Social Planning Toronto was selected by the City of Toronto to develop a new iteration of the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) Resident Advisory Group.

We partnered with the Community Development Unit at the City of Toronto to help renew the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy. 

We recruited city-wide for resident leaders from the city's 31 Neighbourhood Improvement Areas, eight Emerging Neighbourhoods, and equity-owed groups including people living on a low income, people with disabilities, and Indigenous, Black, racialized, and 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Throughout May we received over 100 applications from powerful resident leaders across Toronto who were eager to join a new Advisory Group.

These residents will participate in trainings on City policy development and equity strategies, and provide feedback and input to the City's Community Development Unit to inform an updated TSNS being developed over the next 18 months. 

Advisory Group members will also consult residents, analyze the current landscape of resident engagement, and identify best practices that would enable city-wide networking, information sharing, capacity building, and leadership development across identified neighbourhoods and communities. The community feedback and evidence they gather through this work will inform the advice they provide the City.

From July 2022 to September 2023, the Advisory Group will come together to share with the City their ideas for and experiences with community engagement, city-wide networking, information sharing, skill building, and community leadership development.