MicroSkills is taking action to provide residents in Rexdale with the resources they need to strengthen their neighbourhood.As they put the finishing touches on their office at 2667 Kipling Ave., MicroSkills hopes to open the Action for Neighbourhood Change (ANC) in Rexdale early this month. Part of the United Way's Building Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy, the ANC seeks to provide residents with the resources and help they need to address concerns they identify in their neighbourhood.
Since 1995, the United Way has teamed up with non-profit community organizations to implement the ANC in the 13 priority neighbourhoods it has identified across Toronto. MicroSkills works in north Etobicoke providing people with job-skills training.
Through the ANC, they will provide residents with office space to meet and work, and staff will help residents organize, focus their efforts and secure the resources they need to effect changes in their community.
The Executive Director of MicroSkills, Kay Blair, said with the ANC ready to open its doors "any day now," their first priority is to get the word out and start bringing concerned residents together. Staff who are familiar with the community will reach out to residents and see what changes people want to see made.
"Residents' forums build an inventory of concerns and needs," she said. "And then, we begin to find ways to further the projects that people want to see."
MicroSkills Director of Community Programs and Services, Hazel Webb, said the program tries to engage people who would otherwise "not be involved in their community and civic activity."
Webb said even the process of setting the office up has attracted residents and interest is beginning to develop.
"(Residents) are excited," she said. "These are people who are used to being left out."
The ANC's goal is to organize residents in a way so that their efforts are self sustaining. Webb said the Rexdale ANC has two years of guaranteed funding through the United Way and they are committed to ensuring the program will last even longer.
At ANC offices in other neighbourhoods the need for staff involvement declined as the residents become more organized and learn to keep the program running.
As an engagement worker at the Eglinton East/Kennedy Park ANC in Scarborough, Andrea Gilpin has learned how a small change can make a big difference. In her two years with ANC, she has seen how a new computer at a seniors' home has fostered a sense of community - the residents now teach seniors from other centres how to use the internet and help them stay in touch with family and friends. On another occasion, a little money was raised to help start a sewing club - newcomers to Canada now meet, teach each other to sew and sell what they make to raise money for other projects.
"In any community where people get little glimmers of hope, they move forward and work harder," Gilpin said.
Blair noted that, whether they be big or small, it is impossible to know what projects the ANC in Rexdale will foster; the point is to have residents set the agenda themselves. Most of all she hopes that the youth in Rexdale will make use of the ANC to find ways to get involved and deal with violent and "anti-social" behaviour in the neighborhood.
"By making changes they want to see they can feel a sense of belonging and ownership of their environment," she said.
For more information on the ANC in Rexdale call MicroSkills at 416-247-7181.