The first segment of the video was adjusted for speed to avoid content ID rubbish due to commercial radio being played. Due to lack of a drone, the main component of the rig was removed from the base and used instead. The other short segments were left as-is. The beginning of the speeches were almost missed due to finishing up repairs to the tripod (the rig) base, so I went back inside to grab the camera and quickly made my way to the mock-up stage where it started a few seconds before I begun recording.
This was a great event. I am looking forward to future events which take place that benefit both the community and residents.
02:29My name is Amanda O'Rourke, and I am the executive director of 880 Cities.
02:39Our organization is responsible for bringing this project to life with some of the amazing
02:45people who are here on stage with me today, who will also say a few remarks.
02:50I wanted to start by saying a land acknowledgment, acknowledging the land on which we're situated
02:56is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the
03:02Anishinaabe, the Chikawa, the Haudenosaunee, the Huromwenda, and the two First Nations.
03:07And Toronto is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
03:11We are very grateful to be working on this land and in relationship with this land and
03:18each other and you all here who are bringing some of these projects to life.
03:22If you are not familiar with 880 Tower Pops, it is a three-year initiative aimed at transforming
03:31spaces next to towers like this as places for health and well-being through community co-design.
03:39We are very grateful to the funders of this project, which are the Public Health Agency
03:46of Canada, as well as United Way of Greater Toronto, and of course, our amazing partners,
03:53including Toronto Community Housing, Access Alliance, Muslims in Public Space, Earthscape
03:59Play, the playground designer that brought some of the wonderful planting beds and harvest
04:06tables that you see on the site today, as well as the City of Toronto, Toronto Renewal,
04:12Tower Renewal Partnership, the University of Guelph, Plaza Pops, and ERA.
04:17So they're all listed there on that sign, so I can remember.
04:20And this has definitely been a team effort.
04:23All the folks with these pink hats are members of the 880 Cities team, so if you have any questions
04:29about the project, feel free to find some of us with the pink hats.
04:33And I also, of course, as I pass it over to the wonderful folks who helped make this happen,
04:39you all get your own pink hat.
04:42So next is Councillor Nunziata.
04:46Here you are, your pink hat and the microphone.
04:50Oh, it's adjustable.
04:58It does fit me.
05:00Well, thank you.
05:02And I'm very pleased to be here for the 880 Tower Pops.
05:06And, you know, this is amazing on what's happening here, especially at TCHC.
05:11And I want to thank Toronto Housing.
05:13It's my understanding that you're hosting the barbecue today, right?
05:18So thank you for that.
05:20And it's amazing what we've done with the space.
05:24And I've never seen this before.
05:26I wish we could do it to all our towers, right?
05:30And make it work, because this is a way we get the community involved
05:35and a lot of the tenants that were involved in the community at large involved.
05:41And this is amazing space that I think that the tenants of 190 Wilner
05:48and not only that, all the tenants are with all the other towers that we have in the area.
05:53So I want to thank you, Amanda, for an amazing, amazing job.
05:58And thank you to Access Alliance that's here, United Way, everybody that's here.
06:04And Access Alliance, as you know, is just down the street at Jane and Wilner.
06:09So they're a partner in this community.
06:12And so, again, thank you to everyone.
06:14And let's use this space.
06:16This is amazing.
06:17And the garden that you have, hopefully next year you mentioned to me
06:22that you maybe have vegetables in the garden, which would be great.
06:26And maybe we can get the tenants in the building to participate in that, right?
06:30And take ownership of it.
06:33So thank you again for inviting me, and I hope you enjoy this beautiful space.
06:39Thank you very much, Councillor.
06:41Thank you for all your support and your team's support in making this project happen.
06:45Next, I'm going to pass it to Sean Barrett from Toronto Community Housing.
06:50Can I get my hat?
06:51All right.
06:56Well, thanks very much, everyone.
06:57I really appreciate everybody being here.
06:59I'm Sean.
07:00I'm the CEO of Toronto Community Housing Corporation.
07:03We're the largest affordable housing provider in the entire country of Canada.
07:06More than 100,000 people live in Toronto Community Housing neighborhoods just like this one.
07:11And we're so thankful to our partners, like 880 Cities, for doing this incredible work here within our community.
07:16I always say to folks, if you want to do work in community development, if you want to do economic development, tenant engagement, youth programming, come and do it with us, right?
07:25We are home to spaces and places where there are so many people that can really thrive with the supports like this that can be put into place in many of our different communities.
07:36I'm still relatively new in the gig, and this is my first visit here to 190 Wilner, so I'm really grateful to come and see it.
07:41I'm going to take a look at some of the things inside as well, but it's nice to see so many people out and enjoying the night here today.
07:48I hope that creating spaces like this means you'll have many, many more days like this where people choose to be outside and choose to be among your neighbors and building community just like this.
07:58We're dedicated to making that happen in all of our communities, but it's great to see some big steps being taken right here at 190 Wilner.
08:06I also want to say thanks very much to our local councillor, Francis Tensiata, for all the work that you do here and in so many of our other communities, to 880 Cities for leading this project, and to all the funding partners, Public Health Canada, United Way.
08:19We couldn't do any of these things without each of you and the supports that you bring, and to all the volunteers and the staff that do all of this incredible work, really, really appreciate all the work that's gone into this.
08:28And I know we're just getting started, and we've got more stages to go, so can't wait to be back and see what it looks like as we continue on this journey.
08:35And thanks to everyone that lives here and has invited all of us to be part of the day alongside all of you.
08:39Really appreciate it.
08:40Thank you all.
08:42Thank you, Sean.
08:43Next, I'm going to pass it to Sylvia Chowdhury from the Access Alliance Multicultural Health Services.
08:50Come on up here, Sylvia.
08:52Good evening, everyone.
08:53My name is Sylvia Chowdhury.
08:55I'm the health promoter at Access Alliance, so I'm representing Access Alliance, Access Point on Jane.
09:02Look at this turnout.
09:03I am so excited to be here.
09:06We have our research team at the back and a wonderful beating happening with all the children.
09:12So, I'm so amazed by this beautiful space, the garden, the lending books from the mobile library.
09:21This is amazing.
09:23And really excited to be an anchor partner of 880 Tower Pops Project and really excited to be here.
09:30This is a beautiful example of community residents and, you know, funders and organizations such as Access Alliance and Tower Pops kind of taking the lead,
09:41getting together to beautify spaces that otherwise wouldn't be as much, you know, used in some of the residents that we're in.
09:50I really, you know, at Access Alliance, we're proud to support projects that strengthen community and this is a great example of that.
10:00And it really promotes health and equity.
10:02So, I, this is such a great example and I want to thank all the folks that are involved, including the volunteers, the local residences that are, that have been here since the beginning.
10:15And I hope to see more of this, you know, continue, more of this work continued throughout the year.
10:22And I can't thank 880 Cities enough to bring this project to fruition and make this beautiful event possible.
10:30So, thank you.
10:32Did I mention the volunteers and the, and all the different funders and everyone involved?
10:37So, thank you so much.
10:38Thank you so much, Sylvia.
10:43And, uh, next I have Meheti from Muslims in Public Space who've been a wonderful activation partner.
10:49Meheti.
10:50Thank you so much.
10:51Woo-hoo!
10:52I'll, I'll grab one of these beautiful hats.
10:55Absolutely.
10:57And I think today, uniquely, I, I have one physical hat here, but I actually wear two hats, both working as the, the co-founder of Muslims in Public Space, MIPS,
11:05also an employee at Toronto Community Housing as well, too.
11:09Um, and I first want to just thank the entire 880s team, uh, Pranithi, Amanda, Camilla, Gia.
11:16We've had an opportunity to work with these folks over the past two years and really be intentional about the design you see today, right?
11:23So, when you look back, when you look back and you see the different vendors, you see the activated play space, you see the, uh, board gaming area, the recreational area,
11:32and also the, kind of, community gardens, all of this was extremely intentional.
11:37Meaning, for the past year, we worked directly with residents in this community doing multiple workshops about teaching them, you know, basic design stuff,
11:45but also, to be honest, learning from them about what is important in their own community.
11:50And that's the type of intentional design that I really applaud the team at 880 Cities and folks like Access Alliance and our other amazing partners here as well, too.
11:59And, finally, I just want to say, on a personal note, how happy I am to be here.
12:04You know, I grew up in a very similar tower neighborhood just like this in Regent Park, right?
12:08We had a massive high-rise, and, for me, our public spaces was the sidewalks, it was our public basketball course,
12:16it was, annoyingly, the hallways, too, which I'll tell you, our neighbors didn't enjoy all the time when we were kids running around there.
12:22But to see this type of activation happen in this community is so essential, and particularly in Toronto's suburban communities.
12:30And what we're hoping is, you know, we have Sean here, and we also have the counselor here as well, is that more of this can happen all across the city, right?
12:40Not just in this neighborhood, but other tower neighborhoods.
12:43So, thank you so much for coming here.
12:44And, lastly, I want to give a huge shout-out to our amazing vendors who are here today.
12:49Over, I think, 12 vendors who came here who are selling different art pieces, handcraft goods.
12:55If you have a moment, please go around and try to grab something to support the local businesses here.
13:00Thank you so much.
13:03Thank you, Mihedi.
13:05And, last but certainly not least, is the most important person to make this project come to life.
13:13The engine at the heart of this pop-up project is Perneti Kolkerni, who is the project manager for 880 Cities.
13:21Take it away, Perneti.
13:22Maybe I can stand on the ground or I'll come.
13:29Firstly, thank you, everyone.
13:31I know everyone's been thanking everyone, but, no, truly, we are grateful that all of you helped us do what we have done here,
13:39but also told us what you wanted and are here to celebrate it.
13:43So, thank you so much.
13:45Looking forward, this is just the beginning.
13:47We are going to, this shipping container here has some fun things in there which we want to bring out and give it to the community members here
13:58so that you can come out, meet your neighbors, make new friends, be physically active, become fitter.
14:07So, yeah, there's more updates on that, but also the community garden that we've mentioned.
14:13If you are interested in gardening and you would like to be a part of the gardening group,
14:18please go talk to someone who's at the barbecue or ice cream ticket tent and you can give us your details and we'll reach out to you.
14:28And we do want to grow some tomatoes and some fruits, maybe strawberries for next spring.
14:35So, you know, let's do that together.
14:39Yeah, and food, yes.
14:42The most important announcement that everyone's waiting for is barbecue will start in five minutes.
14:49Popcorn has been on, but our popcorn vendor is really busy, so, but you can queue up or you can get barbecue and then go get the popcorn.
15:00And ice cream will also be here soon.
15:03It's not here already, but it'll be here soon.
