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.

The year began with a town hall meeting with police Chief Fantino. At that meeting a young woman with the Teen Violence Prevention Project asked the chief "Why should you expect us to respect the police when they don't respect us black kids?" Many who attended the meeting were outraged with the chief's dismissal of the young woman when he said "I am not going to dignify your question with an answer." His full response was totally intimidating and unreceptive to her concern. Her friends and other members of her group walked out of the meeting very upset and disillusioned about speaking up in a public meeting. Several others attending, including myself, confronted Chief Fantino about his response and were met with resistance, anger and denial. In follow-up to this, the Network of Community Based Organizations and the Jane-Finch Street Involved Youth Issues Coalition hosted a community forum on racial profiling in March. Over 100 residents and workers attended the forum! . A litany of abuse and harassment, challenges and barriers, and discrimination based on group identity rather than individual characteristics described the common experience of Black and Latino youth and their families. Incidents of racial profiling not only by the police but with other social institutions were raised. With the later part of the forum suggestions were raised about what could be done to combat this kind of racism. Throughout the year the Network and the Youth Issues Coalition have continued to follow-up with issues of racial profiling.

Our monthly supplementary food day continues to help out about 20-30 families each month. Through the Basic Needs Action Network and with support from North York Heart Health, this summer we were again involved with the project called Making Connections. This project connected 4 York Region Farmers' Markets with low income communities and several North York Prenatal programs. Our summer student coordinated the project. This summer 19,500 lbs of fresh produce was donated from the farms and over a 16 week period was donated to 18 emergency grocery programs and 13 perinatal programs. In addition to this there were 4 gleaning trips in which residents from low-income communities were able to pick strawberries and corn for free.

For a sixth 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 income taxes. With support from TCHC Mom's and Tot's program we continued to administer the toy lending library once a week at the Firgrove Recreation Centre. Due to some office changes with TCHC's local site office at 5 Needle Firway we moved from our previous location, down the hall to a larger space this fall.

This 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 $1,000 for this event. A great time was had by all 40. At the end of the summer there was a larger community trip to Sports World in Kitchener Waterloo. 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 again hosted a winter festive season celebration. We celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Small gifts were given out to over 120 children and entertainment and craft activities focused on the different faith/cultural celebrations. The meal for this 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 seaso! n celebration we provided about 70 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..

I continued to be involved on the Network of Community Based Organizations, Basic Needs Action Network (BNAN), Downsview Ministerial, North York Heart Health, the Street Involved Youth Issues Coalition and have sat on the Parents Council of Firgrove public school as the community representative. Through Justice for Workers, I have been involved in a campaign that is trying to raise minimum wage to a living wage. Some of my work with the Network has included: working with the City Planning department in implementing a community capacity research project for the neigbourhood, with the civic education sub-committee putting on an All Candidates Meeting for the provincial election, and hosting an information meeting on the Social Housing Reform Act and coordinating local lobbying efforts to ensure appropriate changes are made to protect the tenancy of public housing tenants. I have continued to chair the Youth Issues Coalition. This coalition has worked towards better coordi! nation of youth services and followed up on racial profiling issues.

With Presbytery involvement I was part of a search committee with Bloordale United and have been a member of the Social Justice and Community Ministries sub-group. I preached at a United Church in Port Hope and spoke at St. Andrews United. Thanks to all the congregations who provided financial support to the Community Ministries and a special thanks goes out to Beverly Hills for their budgeted quarterly cheques. Some of the proceeds from the sale of Thistletown were used for: a luncheon at a school conference for parents, snacks for a social inclusion project which provided free snow boarding lessons for Jane Finch youth, for the May Day celebration and to offset some of the costs for the summer retreat.

National commitments included being on the national church's Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations unit and being on the steering committee of the Urban Core Support Network (UCSN). 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. This steering committee was also involved in planning the sixth Outreach Minister's consultation event called "Energy from the Edges". This spring I completed a master's thesis which was a historical overview of the Energy Events and documented some of the issues of Outreach Ministries being on the edge of the church. At this past Energy Event in June, a mock convocation was conducted by my peers and I was presented my degree from Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. It was a memorable and rewarding moment to be honoured in such a way.

Thanks again to all the individuals, organizations, congregations and funding bodies who 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