Yonge Street Mission following poor to the inner-suburbs
TORONTO, ON - As the face of urban poverty slowly moves to Toronto's inner-suburbs, Yonge Street Mission (YSM) is planning on moving along with it.
Rick Tobias, CEO of YSM, says the street mission organization has been closely following the increased gentrification of the city's downtown core, as well as studying the projections of urban poverty in the future.
“We've had to ask ourselves, 'Is our loyalty to this area, or is our loyalty to the poor?' If our loyalty is to the poor we have to move with them," he says.
“The middle class, as a percentage of the population in Toronto, has been on constant decline since the 1970s. The poor on have been in constant increase, but increasingly they are moving to the edges of Toronto, while the upper class are moving up the central downtown strip."
While YSM has historically been firmly rooted in the centre of one of the country's highest concentrations of poverty, they have seen the slow demographic shift of poverty to the areas just north and south of the 401.
“When we look ahead 20 years," Tobias says, “and we look at the number of high rises coming into downtown Toronto, the number of affluent people moving in, and at what I'm going to call the 'gentle nudging' of the poor away from downtown, we're fairly sure that in 20 years, we will be in the wrong place.
“So, we're moving into a long period of change - looking at where we need to be, to be ready for ministry in 20 years."
These changes will involve launching new satellite centres in suburban areas, with a tentative goal of launching one new site every two to three years. This will involve working closely with other groups and projects to avoid overlap of services.
“We're also switching models as well," Tobias says, “and moving into what we call a community development model. Historically we've been an agency that primarily delivers services - like drop-ins, recreation programs, food banks - and we do a lot of community building around those services. Now we have communities that have a higher education level than many of our middle class communities.
“So all of our new centres will be community development centers. We're not going in to run a drop-in, but to help the community develop a drop-in. Not to develop a community kitchen, but to teach the women to develop a community kitchen.
“Recently someone came up to us in our newest satellite - St. James Town - and said they wanted a sports program. We said, 'We won't run it, but we'll help you run your own.'
“Everything we do will be around community organizing, community networking, connecting people to each other and community development. Helping people to name their own aspirations, visions and dreams, and helping them attain them."
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