The Jane Finch Ministry is an outreach ministry of the Toronto West Presbytery. It is situated in the Firgrove, Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) community and works quite closely with the Firgrove Tenant's Association. Although this public housing community of 382 households is the immediate catchment area of the Jane Finch Community Ministry, the ministry provides support and is also involved in initiatives taking place in the larger area of Jane and Finch. The role of the ministry is to provide community development and community organizing support, some pastoral care and advocacy through coalitions and networks. Many of the programs and initiatives are done in partnership with others.

Our monthly supplementary food day continues to help out about 20-30 families each month. In addition to this food access initiative, we again were involved with the project called Making Connections, which was done in conjunction with North York Harvest Food Bank, Toronto Heart Health Network and several other community based organizations. This project connected 4 York Region Farmers' Markets with low-income communities and several North York Prenatal programs. Our summer student coordinated the implementation of the project and over 16 weeks during the summer, 21,000 lbs of fresh produce were donated to 18 emergency grocery programs and 13 perinatal programs. Also there were 4 gleaning trips in which residents from low-income communities were able to pick strawberries, beans and corn for free. For a seventh year we held a free income tax clinic in Firgrove. This program was done in conjunction with the Chartered Accountants Association and assisted about 60 individuals in filling out their tax forms.

For a second summer, the ministry hosted a weekend retreat at the Five Oaks retreat centre for the board of directors of the Firgrove Tenant Association and their families. The tenant association raised $600 for this event. 25 attended the retreat and all had a great time. At the end of the summer there was a larger community trip to Santa’s Village in Bracebridge. The ministry covered the cost of one of the buses. In partnership with the Tenant Association, and the local housing recreation program, the Community Ministry hosted the winter festive season celebration. We celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Small gifts were given out to over 70 children and entertainment and craft activities focused on the different faith/cultural celebrations. A comedian from California joined the event and provided some motivational speaking. The meal for the event was prepared by the residents and included curried goat, jerk chicken, BBQ chicken, fried chicken, spanish rice, rice and peas, several salads and an assortment of baked goods. In addition to this festive season celebration we provided about 90 gifts to some of the Islamic children of Firgrove in support of their Eid. Also the ministry handed out over 100 Chum Xmas Wish gifts.

Both myself and the Office Coordinator, Halima Abdela, provide information and referral to people who drop by the office or phone in. A variety of issues are dealt with such as legal matters, immigration, housing concerns, employment, schooling, skills training, parental support, conflict mediation, access to food, translation, etc.. Halima’s duties have expanded and she is now doing most of the bookkeeping for the ministry.

I continued to be involved on the Network of Community Based Organizations. I have been one of the Network reps on the Black Creek Community Capacity Research project, which is being done in conjunction with City staff and York University. This year’s work focused around pulling a reference group together, conducting 12 focus groups, which lead to several strategic recommendations, and eventually developing a draft action plan which will be launched in 2005. Through the civic engagement committee, a sub-committee of the Network, we supported a busload of adults and a busload of children to come down to the budget deputations at City Hall. The deputations were well received and the Mayor met with the children privately. This committee also sponsored an All Candidates Meeting for the federal election. After the bankruptcy of Youth Clinical Services the Network engaged in lobbying government funders to maintain youth programming and services in Jane and Finch. With one of the local community legal clinics, I was also involved in lobbying efforts to ensure appropriate changes to protect the tenancy of public housing tenants with the new Social Housing Reform Act. I have continued to be an active member of the Jane Finch Street Involved Youth Issues Coalition. This coalition, in conjunction with the Young Leaders of Jane and Finch, has been involved in the process of developing a strategic youth services strategy for Jane and Finch. As a rep for the coalition I sat on the advisory committee for the Youth Job Core program in Jane and Finch.

With Presbytery involvement I was part of a search committee with Mt. Dennis and have been a member of the Social Justice committee of the Presbytery. This committee and the Jane Finch Ministry co-hosted a Black History event at St. James in which a local Jane Finch group, Drum Theater Togetherness, provided an educational experience using African drumming, Caribbean dancing and lively theatre. Later in the month of February the group was part of a performance at the Yorkgate mall. The Social Justice committee provided an educational opportunity for the presbytery with the launch of the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition’s book “Lives in the Balance – Ontario’s Social Audit”. The ministry pre purchased 100 books and was able to sell most of them. This last year I preached at 7 United Churches. Thanks to all the congregations who provided financial support to the Community Ministries and a special thanks goes out to Beverly Hills and Humber Valley for their continued support. Some of the proceeds from the sale of Thistletown were used for the International women’s day event, to support Ben Osie (a deported Ghanaian youth worker)’s return, for seed money for a fundraiser for a woman in Somalia needing medical treatment and to offset some of the costs for the summer retreat.

National commitments have included being on the steering committee of the Urban Core Support Network (UCSN), being on the national church's Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations unit committee and it’s sub committee Justice, Peace and Creation. I have also continued to be on the national steering committee that has been developing administrative standards for outreach ministries with the United Church of Canada. With the work on the national standards some concerns were raised about the marginalization of outreach ministries. This fall, a delegation of outreach ministers and supporters of these kinds of ministries met with the senior leadership team of the General Council, various national staff and the Moderator. Our concerns were taken seriously and we look forward to continued dialogue which will help to more fully integrate outreach ministries into the fabric of the whole.

Thanks again to all the individuals, organizations, congregations and funding bodies that have contributed to the ministry with either time or financial gifts. It is only through your support that this ministry can take place.

Respectfully submitted by Barry Rieder, Jane Finch Community Minister