For the past year, I have been part of the planning team for the amazing new Centre for Learning at 540 Dundas Street East. It’s in the heart of the vibrant new community emerging through the Regent Park Revitalization.

From June 10 to 12, the Centre held its Open House. On June 11, both Marwa Eldardiry and I from SHSC helped out along with reps from Ryerson, George Brown, U of T, and graduates of the Immigrant Women Integration Program (IWIP) who are there to screen their Digital Stories.

Ryerson University representatives await local community members.

As I walk north from Queen past the mosque and approach Dundas, I see the construction underway and new town homes are almost complete. In the midst of brand new mixed-rental buildings, commercial spaces, condos and townhomes –change is happening. You can feel it. On the corner of Dundas and Parliament (altered considerably since Google Streetview photographed it) there is a new Tim Horton’s filled with families, an RBC, a Rogers store and a Sobeys. People are talking to neighbours, walking dogs and waiting for the streetcar to take them to work.

Approaching the doorway to the Centre of Learning, there is a bright yellow sign tied with balloons to let people know about the Open House. Inside, information tables are filled with displays and brochures and a computer lab set up with online surveys to find out which courses, workshops and training people are interested in. Marwa is helping someone complete a survey. A table is filled with scrumptous treats and samosas made by local residents. There’s an arts and crafts room set up for children staffed by volunteers from Art Heart and an assortment of markers and paper eggs to colour. Beautiful photos line the walls. Community members are starting to arrive.

The main event follows. The Centre for Digital Story Telling has been working with the women in the IWIP program to create their digital stories and one story– by Sureya – relays the reality of moving with her family to her new home in the revitalization process.

As a housing professional, having worked at Toronto Community Housing for over five years and now at SHSC, Sureya’s story is particularly poignant because it is a testament to all the years of planning and tenant engagement, working with the community and staying true to the vision of a mixed income, mixed housing community with roads, parks, retail and community space. Sureya’s digital story is one of social inclusion. And it’s Sureya’s story , in Sureya’s words, voice and imagery.

The new Regent Park is becoming a creative, exciting place – filled with socially innovative system enablers like the Centre of Learning, the Small Business Portal and the Employment and Enterprise Hub. Coming soon – the Arts and Culture Centre and the Aquatic Centre. Stay tuned!!

For more information about the Regent Park Centre of Learning, visit: http://www.tccld.org/