Janis
Lynch
Project Manager,
Urban Leadership
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us
Jane
Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 For the individual
who has made an extraordinary contribution to the public
realm over many years and in more than one field, thereby
gaining reputation and acclaim for their vision, passion
and impact.
Phyllis Lambert
Phyllis Lambert By Christopher Hume
Architect, activist, philanthropist, pioneering urbanist, and institution-builder– if Phyllis Lambert hasn’t saved Canada and the world yet, it’s certainly not for lack of trying.
Born into the prominent Bronfman family in Montreal, Lambert played a seminal role in the triumph of modernist architecture in North America in the 1950s. As the champion of influential German-American designer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, she ensured he got the opportunity to build the oasis of towers and plaza that would change the face of corporate architecture and cities around the globe. Looking back a half-century later, some might question the value of modernist contribution; but there’s no doubt that the world it ushered in is the one we inhabit to this day and that to a large extent, has made us who we are.
More significant, perhaps, is Lambert’s commitment to the city. She has demonstrated that commitment innumerable times in Montreal, which like so many cities during the 1960s and 1970s, decided that no building was so important it couldn’t be torn down to make way for a highway, an overpass, an underpass, whatever. As much as anyone, Lambert shamed her hometown into doing the right thing–not every time, it’s true, but often enough to make a difference.
In 1979, Lambert founded the Canadian Centre for Architecture. This unique institution – part museum, part research facility – stands as her crowning achievement. Since the CCA moved into the building she built for it in 1989, it has attracted world-wide attention and helped keep architecture and cities on the agenda in Canada and internationally.
But as far as Lambert is concerned, there’s no doubt when her adventure started. “My life began with my passionate involvement with… the creation of a building of great architectural quality in New York,” that is, the Seagram Building. In the early 1950s, her father, Sam Bronfman, decided he needed a Manhattan base, so some kind of edifice would have to be designed and constructed. Lambert wrote to her father to remind him that a building was more than just a physical structure, that “the philosophy a building expresses seeps into a society and helps mould it.” As a result, she was appointed Director of Planning and brought Mies van der Rohe into the project to realize the tower and plaza that in 1958 would alter the course of architectural history.
With that under her belt, Lambert enrolled at Yale to study architecture. She soon switched to the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she graduated in 1963 with a Masters of Science in Architecture. Before long, her idealism surfaced and within a couple of years, she was involved in schemes across the United States to save buildings and neighbourhoods and create new housing. By the time she returned to Montreal in the 1970s, she had gained enough experience to feel confident that she could play a part in that city’s revitalization – or perhaps, coming of age.
“In 1971,” Lambert recalls, “wishing to pass from the theoretical to the actual in order to understand the structures and growth of the city, I began a citywide photographic mission to document the greystone buildings of Montreal. In doing so, I became aware of the impending threat contemporary development and infrastructure posed for the city’s historic 19th-century building fabric. This prompted me to join the citizens’ group, Save Montreal, which was in formation at the time. [That] led to my creation in 1975 of Heritage Montreal, an organization that raises funds to support immediate actions to stop demolition, and long-term, to undertake public education on areas and sites threatened with demolition or inappropriate new construction.”
Looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century, the need to preserve urban heritage seems obvious. Even so, our record of conservation and rehabilitation remains shockingly bad; though perhaps better than it was back then. Thanks largely to Lambert’s efforts, however, Montreal was able to retain whole swaths of its historical architecture and neighbourhoods.
When Lambert founded the CCA in 1979, it was an institution without a home. It remained that way until 1989, when Lambert commissioned Montreal architect Peter Rose to design a building on land that was in part given to the CGA by the City of Montreal. The centre is connected to the 1874 Shaughnessy House, a spectacular Montreal mansion that once faced demolition. Now, fully restored, it is a local landmark, and a symbol of Lambert’s commitment to her hometown and its heritage.
Though Lambert has withdrawn from the day-to-day operation of the institution, she remains deeply involved in its activities. Over the years since it opened, the CCA has broadened its mandate to include shows on the city and landscape and contemporary issues.
In her seminal volume, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs wrote about the organized complexity that lies at the heart of the urban condition. Lambert has embraced this notion from the beginning, dedicating her life and her fortune to understanding that complexity and keeping it alive. Her success has been our success.
Christopher Hume is an author, urban affairs columnist and architecture critic whose writing appears regularly in The Toronto Star.
City
Renewal Activities that
renew, revitalize and restore our cities through advocacy
that shapes policy on major urban issues, thereby promoting
attitudinal change, encouraging public participation and
transforming our urban landscape for future generations.
More than 1.3 million Canadian households are without safe, decent, and affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity Canada is addressing this need through its role as homebuilder, affordable home-ownership provider, and issue advocate. This national, non-profit, faith-based organization mobilizes volunteers and community partners to build affordable housing and promotes homeownership as a means to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Habitat for Humanity Canada is a member of Habitat for Humanity International, a movement founded in 1976, in Americus, Georgia, which now operates in 93 countries. From the formation of the first Canadian affiliate in Winkler, Manitoba, in 1985, Habitat for Humanity Canada has grown to 72 affiliates across the country and has successfully helped more than 1,000 Canadian families achieve homeownership.
At the core of Habitat’s work is the Homeownership Program, which reduces the barriers to homeownership for low-income individuals and families. Participants take on an interest-free mortgage and invest hundreds of hours of their own labour into building their own home or the homes of others. Mortgage payments received by Habitat are reinvested back into the program in order to help future families. The program not only helps participants reduce their homeownership costs and build equity for the future, but also allows people to experience, often for the first time, the joy, pride, and security that go with homeownership.
Habitat for Humanity Canada engages a diverse group of supporters through programs such as Women Build, Youth Build, Sustainable Building, Global Village Canada, Disaster Response, and Building on Faith. Habitat also operates ReStores, retail operations that accept donations of new and used building supplies and resell them to the public. The revenue generated from more than 60 ReStores across Canada funds the operations and building activities of local Habitat affiliates. Every year, Canadian ReStores divert and recycle over 12,000 tonnes of materials that would otherwise end up in landfill.
Through its work, Habitat for Humanity Canada has seen the positive and sustainable impact that having a home has on individuals, families, and communities.
In 1999, the Société Quartier international de Montréal was constituted as a non-profit organization and given a mandate by the City of Montréal to oversee the development of a prestigious area: the Quartier International de Montréal (QIM). The initiative consisted in the revitalization and complete redesign of a 27-hectare site in downtown Montreal previously bisected by an open-trench highway. The area, which had once separated the historic district of Old Montreal from the city’s business district, has now become a thriving destination for tourists and Montrealers alike.
The project was initially proposed by the Caisse de dépôt et de placement du Québec to the City of Montréal in 1997, following an international design competition in 1990. It demonstrated a new way to create effective public-private partnerships, through the development of unique financing mechanisms, ongoing public consultation, and stakeholder collaboration. This ambitious initiative was conceived by a small team of architects, urban planners and designers, led by Réal Lestage and Renée Daoust, and overseen by a small project management team. The project has already won 26 prizes and awards in 13 different fields for its economic, environmental, and social contributions to the city.
In addition to attracting investments and optimizing the use of existing infrastructure, QIM has created a unique sense of place through the application of the principle of “total art.” This approach involves interweaving environmental artwork, urban design, events, installations, and performances. In the QIM, all components in and near the public domain – the design of public spaces, the architecture of buildings, urban furniture, landscaping, lighting, public art, and programmed events – contribute to the overall quality of the cultural environment.
The QIM would not have been possible without the support of the City of Montréal and the talent of the architects and urban planners who have created a new centre for the city.
City
Soul Pursuits that
inspire, inform, enrich and engage our collective spirits
whether through the arts, entertainment, heritage programs,
sport and recreation, cultural exchange, or other initiatives.
In 1988 Denham Jolly was a prominent and successful businessman, philanthropist, and educator. A graduate of McGill University, he had worked as a researcher for Metropolitan Toronto and the Government of Jamaica; been principal shareholder and president of several corporations; publisher of Contrast magazine, Toronto’s weekly Black community newspaper; founder and first president of the Black Business and Professional Association of Toronto; and teacher of chemistry and physics at Toronto’s Forest Hill Collegiate. Yet 1988 marked the beginning of a 12-year struggle that would be one of his greatest challenges.
Denham was convinced there was strong demand for an urban-format radio station in the Greater Toronto Area – that is, “a diverse, cosmopolitan music format based on Rhythm and Blues music and related genres… a modern-day reflection of the rich musical traditions of Black musicians and Black-influenced music over the past century.” That conviction led Denham and a group of investors to found Milestone Radio Inc.
Despite public support for the venture, the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected Milestone’s first application for a broadcast licence in 1990. Undaunted, Denham submitted a second application that also failed. Finally, Milestone enlisted the support of various governments. By 1998, Milestone had written support from the City of York, the City of Scarborough, the City of Toronto, and even the federal Cabinet. On June 16, 2000, the CRTC granted Milestone its well deserved broadcast licence.
Less than a year later, FLOW 93.5 began broadcasts. It remains a successful and important radio broadcaster and has recently partnered with Ryerson University to recognize the outstanding efforts of visible minority students in radio journalism and music production.
An active community builder, Denham’s many awards include the Black Action Defence Committee Award for Community Service (1998), the Ontario Black History Society’s Daniel G. Hill Community Service Award (1998), the Black Business and Professional Association President’s Special Award of Merit (1996), and the African Canadian Achievement Award (1998). In 1992 he was awarded the Governor General’s Commemorative medal on the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. Denham serves on the Board of the Toronto International Film Festival Group and is listed in Who’s Who in Canada.
Spacing Magazine recently wrote that she has “a simple plan for changing neighbourhoods”; that plan “starts by walking.” The National Post describes her as “a modest Jane Jacobs, armed with art supplies.” The focus of all this buzz is Dyan Marie, who helped create an art-embedded walking system in an at-risk neighbourhood and by this action began to mobilize community residents. What resulted was a multi-year public art project entitled Walk Here that won the City of Toronto’s Green and Beautiful Award in 2005.
A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1977, Dyan’s work began to focus on issues of urban form in the 1990s. Following the 2003 murder of 10-year old Holly Jones in her neighbourhood of Dupont–Bloor West, Dyan was prompted to develop special art programming for the organization DIG IN (Dupont Improvement Group: Improving Neighbourhoods), that she had earlier founded as a means to change her neighbourhood for the better. Dyan engineered a participatory photography project that she said had “nothing to do with finding something that was beautiful…it was about finding a question you want to ask.”
A published essayist, photographer, and sculptor, Dyan has produced works now found in collections throughout Canada, while her urban artworks continue to generate excitement in her community and the media. Dyan has started no fewer than 14 websites, helped co-found C Magazine, Urban Surface, B.I.G.: Bloor Improvement Group, the Cold City Gallery, and ARTATWORK. Her work Bloor Nightlight was a marquee event of Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche in 2007.
Dyan represents the public face of a neighbourhood that, due to the convergence of three railroad tracks, was once labelled the most toxic neighbourhood in Canada. Although she cannot eliminate the railroads, Dyan’s work continues to erase the toxic image of the sometimes-forgotten neighbourhood of Dupont–Bloor West.
City
Livability Actions that make
our cities more livable from finding new ways and means
to improve our healthcare, education and the environment
to enhancing public places and spaces and instilling
confidence about our personal safety and security.
A Grade 5 student in Vancouver describes her schoolyard as “Somewhere I can walk through moist grass, look for four-leaf clovers, smell and pick wildflowers, watch bumblebees and butterflies, and test a buttercup under my chin.” Thanks to Evergreen, her school is no longer surrounded by a sea of asphalt.
Evergreen began in 1990 in Toronto as a tree-planting organization dedicated to greening the urban environment and has since expanded to become a national organization with three main programs: Learning Grounds, transforming school grounds; Common Grounds, conserving publicly accessible land; and Home Grounds, greening the home landscape.
In 2003, Evergreen launched its most ambitious effort to date: the transformation of the 12-acre Don Valley Brickworks into Canada’s first large-scale environmental discovery centre. The remediation earned a Brownie Award from the CUI in 2006, and in fall 2007, Evergreen unveiled the final design scheme for the site, which will include a farmers’ market, a native plant nursery, a learning and play centre for children, historical displays, public art, incubator administrative space for other environmental non-profits, and a restaurant dedicated to slow cooking and local foods.
Evergreen, as its name suggests, is continuing to grow and expand its programs. It has partnered with Toyota Canada to create outdoor classrooms for schools, and with the Toronto District School Board on an EcoSchools initiative. The Youth Stewardship program encourages youth-led environmental projects, and Evergreen has even sponsored a program in Cuba to help people grow food to compensate for critical food shortages in that country.
The founding director of Evergreen, Geoff Cape, sees the organization not only as an environmental group committed to greening cities, but as an important community builder. He told a Globe and Mail reporter, “It is always about the great people along the way. That brings me the most joy: seeing ideas evolve and take shape as… people take ownership of the ideas and help to steer them to success.”
Hidden in Toronto’s downtown core is the Janet Rosenberg–designed Courthouse Square Park. Described by The National Post as “one of the best urban oases in a Canadian city,” Courthouse Square embodies the qualities that make the work of landscape architect Janet Rosenberg so important. Unlike the splashy mega-projects that dominate other parts of the city, the square is a small, elegant space of greenery and architectural detail, enlivened by running water. It exemplifies the work of a designer who passionately advocates for attention to the neglected pedestrian realm and who helps make that realm intimate, surprising, and delightful.
A graduate of York and Ryerson universities, Janet’s career has spanned almost three decades. She is the principal and founder of Janet Rosenberg and Associates, a firm that has received more than 100 different awards and commendations. Janet has also been personally awarded numerous honours for her work, including the Governor General of Canada Confederation Medal and an Honorary Doctorate from Ryerson University, to be presented in June 2008. As one of the first Canadian women in her field, and certainly the most prominent, Janet has built on her success by motivating and mentoring future female professionals through lectures at universities and businesses. Her firm regularly employs and apprentices new graduates.
Her creations include the wildly popular HtO Park on Toronto’s waterfront, universally praised by Canada’s press as “a park of delight and restraint… that promises to age gracefully over time” (The Globe and Mail), “a bold new addition to the waterfront” (The National Post) and “a genuine 21st-century waterfront landmark, a ‘front porch’ for the city” (The Toronto Star).
Janet is a founding member of the Toronto Tree Foundation, and serves on the Waterfront Review Panel, Mayor David Miller’s Task Force on a Beautiful City, and the Toronto Design Review Panel. A philanthropist and dedicated advocate of the public realm, she has tirelessly promoted the importance of good design. Janet’s commitment to landscape architecture on many different levels includes educating and stimulating people through speaking engagements and lectures about the evolving nature of her profession. She is helping to make the city more livable – one small, perfect space at a time.
City
Initiatives Innovative initiatives,
within the past three years, that should make a significant
impact on the public realm.
Province of Ontario
Province of Ontario
The last few years have seen significant progress in managing urban regions in Ontario, with the creation of the Greenbelt, the publication of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (Places to Grow), amendments to the Planning Act, and the formation of Metrolinx (formerly known as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority). These initiatives represent an unprecedented effort to manage growth in the province while protecting the environment, strengthening the economy, and promoting livable communities.
The Greenbelt Plan protects 1.8 million acres of land in natural heritage and water resource systems, as well as important agricultural areas. As the first comprehensive, landscape-scale, environment-first land use plan for central Ontario, it forms the ecological framework around which the future urbanization of the area will be organized.
The Growth Plan, 2006, sets both targets and limits for growth in an area stretching from Waterloo Region in the west to Peterborough in the east, north to Georgian Bay and south to Lake Erie. This area is forecast to grow by an additional 3.7 million people by 2031, so the need for growth management is vital. The plan, which was developed after five years of extensive consultation, has already received awards from both Canadian and American planning associations. It is supported by the Planning and Conservation Land Statute Law Amendment Act, 2006, which updates Ontario’s land-use planning system, including the operation of the Ontario Municipal Board, and provides new tools to municipalities to help implement growth plans.
Metrolinx has been assigned the task of developing a transportation plan to reduce traffic congestion and create an integrated transit system across the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton. It is already working on several fronts, from the Smart Commute initiative to harmonizing fare systems to upgrading GO Transit service.
This suite of urban and regional development legislation and initiatives of the Government of Ontario represents a seminal contribution to the development of healthy and prosperous urban regions and a new milestone in realizing the potential of Ontario’s cities and towns. The demonstrated commitment to sustainable regional planning and development policies will help ensure the future health and strength of Ontario communities.
Birds observing their annual cycle of migration north in the spring to their summer breeding grounds and south in the fall to warmer regions cannot adapt to cities. During their biannual flyovers, they may become confused by the combination of light pollution and large expanses of glass in the urban environment and collide with buildings, falling to their death. At least one million migratory birds die each year in Toronto after flying into buildings.
In January 2006, Toronto City Council directed City Planning staff to incorporate the “needs of migratory birds into the Site Plan Review process with respect to… lighting, including floodlighting, glass and other bird-friendly design features.” A volunteer working group of community stakeholders was formed to draw up development guidelines. The working group exemplified true community involvement: members represented the development and building management industries, bird advocacy groups, professional architects, urban designers, and planners.
The working group met throughout 2006 and 2007 and compiled a comprehensive set of design-based development and operational options presented in an attractive, professional format for distribution to the public. The Bird-Friendly Development Guidelines are a notable and original accomplishment, because the working group had no template or model to follow. The success of this effort is reflected in the positive attention the Bird-Friendly Development Guidelines has received from all over North America and Europe (including translation into German and French by the Swiss Ornithological Institute).
The development guidelines, coupled with their subsequent rating system, have placed the city at the forefront of bird-friendly building design. They describe the potential hazards posed by the urban environment, and provide an array of suggestions for mitigating them, using examples of buildings that are subject to few bird collisions. The techniques described include treatments to minimize reflections from large expanses of glass and methods of reducing light pollution at night.
The original illustrations were provided by Jason Harris, a student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University; graphic design was by Pat Viggiani of the City of Toronto. Kelly Snow of City Planning organized, coordinated, and facilitated the working group.
City
Youth Outstanding contributions
to any aspect of the public realm made by individuals
under age 30.
Ayan Hersi
Ayan Hersi
Ayan Hersi arrived in Canada as a child, a refugee from the civil war in Somalia. With courage and determination she has overcome social and economic barriers to graduate from university with top honours and become an advocate for education, health care, and justice for women and children, in Canada and around the world.
Ayan was the first black woman elected president of her high school. In the aftermath of 9/11, she spearheaded an anti-racism campaign against the bullying experienced by young Muslims in her community. She also helped develop the Young Women’s Leadership Program to assist marginalized young women at her school.
As part of a University of Toronto HIV/AIDS field project, Ayan spent summer 2007 working with women and girls in an informal settlement in Namibia, producing a video to dispel the taboos of AIDS education and advocating for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs, counselling, and anonymous testing centres.
Ayan founded Youth in Touch, a Canadian non-profit youth-led organization dedicated to providing young people with the tools and information they need to make healthy lifestyle decisions.
Ayan’s volunteer activities include tutoring and helping disabled students find accommodation and financial assistance to succeed in school. She is the 2008 recipient of the Toronto YWCA Young Woman of Distinction Award and is the University of Toronto’s first Gender Adolescent AIDS Prevention Honorary Ambassador.
Ayan will be attending University of Toronto Faculty of Law in September 2008.
Despite his lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis, Christopher Beausoleil, 20, works tirelessly on behalf of those who suffer from the disease. When he was diagnosed, people with cystic fibrosis were not actively encouraged to engage in sports, but Christopher promotes an active lifestyle for people with his condition, through public speaking engagements and writing campaigns. He has been a spokesperson for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) for several years and his efforts have succeeded in raising almost $75,000 for the Foundation.
An avid sportsman, involved in soccer, hockey, badminton, basketball, swimming, volleyball, golf, and cross-country running, Christopher is a role model for all young people in Canada. He has participated in the Terry Fox Run for 15 of his 20 years. His volunteer activities in his home town of Tilbury include coaching minor soccer, hockey, and swimming, and work with the Chatham-Kent Mayor’s Youth Council and Tilbury Junior Achievement. He is a member of the Tilbury and District Kinsmen, and the University of Windsor’s Emergency Response Team.
An excellent student now studying at the University of Windsor, Christopher has received many awards, including the National 20 Under 20 Award in 2004; the National Terry Fox Humanitarian Award in 2006; one of 30 Under 30 High Achievers for the Windsor/Essex Region in 2007; and the 2002 Ontario Youth Citizenship Award.
Having met with premiers and prime ministers to discuss youth issues, spoken at an international UNESCO conference, and sat on a Mayor’s Advisory Panel, Ryan Teschner has a list of accomplishments that many would consider satisfying at the end of their careers. Ryan, however, is at the beginning of his.
Ryan founded York Region’s first-ever youth-led peer counselling program, was a Student Ambassador for the Kids Help Phone, was one of the founding (and longest-serving) members of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, and represented the interests of youth during the drafting of Toronto’s latest Official Plan – all before graduating from high school.
Today, Ryan is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School, where he won several academic awards, and has been an associate with law firm Heenan Blaikie since 2006. He continues to work on behalf of youth engagement and community safety. He is a member of the Toronto Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Making a Safe City Safer, chaired by former Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry.
Ryan advocates for disadvantaged youth, has spearheaded several pro bono legal initiatives at his firm, and helped form the Partnership to Advance Youth Employment – a program that provides high-quality employment in Toronto’s financial district for disadvantaged youth. He frequently speaks at conferences and in the media on community safety, citizen engagement, and youth justice.
At the heart of Thunder Bay is Simpson Street. Once a rundown area characterized by drug abuse, crime, and prostitution, 12 blocks of Simpson Street have been transforming thanks to a local association called Evergreen – A United Neighbourhood, with support from the United Way of Thunder Bay.
Although the overall population of Thunder Bay is decreasing, the city’s Aboriginal population is increasing rapidly. Evergreen is working with the community to help identify and provide settlement and welcome services to help Aboriginals new to the area navigate the various school, social, health, and language barriers they face. Other Evergreen projects include fitness and health activities, neighbourhood beautification, youth involvement, needle-drop facilities, social outings, arts events, and the installation of solar-powered security features.
Evergreen’s diverse Board of Directors and its ranks of active volunteers remind us that a true community is a function of the commitment and dedication of her citizenry.
We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But many children in Toronto typically miss this meal. Rick Gosling founded the Children’s Breakfast Club (TCBC) in 1984, believing that every child needs a nutritious and healthy start to the day. The program started in the Jane/Falstaff area, but has since spread to serve over 4,000 breakfasts a week in 24 different communities.
TCBC is more than a place for children to eat a hot culturally appropriate meal before going to school. The staff act as mentors and organizers in each area. Activities include arts and crafts, homework clinics, trips to art exhibits, theatre, and sports events, and travel to Ottawa. Teachers and parents report that children who attend the Breakfast Clubs have fewer behavioral, academic and social problems.
Rick is also the President and co-founder of the Second Chance Scholarship Foundation and the founder of the Toronto Blue Jays Rookie Ball League and the Community Unity Alliance, a not-for-profit organization that helps community groups towards greater independence. This award is merely one among dozens he has accumulated throughout his career in community service.
Michel Labbé, President of Options for Homes, once wrote “the predominant view to date is that you must have government subsidies to provide affordable housing. This view is absolutely correct if you limit your thinking to rental solutions.” Michel, however, does not limit his thinking in such ways.
Since 1992, Michel’s not-for-profit development company has built over 1,500 affordable housing units in Toronto without a penny of support from government coffers. Through Options for Homes and its arm’s-length, not-for-profit financing partner Home Ownership Alternatives, Michel has become a dynamic social entrepreneur in the affordable housing industry. Using a model that traces its roots back to the 1950’s, Michel created the Alternative Mortgage, a mechanism that all but eliminates speculation yet still allows low-income homeowners to build equity in their property. HOA’s resources have grown to almost $50 million in mortgages and cash available to support further development of affordable ownership housing by Options or by other non-profit delivery agencies. This cycle allows four new units to be produced for every one that is sold.
Options and its affiliates in Montreal and Waterloo work tirelessly to build affordable housing capacity by helping to support and develop would-be competitors.
Dubbed by the media as “The Year of the Gun,” 2005 was, for many, the year Toronto lost its innocence. Newspapers were filled with stories of homicides, gun-related incidents, and brazen gang violence. To confront this challenge, Police Chief Bill Blair looked to the past. Inspired by traditional policing strategies of “walking the beat” and getting to know who’s who in a community, Toronto Police Services created TAVIS, the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy.
The comprehensive strategy involves community and youth outreach, local intelligence gathering, and three Rapid Response Units, to help communities move from simple crime reduction to mobilization and independence. TAVIS officers have responded with enthusiasm. They are integral parts of the community; recognizable, familiar, and trusted. The program, whose modest $5 million price tag was paid for by the Province of Ontario, has helped stem the wave of gun violence in Toronto.
