Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

To support our diverse community to achieve its goals, and to enhance the strength and resilience of our neighbourhoods.

History of Organization

In 1990, North York Community House (NYCH) came into existence as a result of a sizable donation from an anonymous benefactor. Over the course of twenty years, this single act of generosity grew into an organization dedicated to assisting newcomers to Toronto in settling and integrating into their community, and to building strong neighbourhoods. When NYCH’s doors first opened, it operated out of a tiny Bathurst Street storefront with a staff of two. As the community changed, NYCH kept pace. In the intervening years, NYCH has grown, moving into several locations and expanding its services. Today, a staff of over 100 conducts services in over 65 locations in northwestern Toronto to over 25,000 individuals.

Accolades and Accomplishments

NYCH has been providing a wide variety of programs, services and community development facilitation for 20 years. It currently offers programs and services in over 60 locations and in over 25 languages in western North York and Rexdale. NYCH has developed a variety of successful and innovative programs which support and build newcomers’ capacities and assets. NYCH’s newcomer programs have been recognized by the Toronto Community Foundation through a Vital Idea grant in 2005 and the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Award. NYCH’s responsiveness to the community, leadership, high quality and innovative programs and strong management have been recognized by funders, community members and partner organizations. NYCH has also developed considerable expertise and a strong reputation in facilitating community development initiatives as community members in several neighbourhoods have been supported in addressing community issues.

Programs

>Newcomer Connection Program
>Get Moving! program
>Sharing Stories, Changing Lives: Newcomers Experiences through Digital Storytelling

NYCH is committed to working with people by: supporting newcomers in settling and integrating into the community; offering programs for women that build skills and connections; providing information and referral services; strengthening neighbourhoods by working with residents; and supporting the positive development of children, youth and families. To meet these outcomes NYCH provides a range of services and supports across northwest Toronto. Our newcomer programs include English as a Second language classes, one to one and group settlement services in schools, libraries and other community locations and programs that connect newcomers with volunteers for friendship, support and English conversation practice. Our women’s program provides opportunities to learn and connect through women’s support groups, community kitchen and healthy living groups and leadership development and training programs. NYCH delivers a range of educational, recreational, healthy living, creative arts and leadership programs to support the positive development of children and youth and parenting supports to strengthen families.

Newcomer Connection Program

Launched in March 2001, the Newcomer Connection Peer Leader model trains immigrant women volunteers who have settled in the community to personally reach out to isolated newcomer women and families. The Newcomer Connection-Peer Leader Program connects isolated newcomer women to community support, builds the skills and capacity and employability of newcomers, and strengthens neighbourhoods. The Peer Leader model has proven year after year, to be not only the right model to promote a sense of belonging and encourage civic and community engagement, but also to enhance newcomer women’s employability skills to become self-sufficient. Trained peer leaders conduct door-to-door outreach activities in pre-selected geographical areas, connecting with women and their families and identifying those at risk of or experiencing isolation and connect them to appropriate resources and services in the community. Twice a year, a group of 20 women who speak a variety of languages participate in an eighty-hour training program and conduct outreach.

Program Impact

Data shows that in a period of three years, a total of 70 community peer leaders reached out to 4,800 immigrant women and connected them to community resources and services. Of those women who were connected through the Newcomer Connection program, 89% reported an increased ability to cope with their life in a new country, 91% reported a decreased level of isolation, and 88% reported an increased knowledge of community resources and support services. The evaluation results also showed a huge impact on the peer leaders. One hundred percent of peer leaders reported increased self confidence as a result of their participation in the training program and 96% reported that they have found employment as a result of participating in the program.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Toronto continues to offer newcomers a poor quality of life Immigrants in 24 of Canada’s largest municipalities and metropolitan centres continue to face daunting challenges in obtaining employment, affordable housing and rich quality of life.

• Recent immigrants are three times more likely to have lost jobs due to the economic downturn than their Canadian-born colleagues.
• The earnings gap between recent immigrants and Canadian-born workers has widened significantly over 25 years.
• In 1980 recent immigrant women earned 85 cents for each dollar received by Canadian born women. By 2005, the ratio was 56 cents even though the educational levels of recent immigrant earners had grown faster than those of their Canadian-born peers during the period.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

“Now I can help others and transfer the knowledge and skills I have learned at North York Community House’s Peer Leader Program”. Logini’s journey started as a participant in the Newcomer Connection Leadership Training Program at NYCH over a year ago. After completing her practicum period, she became an active volunteer supporting the settlement services and the leadership training program at NYCH. This experience enabled her to enhance her knowledge and confidence working with newcomers one-on-one and in small groups. A few months later, she obtained a part-time position in NYCH’s women’s program working as a group facilitator for senior’s self reliance groups. Recently, she reported that she has been hired full time as a Tamil settlement worker by a settlement services agency in Scarborough. “I am so grateful to you all for the support and opportunities provided which helped me to grow as a person and as active member of the community I live in”.

Get Moving! program

The Get Moving! program promotes increased health for newcomer families. Through a variety of innovative weekly activities, the program assists participants to increase their levels of physical activity to a minimum of 30 minutes per day, to increase their regular consumption of fruits and vegetables and to become familiar with healthy living and recreational resources available in their new city. The program is adapted for different abilities, ages and language levels to create a positive learning environment fostering maximum participation The physical activity component incorporates varied activities including movement and dance- from Tahitian dance, to salsa, hip hop and contemporary- that reflect the variety of cultures of our participants. The health education component uses hands-on activities to transmit information about the benefits of activity and the risks of inactivity; nutrition and healthy eating including meal planning, how to read a food label and understanding Canada's Food Guide; where food comes from and the benefits of eating locally; environmental education and community awareness; and about self-esteem and body image including interpreting media messages. The program also enhances community capacity and leadership through providing training and mentorship opportunities for adults and youth.

Program Impact

Since 2006 the Get Moving! program has grown from a small weekly women’s group to assisting over 400 newcomer children, youth, women, seniors and families per year to improve their health and nutrition through including more fruits and vegetables in their diets, increasing and integrating a variety of physical activities, decreasing isolation and increasing connections and accessibility to health resources in Toronto.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Immigrants generally arrive in Canada in good health, yet after being here for over 10 years, in 2005, 45% of them were overweight or obese.

• 1,316,000 people (58%) report that they are inactive during leisure time
• 44% (18 years and over) self-report that they are overweight or obese
• Residents in the City’s poorest areas were proportionately less healthy than their wealthier neighbours.”

 “In a comprehensive 2007 Toronto neighbourhood study, researchers demonstrated a clear link between high rates of type 2 diabetes and lower household incomes, and poorer access to healthy resources.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

The Get Moving! program at North York Community House provides programs for newcomer women in mixed-multicultural groups facilitated in English as well as language-specific groups facilitated in the first language of the women attending. This is Anya’s* (*name changed) story. Anya is a 38 year old woman who participated in our 20 week Get Moving! for Russian-speaking women. Her story has been translated into English from Russian. “I enjoyed the “Get Moving Program”. I have been living in Canada for 2 years and participating in this program I found an environment that resurrected my energy and supported my interest in life. I had to live in six countries within three years and everywhere I went I was under the influence of very strong pressures with negative consequences and only in Canada among participants of this program have I felt very happy. I feel that I am a part of a family, I feel accepted and less lonely. I also get a lot of healthy and necessary information which is important for any person to learn. I also have become more aware of my body with yoga every week.”

Sharing Stories, Changing Lives: Newcomers Experiences through Digital Storytelling

NYCH’s digital story project trains newcomer youth and adults to create and produce a three to five minute digital story in which they share their own life story through voice, images, and music. In the 5 day workshop participants learn to craft and record first-person narratives, collect still images, video, and music to illustrate their pieces, and are taught the computer and technical aspects to edit their own stories. The digital story program also builds leadership a tool for engagement of newcomers. Once a participant has participated in a program and has gained the digital story telling skills he/she can help train the next set of participants. NYCH’s digital story program also promotes increased awareness of newcomer issues through developing and delivering on newcomer issues using digital stories. Organizations and schools who viewed digital stories and/or participated in a workshop using digital stories gained knowledge and understanding of newcomer experiences, awareness of barriers and how to better meet the needs of immigrants and refugees.

Program Impact

In the last two years, 67 newcomer adults and youth created their own digital stories, which were used in educational workshops for over 500 community members, supporting positive changes in the newcomers sense of well being and social inclusion and supporting positive changes in institutions/organizations understanding of and service to newcomers. The impact on youth has been particularly strong as many newcomer youth who participated in the digital story making process developed leadership skills and became more involved in their schools by joining clubs and taking part in extra curricular activities.

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

“Toronto continues to offer newcomers a poor quality of life. Immigrants in 24 of Canada’s largest municipalities and metropolitan centres continue to face daunting challenges in obtaining employment, affordable housing and rich quality of life.” “Earnings gap between immigrants and Canadian-born workers is linked to language and skills proficiency” “Visible minorities are under-represented in most leadership positions in the Greater Toronto area. A number of high-performing organizations in the GTA have made diversity a strategic priority, but in all sectors, visible minorities represent on average, just13% of the region’s leadership.” (Toronto’s Vital Signs®, 2009)

Participant Vignette

As a newcomer, Salma participated in the women’s program at an agency close to her home. She created her first digital story with immigrant women from many different cultures. She told a story about a time in her life that she had never before talked about. She said, “The storytelling process made me feel comfortable enough to finally tell my story.” Soon after, she joined a digital storytelling leadership training, where she was able to support other newcomers like herself to tell their personal and unique stories. In particular, she supported other Bengali women, who had just come to Toronto, to tell their stories in their own language. She taught women who had never used computers before, and translated the technical language into Bengali. Through the support of media leaders, women told their stories in Bengali, Tamil, Spanish, Mandarin and English. She has facilitated workshops for newcomer women, deaf women and girls, lesbian and gay seniors, and newcomer youth. Salma gained many skills: working with diverse communities, understanding newcomer needs, technology and media skills, public speaking, group facilitation, workshop design and most importantly, listening. These skills led her to a full time job as a settlement worker at North York Community House. She has been able to take digital storytelling to her co-workers, school and support staff, and most importantly, to her newcomer youth. “Everyone has a story that needs to be told, we’re just here to help you tell it.”