Currently only 1.2% of Ontario’s apprentices are represented by racialized individuals in the construction industry. Through Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) Black Youth are slowly being hired onto the construction sites of large Canadian infrastructure projects. CBAs are also opening opportunities for small to medium sized businesses interested in penetrating the Canadian construction supply chain.On Tuesday, December 12, the Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN) hosted a breakfast to officially launch their Black Youth Mentoring Program. The plan applies a 2-pronged approach to changing the narrative around Black Youth. The first piece will mentor qualified Black Youth construction workers apprenticing in the trades known as the “Next-Gen-Builders” program. The second part will enhance the skills of a Black Youth consultancy known as the BYD Team. The goal of BYD Team is to fulfil on current and grow future construction industry social procurement strategies.The Black Youth Mentoring Program Launch, which took place in the beautiful University of Toronto Faculty Club, was a fantastic experience. It was amazing to be in that room where high level representatives from the construction trades and industry professionals, mingled with equity seeking community members. It was especially refreshing to hear some of the Black Youth apprentices recently welcomed into the Canadian construction industry, speak of reluctance replaced by optimism through TCBN’s new mentoring program. Also interesting was hearing Pat Dillon, Business Manager and Secretary Treasurer of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, voice his support for TCBN and community efforts by recommending they approach the struggle “more aggressively”. With high profile support from the likes of Dillon, community must be optimistic that integrating the construction industry in the lifetime of today’s youth is a real possibility, right?Also inspiring were the words of Grover Johnson, Vice President of the American chapter of LiUNA’s African American Caucus. Grover’s words clearly indicated the American Community Benefits movement is far ahead of our own. In his home state of Washington, they have progressed beyond the need to negotiate a CBA for every capital project, it is now policy. They now move directly to Workforce Development Agreements. It really goes to show that what we hear so frequently in the news about our neighbours to the south may be the cries from a group of reactionaries who are in their final death throes. These are certainly exciting times for the Canadian community benefits movement.
Spend more time together - it's what the doctor ordered
Human connection seems to be on everyone’s minds these days, while we love the independence our devices give us without really realizing it, many of us are craving more time together. The rise of the individual has meant great improvements to individual rights and freedoms yet coupled with the rise of technology, it’s become easy to underestimate the value of community. We think we can go it alone at almost every turn and modern health care has shifted to accommodate these sentiments. Black Creek Community Health Centre (BCCHC) knows that coming together in community can not only mean prevention, it can also be the cure. They say it up front and often, their vision statement reads: “We envision a healthy, resilient and empowered community where people are connected and support each other”. Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director of the BCCHC says: “Our mandate is to address individual health needs as well as community needs, we know that if individuals in a community are healthy as a result the community will be healthy”. The Black Creek Family and Health Centre does more than simply acknowledge that community and individual health are intertwined – they live it. This year they held their Annual General Meeting at Black Creek Community Farm with who they partner. They offer a whole roster of programming that includes everything from fitness classes for the whole family to community gardening. The centre has lots of individual care on offer. Everyone should have a General Practitioner, someone who knows the individual, their history and available supports. The centre can add additional support through some of the unique accessible community programs; programs like dietary instruction and a community kitchen to take that instruction from theory to practice. The holistic approach to treatment means your whole self and your whole family will be taken care of. The communal approach to healthcare means that people look after each other. People feel less isolated and more connected to the people around them. It’s this connection that keeps the community coming back to Black Creek Community Health Centre. For more information visit them today at one of 2 locations in Downsview, The Yorkgate Mall at Jane and Finch and Sheridan Mall at Jane and Wilson.
Amazing Love
William Ashley started his career as a graphic designer. When he switched to a career in the fine arts, it was a natural step. For many years, he worked with oil paint and much of his early work was wildlife drawings. He was also always interested in photography. William switched from oil to acrylic, believing that acrylic allowed for more versatility in his work. For a while, he found himself painting portraits. His reputation preceded him and commissions started coming. At one point, he was asked to paint a portrait of Mayor Mel Lastman. The Mayor was overwhelmed with the portrait, crying when he saw it for the first time.William has been working on an inspirational piece for the Jane-Finch community. William and his partner and Marketing Manager, Evadney, are long time residents and advocates in the community. For more than 18 years, William and Evadney ran a food-bank in Jane-Finch. They have also mentored many students and continue to advocate for the people of Jane-Finch. The piece that William has recently been working on will go on display at the Jane Finch Mall where community members can visit and receive inspiration from the positive message embedded in the work. The piece will incorporate some of the great minds that have come from the community, highlighting the accomplishments of the people of the Jane-Finch, including those of famous artists and professionals. In 2004, William found faith and started featuring Christian scripture into his work. Some of his works can be customized by clients with some even having their photos incorporated in the designs. His work can also be very high tech as he uses the latest digital technology to get the designs just right. On September 28, 2018, William and Evadney will be launching a new brand and are holding an exhibit at the De Runa Banquet Hall in Toronto. Currently, they have a gallery in the Jane-Finch community which is open by appointment. For more details, you can visit www.AmazingLove.ca.
Working with Community
The Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), DUKE Heights BIA and Osgoode Hall Law School organized the March 23 and 24 Creating Opportunities Summit to take a good hard look at what truly makes great communities. In our efforts to find the perfect solutions, we often ignore big problems and make matters worse by doubling down on things that aren’t working. Whether it’s capacity building in marginalized communities, local policy making in neighbourhood improvement areas (NIAs) or just plain racism, no one answer fits all. If the summit had one great takeaway for me, it’s that finding shared prosperity will come through working with community and not for community. The summit was an amazing chance for communities to come together with agencies, government workers, thought leaders and entrepreneurs, to really drill down and explore community benefits together. The two-day event kicked off with a bus tour that took delegates along the future Finch West LRT route. The route holds much promise for investment where there has been so little for nearly 40 years. There was a short detour to the future Woodbine Racetrack redevelopment, another possible place for community benefits. An incredible “poster exhibit” on community benefits was moved to Day-2 because of the strike at York University and even the strike didn’t put a damper on the success of the event. The bus tour was followed by a celebration dinner at York University’s Underground restaurant. The dinner included a speech from Senator Ratna Omidvar who will sponsor the Community Benefits Bill when it reaches the Senate from the House of Commons. The conference which took place the next day at Jackman Law Building at the University of Toronto was full of timely information on what community benefits can mean and how they can be achieved. The opening panel discussion included a passionate address from Hamilton City Councillor Matthew Green who has been at the forefront of the community benefits movement in Hamilton. Other incredible speakers included lawyer Anthony Morgan who spoke on racial justice issues in Canadian law and policy. Climate change and its impacts on communities were also covered. There were case studies on community benefits in action and there were new friendships hatched and plans for future cooperation laid out. I’ve only scratched the surface here of all the amazingness that happened over the 2 days - I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next year.
Lynessa: Hard at Work, Happy at Work
How can a young girl who likes playing with Lego find fulfilling work when she grows up? If you ask Lynessa White, she’ll tell you the best way is to follow your instincts. Lynessa, a racialized woman from Downsview, has strong instincts; she defied everyone who ever gave her career advice. Raised in a traditional family, she says despite her desire to fix things and a childhood dream to be a carpenter, her mother made sure she learned to cook. She still fixed things, she did it all the time.How do women resist such discouragement, whether it’s the guidance department steering you towards a career as a nurse, or your mother telling you to find an office job? Lynessa thought a career in the film industry would be a satisfying compromise so she attended film school in Toronto. The film set didn’t bring her the fulfillment she craved. It wasn’t until she arrived on a construction site that she discovered what was missing.When Lynessa talks about the construction project she is working on, her joy is palpable. When I first met Lynessa, she was part of the team building the Bentway Skate Trail under the Gardiner Expressway. Every project she works on involves a new approach, a new puzzle to put together, a new problem to solve. Lynessa finds that there isn't a set way of doing things on a construction site and that’s what drives her.Through Building Up, a Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN) social procurement partner, Lynessa found her path to becoming a licensed carpenter. In addition to Building Up, the process also included Carpenters Union Local 27, and Peter Kiewit Sons ULC, a private contractor. Lynessa is one of TCBN’s greatest success stories. TCBN envisions Toronto as an inclusive, thriving city in which all residents have equitable opportunities to contribute to healthy communities and a prosperous economy. TCBN is a coalition of organizations and individuals working in direct partnership with other grassroots, community, labour and anti-poverty organizations to build a strong community benefits movement in Toronto. We believe that all Torontonians should have access to the opportunities stemming from infrastructure investments, including women like Lynessa.
Safe and Smart
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the Smart City is passive surveillance. I come by my paranoia honestly. I was born in apartheid-era South Africa and because of Pass Laws my parents had to carry a special ID book on them at all times. If they were caught without what was more colloquially known as their ‘Book of Life’, they could be imprisoned without cause. A headline told me recently that the modern smart city is just as likely to help us deal with inclement weather and wouldn’t that be great! Imagine never having to shovel your sidewalk again because the sensors in the sidewalk are melting the snow as it falls. Imagine traffic bottlenecks as a thing of the past as vehicle GPS systems, working in tandem with traffic lights, resolve issues before they happen.Then of course there are the ongoing issues of safety. ‘Safety,’ the word that for so many racialized men in Downsview is just as likely to mean ‘danger’. Think about the promise of Waterfront Toronto’s redevelopment taking place on the city’s eastern waterfront in partnership with Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google. The redevelopment will have technology built into every corner to make our lives better. What if our racialized person from Downsview decided to visit this smart development with a smart phone in their pocket? If they were carded at some point in their life, they may trip a sensor requiring their movements to be redlined. Remember, when Toronto put restrictions on carding, the police were not forced to destroy all the unlawfully gained data already in the system. Could this level of scrutiny go to the next level in the name of ‘safety’; every physical space they walk into alerted to their presence. Young racialized men who have been subjected to carding programs have a challenging enough time walking around feeling free, will they self-sensor and never visit this new and special corner of the city?Will we be guaranteed that we will remain free of potential abuses of these smart spaces? Waterfront Toronto has already been asked to be more transparent in how the development deal was originally struck. What else will Waterfront Toronto, an arms-length agency of the city, try to keep from us to enhance the specialness of this place?
Community Benefits is coming to an infrastructure project near you
The greatest long-term benefit for equity seekers, racialized residents and historically disadvantaged groups is most often only realized in finding a sustainable long-term job. Infrastructure improvements often coincide with a temporary disruption to our lives. The community benefits movement, led by Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), aims to directly improve the lives of those impacted and reduce the negative impacts of large infrastructure projects in our communities.We may be experiencing something of a renaissance in community engagement. Communities are finding their voices and we have the technology to both express and hear those voices. The status quo is no longer accepted without scrutiny. Eyes are being opened to blind-spots. The community benefits movement has been in the vanguard of this sea change. Ten years ago, the movement was in its infancy, many still believing in the “trickle down” theory; it was believed that without any community participation, benefits would automatically be distributed meaningfully and fairly throughout communities impacted by large infrastructure projects. We now know better and communities are organizing themselves around Community Benefits Agreements (CBA’s) that offer guarantees in terms of what was previously only promised.The proposed redevelopment at Woodbine Racetrack is a massive project that the community has been engaged in for more than 10 years. Woodbine is an excellent example of how a community coming together around a single issue can engender real change. TCBN, standing in solidarity with Community Organizing for Responsible Development (CORD), is seeking to start negotiations with Great Canadian Gaming for a comprehensive agreement for community benefits from the huge expansion of this Toronto entertainment complex. Rosemarie Powell, Executive Director of TCBN says of the negotiations, “The decision to bring a casino into their neighbourhood was not made by the residents of Rexdale. Yet, they will forever be impacted by its legacy, whether it be positive or negative. The community simply wants to make sure they have some control over their shared destiny.”TCBN learned a lot from the Eglinton Crosstown project; it showed that with a commitment from the three levels of government along with a string of vibrant communities, we can achieve a type of city building that not only improves our surroundings but also works to build the public trust. Improving on the Eglinton model in other projects with real targets for jobs, apprenticeships and social procurement is a step in the right direction.
Building Better Communities: Continued Economic Growth through Shared Prosperity
There was a time when it seemed as if we were all progressing towards truly harnessing human potential to its fullest. Yet, outside of North America and Western Europe, only the fortunate few make meaningful progress. When we look closer to home and in our own local communities, we see many caught in cyclical patterns where successive generations are barely making ends meet. Will the children get the opportunity to truly achieve their potential? If not, what are we losing when that potential is not realized?The Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN) is doing as much as possible to see that everyone in Toronto reaches their full potential. TCBN helps equity seeking groups, diverse individuals and organizations gain access to opportunities to grow and thrive in their communities. TCBN has already been successful in achieving Community Benefits with the Eglinton Crosstown project. This massive project will realize the dream of improved public transit for tens of thousands of Toronto residents across Eglinton Ave and beyond. Thanks to TCBN, we are now starting to see residual benefits with real jobs for residents living along the Eglinton Crosstown LRT building site.Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) are successful because everyone wants to work - human dignity is found in work. TCBN is currently considering several projects across Metropolitan Toronto to support and put communities front and centre in CBAs. When TCBN member organizations tap into previously hidden local talent in a community, everyone wins. Improved infrastructure and local jobs mean communities benefit through shared prosperity.TCBN envisions Toronto as an inclusive, thriving city in which all residents have equitable opportunities to contribute to healthy communities and a prospering economy. Through formal and informal arrangements, TCBN is engaged in setting the conditions for economic growth and intensification of urban areas around a network of mobility hubs and other infrastructure projects. TCBN believes that all Torontonians should have access to the opportunities stemming from infrastructure investments. TCBN is a coalition of organizations and individuals working in direct partnership with other grassroots, community, labour and anti-poverty organizations to build a strong community benefits movement in Toronto.