By Adonis Huggins and Gabriel Meissner
Adnois and Gabriel are Community Journalists with Focus Media Arts Centre

On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the Employment and Economic Development (EED) Working Group of the Regent Park Social Development Plan (SDP) held its spring quarterly meeting on the third floor of Daniel’s Spectrum. The meeting was facilitated by Fatima Saya, the Manager of Social Impacts with the Daniel’s Corporation. Fatima is also the agency co-chair of the EED Working Group. The goal of the EED Working Group is to increase employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the neighbourhood. The purpose of today’s meeting was to elect new resident co-chairs and to share information about the working group and its ongoing projects.

Gail Lynch, a former market resident co-chair, began the meeting by introducing the EED seven-step entrepreneurial strategies. The first step in the strategy was a learning series which was delivered to two cohorts of learners. The learning series was then developed as a module that can be accessed through an online database and used by other entrepreneurs. In addition to the module, the participants who completed the learning series are now available to mentor others who are interested in starting their business ventures. Another initiative is the Regent Park Café project in which Gail mentioned that sales so far have obtained $3000 to $5000 monthly. The next part of the strategy is to provide entrepreneurs with a business kit that includes health and training certification, point-of-sale training, aprons and a book featuring information about the vendors
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The next presenter was Ismail Afrah.  Ismail is a former TCHC resident and co-chair of the EED Working Group. Ismail began his presentation by providing a background about the Regent Park SDP, its structure and its desired outcomes. According to Ismail the aim of the SDP is to get residents aware of opportunities leading to their participation, involvement in organizing and finally to taking on leadership roles related to designing or co-leading activities and projects. Concerning the EED entrepreneur strategy, the outcome is for resident entrepreneurs to be able to survive and be successful in a commercial environment.

Next, Ismail talked about the Workforce Integrator Project. The Workforce Integrator Project was a six-month project that brought together residents who were looking for employment, with stakeholders who had information and resources about available jobs. The outcome of the EED’s six-month pilot was that 79 people were provided with jobs. As a result of this success, Ismail announced that Metcalf has agreed to fund the second year of the project for $90,000!!! Ismail hopes that this project will be a successful model that can be replicated in other neighbourhoods and be leveraged for future funding.  In response to questions about advertising and employment opportunities, Fatima Saya brought up the CRAFT pre-apprenticeship construction training program led by Daniels. The project has provided 80 TCHC residents with paid training and support to enter the construction industry.

Next, Fatima led the election process for the EED co-chairs. Colin Pendbury, the only market resident nominee was acclaimed as the new EED Market Resident Co-chair. Two residents, Elena Taghizadeh and Hashim Nouren, were interested in the TCHC Resident Co-chair position.  After a voting process, in which attendees voted through mobile devices using a QR code, and a discussion with Walied Khogali, one of the SDP Resident Co-chair, it was announced by Fatima, that both Elena Taghizadeh and Hashim Nouren would serve with Colin as resident co-chairs.  Congratulations to Colin, Elen and Hashim!