Community hubs

A number of community hub initiatives had been initiated in the wake of the initial report of the Strong Neighbourhoods Taskforce (SNTF), a joint initiative of the City of Toronto and United Way of Greater Toronto, supported by the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario. [...] The SNTF identified under-served areas of Toronto as priority neighbourhoods and identified a number of place-based strategies to address local needs, including investment in local community services and a “neighbourhoods first approach to the disposal of surplus public facilities.” At the same time, other forms of hubs were also emerging within the arts, economic development, and education sector [...] The purpose of this report is threefold: 1 – Provide context for the recent spread of hubs in Toronto and define a hub 2 – Draw out key themes that emerge from the interviews and identify some of the issues around hub development 3 –Offer some suggestions to ICE stakeholders and outline next steps Page 4 Community Hubs: A Scan of Toronto 2011 Community Hubs: Variations on a Theme In some ways, no [...] Page 5 Community Hubs: A Scan of Toronto 2011 A Working Definition Although the term community hub can be applied broadly to various community spaces, three common elements emerged from this review, which help to frame a working definition: Functions of a community hub: Service: Key services to meet local Program activity responds to the needs of the needs. [...] Arguably, most of the thirty-plus Neighbourhood Centres and multi-service agencies in Toronto offer comparable features to community hubs and could also meet many of the definitional components of a community hub.