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The Corner@240 - A Magical Spot in St. James Town
By Adonis Huggins
(Adonis is a journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre)
St James Town Community Corner is a network hub of various community services that serve the neighbourhood. The St. James Town Community Corner is located at 200 Wellesley Street East.
The Corner@240 is a project of the St. James Town Community Corner, that is located at 240 Wellesley Street East.
The project started as a small repair cafe for the residents to be able to help each other fix bicycles and other electronics devices. It also includes a tool lending library.
Today The Corner@240 has expanded to embrace even more projects addressing issues such as food security through such activities as green areas, planting, green balconies, and even food sustainability through teaching the residents how to use the seeds library and how to spread the culture of planting.
Alaa Muhamed, a client engagement staff worker at 240, talked about her journey with the project. Alaa started as a volunteer.
According to Alaa, “Volunteering at The Corner@240 allows you to wear many hats that enables you to give something to the community while challenging yourself to learn new skills. That process could change your life and give you opportunities to open new doors in the future.”
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Renato, a Community Fixer and long-time St. James Town resident, is an engineer with a long experience and love for electronics and fixing. He started his life working with his passion in repair. Renato believes that a fixer is a “ magician”. You can convert junk into a tool or device and instead of settling in the trash, it could actually lighten someone’s life or warms the fierce cold for a child.
The 240 started with a small space but is expanding with the renovation of 200 Wellesley and will soon be adding in more activities.
The space is very well organized and multifunctional friendly. Every section is labelled and easy to be seen and accessed. 240 provides opportunities for newcomers to learn sewing, electronics fixing, bike repair so it could help them find survival jobs in the hard times.
If you want to learn how to fix your devices or volunteer or just have an old unused device that you would like to donate, go to the 240 Wellesley Street East in St. James town.
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FOCUS Media Arts Centre (FOCUS) is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1990 to counter negative media stereotypes of low income communities and provide relevant information to residents living in the Regent Park area and surrounding communities.
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