Compared to the City of Toronto, the St James Town neighbourhood has lower income, more unemployment, poorer heath, and feels a greater sense of isolation.  In the first phase of the Collective Impact proposal there were a series of community consultations to reflect on the research evidence.  The community validated the evidence and strongly felt that the issues identified were interconnected and needed to be understood and addressed at that level. Un/under employment, safety, mental health and addictions, and social isolation particularly of seniors and young newcomer women were identified as key issues facing the community. At the same time, the community also felt that they have many strengths in their diversity and collective assets, and this was often overshadowed by the challenges.  The community felt that building a positive narrative while building on strengths and synergies in addressing the problems facing the neighbourhood was key to a successful initiative

The first phase of the Collective Impact initiative focused on developing a common vision for the St. James Town neighbourhood, bringing a broad group of stakeholders to the Collective Impact Steering Committee table and formalizing a governance structure for the initiative involving the backbone – comprising three organisations, and the steering and advisory committees.  Stakeholders include, but are not limited to residents, businesses, City of Toronto, media, Toronto Police Service, Toronto Community Housing, landlords, Toronto Central LHIN and service providers.  The St. James Town neighbourhood has an already existing culture of collaboration – among service providers and between cross-sectoral service providers and residents. The St James Town Community Corner (The Corner), the St. James Town Service Providers Network, the Seniors Mental Health Day Program and Health Access St James Town are examples of such collaboration. The Collective Impact initiative is a further extension of this culture of collaboration which we believe would inspire new members to join the initiative. Further, the collaborative leadership of The Corner helped to drive forward the planning and coordination required in this phase.

Phase 2 will involve the development of a sound proposal and thorough work plan for actualizing the vision for the initiative.  The Steering Committee and Advisory committee will support and guide this process while the backbone will be responsible for the actual development of the proposal and work plan.  During this process a comprehensive theory of change will be developed, working groups will be struck, and more stakeholders will be invited into the initiative.  There will be a shared measurement system with indicators that will be created.  There will also be the establishment of a robust community engagement strategy.  This stage is crucial to a successful implementation phase.