Mutually Ours Project (Archived Project)
Mutually Ours is an ongoing project sponsored by the Self-Help Resource Centre and funded by the United Way. The project is designed to train, mentor and mobilize community leaders from two specific communities within the Toronto area. These facilitators will in turn recruit and train other community members. The newly trained groups will be able to deal with specific community issues, applying their newly acquired skills.
Who will the participants be? The participants should live within one of the target neighborhoods (Trethewey Dr.or Rathburn/East Mall area) and be interested in becoming community leaders working on projects within their community.
How will participants benefit from this program?
Mutually Ours focuses on community building within the two target
areas. The program will enable participants to foster strong relationships,
find common interests, work towards common goals, build strategies,
and develop a sense of pride in their community.
What workshops are included in the program?
The program contains a series of six workshops: Effective Communication,
Living with Diversity, Reaching out to your Community, Purposeful
Networking, Running an Effective Community Meeting and Basic Fundraising.
Each workshop builds on the skills of the previous one providing
a sound foundation to work in the community. There are also two
practice sessions and weekly assignments to help sharpen and build
their skills.
What roles can community agencies play?
Mutually Ours would like the support and guidance of community agencies
to:
- Identify the skills needed to meet future goals within the community
- Identify the role the community leaders will play within the community
- Identify possible community leaders from within the community
What does the Mutually Ours program plan to do?
- During each session 10 community members will be recruited from the two target neighbourhoods
- As part of their training, the facilitators are asked to recruit other community members and form community groups which will deal with community issues in a more practical sense and will put the skills learned into action
- The project staff and the leaders will liaise and network with community agencies in order to ensure the sustainability of the project and the connection of the community with the services
- The project utilizes the existing available resources and teaches the participants to create their community-based systems which will address some of their needs, relying on their internal strength and resources rather than always seeking formal services
- The project teaches the community members to identify their needs, plan a course of action, implement the plan relying on themselves, and evaluate the outcome
Sample Activities
April
2004 Web Bulletin (downoadable as a MS word document)
November
2003 Web bulletin (downoadable as a MS word document)
September
2003 Web bulletin (downoadable as a MS word document)
The project is made possible by ongoing support from the United Way of Greater Toronto.
To implement community-based projects by the participants, SHRC has received grants from Ministry of Recreation & Tourism and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.