RPTV WEEKLY NEWS – (EP 48) SDP Communication Group Elects New Co-Chairs and Launch A New Newsletter

Welcome to RPTV Weekly News Show Episode 48 (March 14th to March 21st). In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters Fred Alvarado, Kedar Ahmed, Dylan Woolacoot, Jabin Haque, and Victoria Nanetti, we present news that impacts on Toronto's Regent Park and the surrounding areas.
 
Episode 48 features segments on:

• February 23, 2023 SDP Planning Committee Presents A Draft Conflict Resolution Policy (01:52 min);
• SDP Communication Working Group Elects New Co-Chairs and Plans to Launch A New Newsletter serving Regent Park (07:56 min);
• Community Groups Celebrate Developers' Withdrawal of Appeal Against City of Toronto Affordable Housing Bylaw (12:32 min);
• TNG celebrates International Women’s Day with panel discussion (18:00 min);
• The Regent Park World Urban Pavilion welcomes community Innovative Alliances to celebrate International Women’s Day (22:46 min);
• The Corner 240 Re-store provides affordable gently used clothes to St James Town community (29:38 min);
• Man taken to hospital after stabbing in Queen and Sherbourne Streets, 1 in custody (33:08 min);
• TCHC’s Community Safety Unit in partnership with Toronto Police ‘Project Hope’ raises $112,000 in aid to support victims of devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria (34:00 min);
• Covid-19 & Vaccination Update: City of Toronto marks 3rd third anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic with commemorative gathering and public art installation, The Burn (34:52 min);
• Events and Jobs in Regent Park (39:22 min).

This week’s lead story:

SDP Communication Working Group Elects New Co-Chairs and Plans to Launch A New Newsletter.

By Adonis Huggins

The SDP Communications Working Group is one of the four working groups of the Regent Park Social Development Plan, a community wide initiative aimed at fostering unity among all the different resident groups and stakeholders in the community. The role of the Communications Working Group is to promote the work of the SDP in the community to make information accessible to Regent Park community members. 

On Monday February 27, 2023, the Communications Working Group held their first meeting of the year. The meeting, held over Zoom, was facilitated by Adonis Huggins, the agency representative of the FOCUS Media Arts Centre.  The main item on the agenda was the elections of co-chairs.

Each working group is co-chaired by an agency representative, a market resident representative and a TCHC resident representative.  The current agency co-chair for the Communications Working Group was Denise Soueidan-O’Leary representing Centre for Social Innovation (CSI).  The current TCHC resident co-chair was Ibrahim Afra and the current market co-chair for the Communications Working Group was Marlene DeGenova.  Adonis began the meeting by informing the meeting that the terms of all the co-chairs have come to an end. After thanking each of the Chairs for their work on the Communications Working Group, including Marleen who was not present, Denise and Ibrahim were given an opportunity to say a few words. 

After the thanks, Denise facilitated the nominations and elections of the new Chairs. Adonis Huggins, of the Focus Media Arts Centre was unanimously elected Agency Co-chair replacing Denise. Murshida Mueen was unanimously elected TCHC Co-chair replacing Ibrahim. Unfortunately, none of the market residents present at the meeting felt they had the time to take on the role of Market Co-chair, which meant that Marlene will currently remain in the role.  The group welcomed the new Chairs.

After the elections, the group heard brief reports from each of the project areas of the Communications Working Group. Denise reported on the Regent Park Monthly e-newsletter by announcing that the FOCUS team will be taking over the newsletter project from CSI and inviting Adonis to share more. The new e-newsletter will be renamed Catch da Flava in homage to the newsletter produced by FOCUS that once served the Regent Park community from 1993 to 2011.  Adonis also let the group know that the newsletter will be restructured and more journalistic in nature reflecting the reporting activities of Regent Park TV.  Finally, Adonis let the group know that FOCUS has plans to launch a print version of the newsletter which was always part of the working group’s initial plan. Upon the release of the first issue (scheduled for mid-March), the communication working group will play more of a role in providing feedback and input. One of the challenges, Adonis reminded the group, will be sustaining the printing costs of a monthly newsletter. Adonis will provide more information on the printing costs for the next meeting and ended the item by thanking Denise Soueidan-O’Leary, Maya Kurup and Marguerite Jack for the past management of the newsletter.

Adonis also reported on the status of Regent Park TV by announcing that FOCUS has secured a 2022 SDP grant to continue its work employing two residents to work with volunteers and report on the various initiatives of the SDP and to support hybrid community meetings. 
  
Murshida Mueen, the coordinator of the SDP Promotions, let the group know that the year-long SDP Promotions Project will come to an end at the end of February, and that Semhar's and Lizette’s positions as outreach workers will be ending. Over the past year the SDP Promotions Project has been promoting the Hello Neighbour App and Regent Park TV and all the other initiatives of the SDP.  Currently Murshida is working on a final report of the group’s activities.  

Ibrahim Afrah reported on the status of the Hello Neighbourhood App. Ibrahim let the group know that there is a separate task group that meets monthly to manage the app consisting of representatives from YSM, the communications working group (Adonis), regent Park Social and RPNI.  Currently the task group is looking for funding to sustain the activities of the coordinator (Ibrahim). At present the app has over 600 subscribers.
 
The next meeting of the SDP Communications Working Group is scheduled for Monday March 27 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm.