By Adonis Huggins
(Adonis is a staff journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre)
 
On March 23, 2022, the Regent Park Community came together to celebrate the Regent Park Social Development Plan and hear about its activities. The event was held in the Daniels Spectrum Arts Centre located at 585 Dundas Street East.

The second part of the event called Celebrating the Regent Park SDP began at 5 pm and was held in the Ada Sleight Hall of the Daniels Spectrum.

After the community was served with a delicious meal, the Celebrating the Regent Park SDP event began with introductions of the three co-chairs (Greg Gary -the co-chair representing the Executive Directors Network, Ismail Afrah the TCHC resident co-chair and Marlene Degenova the Market resident co-chair).  After the initial greetings a short video of an animated  land acknowledgement was shown on the big screen above the stage.  After the land acknowledgement, Greg Gary invited City Councillor Kristen Wong Tam to give opening remarks.
 
“I know that the social development plan is a contract between the community, TCHC, their developer partner and the City of Toronto.  It’s a document that guides us and our work on your behalf and with you and so that contract is one that we build upon, one that we shape to make sure that it does what it’s supposed to do and keeps us accountable to each other.  That work is not easy and it’s done with community and with the leadership of the SDP and the stakeholders table. Our journey together is not complete...Regent has always been this visionary dream that we all aspire to. It's just not 69 acres comprising city blocks of Toronto…you are leading the way when it comes to TCHC revitalization and how we build inclusive beautiful neighbourhoods where everybody feels they belong.” said Kristen Wong.
 
In her remarks, Kristen Wong-Tam evoked the memory of Councillor Pam McConnel. “I know that Pam would have been so proud to see this community that she loved so dearly.” said Councillor Wong-Tam.  
 
Kristen Wong Tam concluded her remarks with a thank you to the leadership of the SDP and a presentation of certificates honouring SDP and its partnership community organizations. The organizations that were honoured and presented with certificates were Regent Park Neighbourhood Association, Focus Media Arts Centre, Artscape, Neighbourhood Information Post, Young Street Mission, the Regent Park Health Centre, Fred Victor and the Centre for Social Innovation. 

Following Councillor Kristen Wong Tam opening remarks, the community viewed a video message from MPP Suze Morrison and heard a variety of presentations related to the Regent Park Redevelopment and the Social Development Plan.  

Ismail Afrah, the TCHC resident co-chair of the SDP started the evening presentations by providing information on the structure of the SDP.  Ismail then invited Tereza Todorova from TCHC, to do a joint presentation about the Community Benefits Oversight Working Group and the newly developed terms of reference.

The next presentation the community heard from was from Fatima Saya from Daniels, the development partners for phase 1 -3 of the Regent Park redevelopment. Fatima began her presentation with updates related to the construction of two new buildings on the corner of Dundas and River.

Following Fatima’s presentation, Bryan Sherwood reported on Tridel’s plan for Phrase 3 and 4 of the Regent Park Redevelopment. 

After hearing the updates from TCHC, Daniels and Tridel, the community now had an opportunity to hear short presentations on the activities of each of the four working groups.
 
Joel Klassen and Walied Khogali reported on the activities of the community building table.

Gail Lynch and Ismail Afrah, who reported on the activities of the Employment and Economic Development.

Ines Garcia, a member of the Safety Committee, talked about the delivery of Speaking With Confidence Training Workshops and the Mental Health First Aid Training to residents.   

Ibrahim Afra and Adonis Huggins of the communication committee reported on the activities of the communication table including Regent Park TV, the Regent Park Community Newsletter and the newly launched Hello Neighbour App.
 
Diana Mavunduse concluded the business of the SDP with a video presentation talking about the role of the SDP Planning Committee and its successes which included capacity building workshops, administrating the operating budget, hiring an assistant, developing a process for allocating the City funding.  Diana also reported on all the projects that received funding.

Following the SDP presentations, the community was treated to a variety of entertainers including a juggling act by Square Circle, Snooky Tynes Funk Band, spoken word performances by Spoken by T and Southside Satana, and Chinese dances from the Happy Dancers.  All and all, Celebrating the SDP was a successful evening of food, information and entertainment.