The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way each of our programs and services were able to connect, serve and provide for our community. Despite the challenges, each of our programs managed to pivot and have created sustainable and long-term digital solutions to reaching the community.

 Community resources

The Community Resource Centre (CRC) acts as a gateway into the Jane/Finch Centre. Their role is to connect residents from across the community with various programs and services both within the centre, and within the community. 

Throughout the pandemic, the CRC team maintained open communication with community members, providing digital administrative solutions to appointment booking, interpretation of government forms and check-ins. Although some of the administrative support provided to residents prior to the pandemic could only be executed in-person, the team did their best to preserve the quality of support they could provide to the community. 

The CRC Team worked closely with senior residents, particularly Spanish-speaking seniors in the area, to ensure they were supported throughout the pandemic. One of the many success stories involves Diego, a widowed senior who was isolated and wasn’t able to connect with his family in the United States and Ecuador. Our staff provided him with interpretational services for banking and arranging a cellphone plan. He was able to lower his banking fees and get a better cell phone rate plan enabling him to reach his family overseas. The staff continued to follow-up and check-in regularly with Diego assisting him to search for a home internet plan as well as conducting sessions with him to improve his digital literacy.

FEPS

The COVID-19 pandemic hit at the beginning of the 2020 tax season, creating huge barriers for both staff and residents in the community. The FEPS team lost all of their volunteers, which caused them to go from a team of 10 to a team of two. 

The FEPS team faced significant challenges with the lack of in-person client support, with gathering key tax documentation digitally and Canada Post delays. Aside from late tax filings, the threat of losing critical financial benefits was a real concern for many residents. Despite this, the FEPS team found innovative solutions to ensuring that no matter the circumstance, they could show up for their community. 

To ensure their senior and homebound clients wouldn’t be impacted, the FEPS team traveled to them, providing financial support in outdoors spaces, through car windows and through glass doors. Even with the challenges, the FEPS team was able to support over 2,500 clients during the tax clinic alone. Through their newly implemented digital service, they were able to reach more young adults than ever before, increasing their community impact. During the December holiday season, the FEPS team distributed over 350 financial literacy activity boxes to kids in the Jane-Finch community, and had the highest outreach statistics of any agency in their funding cluster.

EarlyON

In March 2020, the EarlyON Centre transformed from a strictly in-person service provider, to an entirely online program. The EarlyON team had to find creative solutions to ensure their program continued to function and serve families and children in the community.

The EarlyON team went above and beyond to ensure they reached their clients. While navigating technological challenges and hiccups, the team reached out to over 15,000 residents to ensure that the children and families that benefited from their programs were still able to do so. 

The EarlyON staff successfully created a presence for the EarlyON centre on social media, and pivoted to electronic communication. In addition to being online, the team had to change the program content altogether. Stores were closed, and accessibility to program material was not feasible for many families. Parents were faced with new stressors, and children were dealing with online school challenges and Zoom fatigue. The team had to shift their focus towards content development and finding creative ways to execute their programs online.

Despite the challenges, the EarlyON Centre managed to hit 80% of their service hours - one of the highest in the city. With the implementation of an online program, the EarlyON Centre has been able to reach more younger parents than ever before.

Although it was beyond their mandate, the EarlyON staff continued to support their community outside of their regular programming. In partnership with the North York Harvest Food bank, the team supported the Jane/Finch Centre’s  food bank service, which distributed over 1,500 food hampers to the community. The team also participated in regular clothing drives to support parents in the area. 

YOUTH

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the youth team was forced to change everything. From communication, outreach, marketing to program delivery, the team had to transform their in-person programs to engaging online spaces for youth. 

Like many other agencies, the youth program at the Jane/Finch Centre provided important and widely used in-person programming before the pandemic hit. Youth from across the Jane-Finch corridor saw The Spot Youth Centre as a safe and accessible space in the community to gather. 

Throughout 2020, the youth team received support to address the lack of access to technological devices. The team was able to provide several tablets and mobile devices to youth in the community as part of their violence prevention work to ensure youth could stay connected. In the summer of 2020, they organized a back to school event, delivering over 200 backpacks with school supplies to youth in the Jane-Finch community. 

The youth team discovered challenges in getting youth online, while keeping others engaged. As the pandemic dragged on, staff saw a decline in program participation and engagement, while also facing challenges in reaching youth in the community simply through online mediums. While some youth struggled to engage online, others faced barriers in accessing wifi or technology that would allow them to participate in programming. 

The youth team responded by developing creative ways to deliver programming to youth. The Falstaff Youth Social offered online peer mentorship groups, virtual cooking classes, virtual paint therapy and virtual tutoring. 

SETTLEMENT

The settlement team faced unique challenges in their community outreach efforts when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, as the program was forced to transition from providing in-person support to remote and online services. 

Without an in-person space for newcomers to seek support from the settlement team, the team refocused their outreach efforts towards developing a robust plan that could reach residents using various online channels, social media platforms and messaging apps. Shifting from in-person outreach to digital outreach was a challenge for the team, as most of their clients were connected to the program through word of mouth and community outreach. 

The team looked beyond their scope, and discovered outreach opportunities using various network lists, WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups and Kijiji. In January 2021, the team created an online space for newcomers to provide community residents with key program and service-related information and resources.

To reach newcomer youth within the community, the team focused on utilizing platforms like Snapchat and Instagram as strategic outreach initiatives. The Spot Youth Centre’s Instagram account, which was shared with the settlement team this year to reach youth in the community, has over 1,200 followers.

seniors

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pre-existing socio-economic challenges many residents in Jane-Finch faced, particularly with seniors. Food insecurity, lack of access to technological devices or internet connection and social isolation became even more challenging for many seniors in the community.

Despite the challenges, the Jane/Finch Centre was able to secure funding to provide senior residents with tablets and mobile devices to ensure they remained connected to programming and services. The implementation of recreational online group programs were created to tackle the social isolation that seniors were facing. 

To ensure senior residents could continue to access programming, a technical support staff joined the team to provide older adults with tech support in both group and individual settings. For the senior residents who didn’t feel safe accessing programs online, the seniors team made weekly check-in calls to continue to provide them with support. 

To address issues of food insecurity, the seniors team reallocated resources to purchase groceries for senior clients. To make the program more sustainable, the seniors team applied for funding and eventually began a weekly food hamper distribution program in partnership with the Afri-can FoodBasket, which distributed over 6,000 food hampers to residents across the community. 

In collaboration with other senior serving organizations in the community including Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women, San Romanoway Revitalization Association and Northwood Neighbourhood Services, the seniors team found creative ways to facilitate programs through Zoom and through Mercuri Conferencing: a conference call phone system made possible by the Seniors’ Centre Without Walls Program.

Throughout the year, the seniors team would continue to do in-person outreach in TCHC buildings on Stong Court, Arleta Avenue and Shoreham Drive, to reach and connect adults and older adults to services. In March 2021, the seniors team also began to assist in vaccine appointment booking for senior residents. 

Community Mental Health

The Community Mental Health (CMH) program was initially run as a social and recreational program for residents in the Jane-Finch community. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it highlighted the complex barriers and gaps that existed in finding mental health support within Jane-Finch. The pandemic created a heightened awareness surrounding the lack of mental health resources available to residents in the community. 

In the latter part of 2020, the CMH program began to act as a community liaison between residents and mental health services. Using a holistic approach, the team found solutions to existing gaps and barriers identified by clients by directing them to specialized service agencies to support their particular needs. 

One of the most successful programs of the 2020-21 year was the ‘Talk it Out’ clinic. In February 2021, the Jane/Finch Centre partnered with the University of Toronto’s ‘Talk it Out’ clinic to connect youth in the Jane-Finch community with counselling services staffed by supervised graduate social work students. 

Similar to other programs and services at the Jane/Finch Centre, the CMH program series ‘GIT’ (Getting In Touch) transitioned to an online service. Prior to the pandemic, the CMH team mainly supported older adults in the community. The transition online allowed the program to reach and provide support to a new demographic of Jane-Finch residents: youth.  

To address the particular challenges faced by frontline workers from Jane-Finch including COVID-19, burnout, stress, food insecurity and negative social determinants of health, a Healthy Resource Workplace Coordinator joined the CMH team to provide mental wellbeing resources and support to Jane/Finch Centre staff and frontline workers in the area. 

Green Change

Similar to community development,  community engagement and advocacy work is embedded in Green Change projects, with a particular focus on how to build community land ownership. 

This year, the team continued to prepare for and influence the gentrification of Jane-Finch, in addition to the design and construction of Corner Commons - a free and accessible public space for the community located on the Northwest corner of the Jane Finch Mall’s parking lot. 

The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need to ensure that the community has spaces to safely and equitably enjoy the outdoors. The team focused on building connections between residents and their local parks, while advocating for more accessible and inclusive public spaces in Jane-Finch. In collaboration with the Black Creek Community Farm, they started the ‘With Love From Trees’ project, focused on trees in the Jane-Finch area, their impact on climate change and the role they play in our lives and in our community. Through the #WithLoveFromTrees social media posts, 10,691 people were reached in this project. 

When the 2020 installation of Corner Commons was postponed due to COVID, the team quickly pivoted to prepare for a summer 2021 opening. They worked with architecture and design firm Perkins&Will and a community working group to adapt and create a design for Corner Commons that responded to COVID and its impacts on the community. 

Although there were challenges, the impacts of COVID led to the emergence of several new projects including the ‘Sunday Sessions’ virtual performance series with the Black Creek Community Farm and Art Gallery of York University, A Tale of Two Parks with the Department of Imaginary Affairs (DIA) and a new community-based research project focused on park perceptions and experiences among racialized residents. 

One of the biggest successes of this year was the Jane-Finch community winning back the land transfer from Metrolinx for the Jane-Finch Community Hub and Centre for the Arts in March 2021. To establish an equitable community design-making process for the development of the community hub, the Hub Organizing Committee was created to steward the transfer of land. Last year, the Hub Organizing Committee held a community press conference and two town halls to speak with residents about how this process will work and what it will mean for the community. 

The increased media attention expanded support from outside the Jane-Finch community, and heightened pressure on Metrolinx to make good on their previous land transfer promise. With an increase in public support, the Hub Organizing Committee’s Twitter announcement of the land transfer generated over 120,000 impressions. 

Community Development

This year, the community development team faced greater challenges in their work advocating with the community for social justice, as COVID-19 amplified pre-existing systemic issues and created greater need for grassroots emergency responses and service provision. 

Systemic issues impacting Jane-Finch residents including worker rights, evictions, food insecurity, education, transportation and policing, were compounded by the pandemic. In addition, many community leaders and groups saw a tremendous amount of burnout from trying to maintain the momentum of large campaigns, while responding to the impacts of COVID-19. As action groups moved to a virtual setting, many residents - particularly seniors - faced barriers in maintaining their involvement. 

Through these challenges, the community development team worked with local community leaders and grassroots, resident-led groups in Jane-Finch, including Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, Jane Finch Education Action Group, Jane Finch Housing Coalition and Jane Finch Economic Opportunities Action Group to broaden their reach through a digital presence. Online campaigns were able to reach larger media outlets, which helped both amplify resident voices and encourage an awakening of issues on the ground as well as city-wide mobilizing. As a result of increased awareness, some groups were able to increase their capacity, and this year more than ever before, the long standing efforts and leadership of residents in the community have been recognized broadly. 

In addition, the Black Creek Fair Economies project gained more traction during the pandemic, as its purpose became more evident with the construction of the Finch LRT ramping up and new growth and development intensifying in the neighbourhood.