings and recommendations from these discussion sessions included:
City staff established the Local Leaders Forum to support community and resident-led groups from all neighbourhoods. The Local Leaders Forum aligns with the TSNS and other City Equity Strategies, and incorporates learnings from the ongoing work of the Community Coordination Plan.
The Local Leaders Forum is virtually convened in quarterly sessions to provide:
Goals of the Local Leaders Forum include:
Please sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter to be informed of 2024 forum dates.
Social Planning Toronto is working with the City of Toronto to deliver three Building Community Strength Workshop to support continuous learning and skill building for community and resident leaders in 2024.
The workshops will focus on three unique themes, including:
Please sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter to stay up to date on workshop application dates.
City staff partnered with Social Planning Toronto to develop the Community Playbook to assist community leaders with concrete knowledge and tools they can use in their place-based community engagement work, as well as to support new Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) Community Networks. The Community Playbook serves as an interactive guide with more than 100 pages of resources for community leaders and residents involved in community engagement projects within their respective networks and neighborhoods to help them in their planning, engagement, funding applications, project coordination, and more! Check out the Community Playbook and how you might be able to utilize this exciting new resource in your community development work.
As a part of Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) activities, Community Development Unit staff outlined a TSNS Community Network Engagement Plan that is being implemented in a multi-step, phased process.
Building on previous learning models, the Inform, Engage, Collaborate approach develops a shared understanding among participants and centers equity across all TSNS Community Networks. City staff are working with The Neighbourhood Organization, in partnership with Rexdale Community Health Centre, Progress Place -Community Place Hub, University Health Network – Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, The Neighbourhood Group, and The Corner @ SJT, to highlight actions for new TSNS Community Networks.
Implementation will follow a phased approach, as follows:
Community Coordination Plan Clusters | Community Networks | Total # of Ambassadors | Implementation Timeline |
North Etobicoke | North Etobicoke | 2 | January 2024 |
South Scarborough | South Scarborough | 2 | January 2024 |
East York Don Valley | East York Don Valley | 2 | January 2024 |
Black Creek Humber Summit | Jane Finch Downsview | 2 | March 2024 |
York Weston Pelham | York Weston Pelham | 2 | March 2024 |
Downtown East, Downtown West | Downtown | 2 | March 2024 |
North Scarborough | North Scarborough | 2 | May 2024 |
North York | North York | 2 | May 2024 |
South Etobicoke | South Etobicoke | 2 | May 2024 |
Learn more about Community Coordination Plan Clusters.
This approach to TSNS Community Network development will:
Once established, Community Networks will function as a community of practice and will focus on:
To support continued engagement through Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS), City staff are working with The Neighbourhood Organization, in partnership with Rexdale Community Health Centre, Progress Place – West Mount Dennis Community Place Hub, University Health Network – Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, The Neighbourhood Group, Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities and St James Town Community Corner, to establish an Ambassador program that supports TSNS Community Networks.
This initiative grows out of learnings from the City’s Vaccine Engagement Teams as Ambassadors are positioned in communities to increase and/or enhance communication, trust, engagement and information sharing across equity-deserving groups and communities. This approach will aim to deepen relationships and connections across regional areas representing 9 TSNS Community Networks.
Ambassadors will be recruited, according to the Community Network implementation schedule, to:
City of Toronto Community Hubs are designed to house City services, non-profit partner services and offer community space to local community groups in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
You can find a wide range of programs, services and community space all available in a single location.
For information regarding specific programs, services and available space in your area please contact the Community Hub you are interested in directly.
Hub Name | Address | Programs & Services | Contact Information |
Keele Community Hub | 1652 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario, M6M 3W3 |
|
Community Hub Coordinator: Melodie Anderson
E-mail: melodie.anderson@toronto.ca Phone: 416-392-2981 |
Dawes Road Library & Community Hub | 416 Dawes Road
Toronto, Ontario, |
|
Email drstaff@tpl.ca anytime with your suggestions or questions. |
The City of Toronto now has 158 social planning neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood designations help City staff collect data, plan, analyze and forecast City services. While these neighbourhoods may not fully encompass every historical, cultural, ethnic or economic neighbourhood area, they do provide a way for planners and researchers to track information about them over time. Learn more about updates to Toronto’s social planning neighbourhoods.
In 2014, the City used the Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool to score neighbourhoods under five domains of neighbourhood well-being. The five domains were:
The Urban HEART scores helped the City identify Neighbourhoods Improvement Areas for additional investment through the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy.