The Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) is the City of Toronto’s action plan for building partnerships in Toronto’s neighbourhoods so they can succeed and thrive. The strategy supports community well-being by partnering with residents, community agencies and businesses to invest in people, services, programs and facilities in Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs). The strategy strengthens the social, economic and physical conditions and delivers local impact for city-wide change.
To achieve equitable opportunities across all Toronto neighbourhoods by:
No matter what neighbourhood Torontonians call home, there are equitable opportunities for well-being. Sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter and learn about how you can participate.
The TSNS Advisory Group is made up of passionate leaders from Neighbourhood Improvement Areas and Emerging Neighbourhoods. These leaders engage in civic decision making, networking and capacity building opportunities throughout their membership term.
The TSNS Advisory Group provides input on:
As a part of Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) activities, Community Development Unit staff outlined a TSNS Community Network Engagement Plan that is being implemented in a multi-step, phased process.
Building on previous learning models, the Inform, Engage, Collaborate approach develops a shared understanding among participants and centers equity across all TSNS Community Networks. City staff are working with The Neighbourhood Organization, in partnership with Rexdale Community Health Centre, Progress Place -Community Place Hub, University Health Network – Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, The Neighbourhood Group, and The Corner @ SJT, to highlight actions for new TSNS Community Networks.
TSNS Community Networks will be convened online starting in Fall 2024.
| Community Coordination Plan Clusters | Community Networks | Total # of Ambassadors |
| North Etobicoke | North Etobicoke | 2 |
| South Scarborough | South Scarborough | 2 |
| East York Don Valley | East York Don Valley | 2 |
| Black Creek Humber Summit | Jane Finch Downsview | 2 |
| York Weston Pelham | York Weston Pelham | 2 |
| Downtown East, Downtown West | Downtown | 2 |
| North Scarborough | North Scarborough | 2 |
| North York | North York | 2 |
| South Etobicoke | South Etobicoke | 2 |
TSNS Community Networks will:
Once established, TSNS Community Networks will function as a community of practice and will focus on:
Please sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter to stay up to date on TSNS Community Network meeting dates.
To support continued engagement through Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS), City staff are working with The Neighbourhood Organization, in partnership with Rexdale Community Health Centre, Progress Place – West Mount Dennis Community Place Hub, University Health Network – Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine, The Neighbourhood Group, Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities and St James Town Community Corner, to establish an Ambassador program that supports TSNS Community Networks.
This initiative grows out of learnings from the City’s Vaccine Engagement Teams as Ambassadors are positioned in communities to increase and/or enhance communication, trust, engagement and information sharing across equity-deserving groups and communities. This approach will aim to deepen relationships and connections across regional areas representing 9 TSNS Community Networks.
Ambassadors will support TSNS Community Network implementation by:
The Local Leadership Grant supports place-based, resident-led projects that focus on wellness, social inclusion, and the promotion of civic engagement and education across all neighbourhoods. The Local Leadership Grant will prioritize the leadership and participation of Indigenous, Black and other equity-deserving groups within Neighbourhood Improvement Areas and Emerging Neighbourhoods.
Learn more about the Local Leadership Grant.
In 2022, City staff surveyed over 90 community and resident-led groups to deepen the City’s understanding of community-based leadership, engagement activities, and how they might be better supported through the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS). Based on these survey responses City staff engaged external community consultants to host four virtual discussion sessions with community and resident-led groups to help further inform the TSNS engagement plan.
Key findings and recommendations from these discussion sessions included:
City staff established the Local Leaders Forum to support community and resident-led groups from all neighbourhoods. The Local Leaders Forum aligns with the TSNS and other City Equity Strategies, and incorporates learnings from the ongoing work of the Community Coordination Plan.
The Local Leaders Forum is virtually convened in quarterly sessions to provide:
Goals of the Local Leaders Forum include:
Please sign up for the Community Leaders Newsletter to be informed of 2024 forum dates.
Community Hubs are neighbourhood gathering places that welcome local residents to connect with each other and their community. They are places to relax, meet up or work. Hubs offer a wide range of spaces for local community groups to meet, hold events and workshops and can also include programs, supports and services from non-profit organizations. Learn more about Community Hubs.
In partnership with Social Planning Toronto, a selection of TSNS Advisory Group members developed a Resident Engagement Toolkit designed to support community-based organizations and City partners in deepening their understanding of the best practices for engagement, particularly with equity-deserving groups. This workshop toolkit was a collaborative project and is the outcome of community consultations carried out between August and December 2022. The consultations aimed to center resident leaders’ expertise, current realities, identify tools and approaches to facilitate meaningful engagement and partnerships, and support enhanced community development outcomes for sustainable, resident-led neighbourhood work in Toronto. Everyone is welcome to review and use the Resident Engagement Toolkit to inform their ongoing work and engagement with equity-deserving communities.
City staff partnered with Social Planning Toronto to develop the Community Playbook to assist community leaders with concrete knowledge and tools they can use in their place-based community engagement work, as well as to support new Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy (TSNS) Community Networks. The Community Playbook serves as an interactive guide with more than 100 pages of resources for community leaders and residents involved in community engagement projects within their respective networks and neighborhoods to help them in their planning, engagement, funding applications, project coordination, and more! Check out the Community Playbook and how you might be able to utilize this exciting new resource in your community development work.
The City of Toronto now has 158 social planning neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood designations help City staff collect data, plan, analyze and forecast City services. While these neighbourhoods may not fully encompass every historical, cultural, ethnic or economic neighbourhood area, they do provide a way for planners and researchers to track information about them over time. Learn more about updates to Toronto’s social planning neighbourhoods.
In 2014, the City used the Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool to score neighbourhoods under five domains of neighbourhood well-being. The five domains were:
The Urban HEART scores helped the City identify Neighbourhoods Improvement Areas for additional investment through the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy.