By Dimitrije Martinovic
Dimitrije is a staff at FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE

With the revitalization of Regent Park in its last stages, Phase 4 & 5, Regent Park residents along with Toronto Community Housing (TCHC), Regent Park Neighbourhood Association’s Community Benefits Coalition (CBC), and Tridel  Builders Inc. the new Partner developer, will be beginning the process of deciding how the $26.8 million dollars allocated for community benefits will be spent. Community Benefits is a tool to help community members leverage investments from the development of capital projects for local priorities.
 
Community Benefits Learning Session #2 – Community Vision – was coordinated by Walied Khogali, he was joined by presenters Michael Rosenberg, Maggie Hall, Asal Afshar, Ibrahim Afra and Tereza Todorova.

Michael Rosenberg who is with the Regent Park Social Action Group made a presentation on the 2019 Community Priorities Report that detailed the key areas that were identified as being the most important to include in the development in Phase 4 and 5.

These included:
* Community Space
* Employment
* Affordable Housing and Affordable Home Ownership
* Sustainable Financial Infrastructure for Social Development
* Programs for youth, seniors, and people with disabilities
* Resident Engagement, through building design and planning, retail uses and community Benefits implementation.

Maggie Hall and Asal Afshar from Tridel Builders Inc. who are part of the Community Economic Development Team discussed the community engagement process which will take place over the next year in which Regent Park residents and Toronto Community Housing (TCHC), Regent Park Neighbourhood Association’s Community Benefits Coalition (CBC), and Tridel Builders Inc. will negotiate how the various elements of the Employment and Economic
Development Plan get implemented.

The matter of employment opportunities was brought into acute focus when Regent Park resident Miguel Avila-Velarde joined the meeting to question the effectiveness of employment programs by offering his own experience. As someone who has been living with a mental health disability he has been turned at three different times for employment. He wondered why that was, if there were so many employment opportunities being promoted? Gail Lynch, another resident underlined that there are systemic barriers regarding employment for immigrants and differently abled persons, and that community benefits should be the tool by which people can get the jobs that they need, and not that people get job because of community benefits.

The next presenter was Ibrahim Afra, who spoke about the structure of the Social Development Plan (SDP). In his description Ibrahim outlined that the SDP was made of the following bodies, the Stakeholders Table and the Planning Committee. Within the committees there is the Funding Table, Evaluation & Benchmark committee, and the Community Benefits Oversight Working Group (terms of reference still in development). Beyond that, there were the Four Working Groups, the Safety Network, the Employment and Economic Development, the Communication Table and the Community Building Table.  

And finally, Tereza Todorova, the Manager of Revitalization (TCH Regent Park), recapped the essential elements of what Community Benefits are and how residents can be involved in shaping how the $26.8 millions dollars in Community Benefits will be spent.

In the end, the goal of all those concerned was  “to make the Regent Part community better for everyone.”