The date: Saturday June 27, 2009
The place: Room 208, Seneca Yorkgate, 1 Yorkgate Blvd. (Second floor of the Yorkgate Mall)
The purpose: The idea behind this forum was to focus more on developing plans that could be put into action. To that end, we sought a more intimate setting and a smaller audience to facilitate discussion.
Main goals chosen:
1) Snow removal: (the goal is to start planning soon and have action in the fall)… developing a plan before the snow is important so we have a plan in place instead of being reactive
- This is a TCHC issue, but it also is about sidewalks in general
- Roads are generally plowed, but sidewalks are difficult to get around in the wintertime
2) Meeting spaces in the community: Need to create more places for people congregate/hang out… this is necessary to allow people to connect and engage
3) Voter engagement and political accountability: both getting the promises that politicians made out there so people know about them and engaging people in the voting process.
- Discussion of meetings about zoning changes
- Is there a way to get people to attend these meetings or at least make people aware that they are going on?
- Social housing instead of private developments
- Capacity building opportunities for paid work
- What progress is being made with a proposed trade school?
- What about the Online Resource Information database? Is it online yet? Is it accessible? Is it in hardcopy?
Follow-
- Trade schools for youths… some people are taking this on already, so lets follow up with them and see where they are instead of taking this on ourselves
- Rent increases and landlord issues: support Acorn and use CLASP resources for this.
- Children’s programming: follow-
up with organizations that are already addressing this
Where do we go from here? Actions that can be taken…
#1: Snow Removal in the community
- This will be started in the fall, so we have an action plan ready for winter
- We need to address all of the wards and City Councillors in Jane-
Finch - TCHC and also the public walks
#2: Spaces to congregate
- This is a big issue: how do we want to tackle it?
- Lets talk about some small goals that we can work towards within this idea.
- A group of current and new JFOTM members are interested in taking action on this
- They commit to talking before the general meeting on the 24th.
- Items to include: benches, coffee shops, Tim Hortons, infrastructure, green space
#3: Voter engagement and political organization/accountability
- Could we organize people to get together once per month about this?
- A specific meeting time to talk about voter engagement is needed.
The presenters:
In keeping with the “intimate” nature of this forum, JFOTM members (Alicia, Angelo, Lydia, and Mohammed) did the presentations, which included a history of JFOTM, a political primer, and even a skit!
The bulk of the afternoon was given over to a discussion which was facilitated by Alicia and two members of CLASP (Jenny and George). A wide range of topics were mentioned by audience members. A selection process was facilitated to narrow down and choose specific issues to address first:
