At the end of February 2013, Social Planning Toronto initiated a short survey to better understand the experiences and perspectives of Toronto shelter providers regarding access to shelter for people who are homeless. We have contacted 55 shelters from the City of Toronto’s website.

This bulletin provides preliminary results from 12 community organizations operating 15 shelters, including 10 emergency shelters, 3 violence against women (VAW) shelters, 1 transitional shelter, and 1 out of the cold program. Participating shelters included those operating in the downtown core and the inner suburbs.

In early 2009, Social Planning Toronto (SPT), in collaboration with the City‐Wide Agency Network and Toronto Neighbourhood Centres (TNC), conducted a survey of social service agencies and community organizations in Toronto. The purpose of this survey was two‐fold. First, to provide both TNC and the City‐Wide Agency Network with an updated collective “footprint” of their respective member agencies (i.e. geographic service areas, number of service locations throughout the city, number of individuals served, types programs and services offered, etc.) – important and useful information for conversations with funders, government, and the broader public. The second purpose was to provide current Toronto information regarding employment practices and human resource policies, particularly in the area of employee benefits, for member organizations of the two groups.

The Toronto Bulletin presents local results from A Recovery-free Zone, a one-year province-wide follow-up survey conducted by the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) on the impact of the economic downturn on nonprofit community social service agencies in Ontario. The Toronto Story – A Summary One hundred and nine Toronto agencies took part in the 2010 follow-up survey. Demand Rising

• 56.3% of agencies reported mostly an increase in service demand over the past 12 months

            o 87.9% of these agencies attributed the increase, primarily or in part,                     to the economy

Despite ‘green shoot’ sightings of recovery in some areas of the economy, Ontario’s nonprofit recession rages on. Results of A Recovery-Free Zone, a one-year follow-up study conducted by the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO), find tough times have continued into 2010 for Ontario’s nonprofit community social service providers and the communities that they serve. A total of 311 nonprofit community social service agencies from across Ontario, providing a host of programs and services to a broad cross-section of communities and population groups, took part in the 2010 survey. This year’s study was expanded to include a survey of 33 non-governmental funders in Ontario including United Ways, community foundations and other independent grant-making bodies.

The purpose of this study was to identify the impact of the current global economic recession on nonprofit community social service agencies in Ontario, and ultimately, to assess the capacity of the sector to respond to current and emerging community needs. This survey is intended to be the first stage of an ongoing research and assessment process that will allow the SPNO to monitor the ongoing impact of the recession on agencies in Ontario.

Objectives

The objectives of this project were:

1. To investigate the impact of the economic recession on the capacity of nonprofit community social service agencies in Ontario to respond to existing and emerging community needs.

Hard Hit is a new report from the Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) documenting the one-two punch affecting nonprofit community social service agencies in Ontario - an increasing demand for services and lost revenue from funding cuts driven by the economic downturn. The provincial report is available at www.spno.ca or www.socialplanningtoronto.org

The Toronto Story

One hundred and thirty-five Toronto agencies took part in this survey of more than 400 Ontario nonprofit community social service organizations, representing one-third of the total. This bulletin provides a summary of the Toronto-specific results of the study.

Toronto's Social Landscape is a new resource for organizations and community groups that use demographic and socio-economic data in their work - to assist in program planning, needs assessments, funding submissions, advocacy initiatives, public policy development and research projects. This report draws on 10 years of Census data, and additional data sources, to paint a picture of Toronto's population and the major trends impacting its residents and institutions. Part 1 focuses on the data including 10-year trends and more detailed statistics from the most recent Census. Comparative data for the city of Toronto, Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) and Ontario are provided.Part 2 provides a discussion of some of the major trends in Toronto. In the appendix, readers are provided with additional income and poverty data, as well as, links to additional data sources for Toronto.

Prior to the provincial Community Use of Schools Policy and funding (CUS), fees for community use of schools had risen sharply across Ontario, resulting in closures of programs and steep declines in use. The CUS program was launched in July 2004 with a $20 million investment, followed by a further enhancement in February 2008, with a province-wide plan to increase funding from $20 million to $66 million by 2012.

In March and April of 2009, SPACE (Saving Public Access to Community Space Everywhere), a provincial coalition, and Social Planning Toronto (SPT), a nonprofit community organization, conducted a follow-up survey to our 2005 and 2007 evaluations of the provincial CUS policy, program and funding (SPACE/CSPC-T, 2005; SPACE/CSPC-T, 2007). We received 358 survey responses from organizations across Ontario. This year we also investigated community access to municipal facilities.

The Alexandra Park neighbourhood, located in the south west corner of downtown Toronto, is home to over 2,000 residents, and consists of both the Atkinson Housing Co-operative and two Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) buildings. It is a culturally diverse community and one in which a majority of the residents live on a fixed income.

Recently, through discussions involving the City of Toronto and TCHC, the Alexandra Park community has begun development of a revitalization plan in order to improve conditions in the neighbourhood. The Alexandra Park Visioning Committee, consisting of key stakeholders and neighbourhood residents, was formed to help guide this process

In the late 1990s, the Provincial educational funding formula no longer funded community use of schools. This had two significant effects. One, fees for community groups to use school space skyrocketed. Two, as a direct result of one, there was a mass exodus of community groups from schools across the province; these groups’ programs, which served all age groups, were discontinued. A survey by the City of Toronto and United Way of Greater Toronto in 2002 found that in Toronto alone 43% of community groups left schools.