Eglinton East — A neighbourhood of young people taking ownership

Eglinton East is a neighbourhood in the east of Toronto, with a sizable number of youth and junior youth who make up most of the population of the local middle and high schools. Efforts began in 2017 when two youth, who had recently moved from another Toronto neighbourhood — St. James Town — wished to bring the process of community building, in which they had been involved since they were children, to their new street.

With the encouragement of an assistant to an Auxiliary Board member, a study circle was started with a few youth, followed by a children’s class and a few devotional gatherings in the homes of participating families. By the end of 2019 there were ten activities engaging fifty to sixty people. Most of those families had also moved from St. James Town; the work in Eglinton East was, at that point, an extension of theirs.

That picture changed deliberately. The friends began to ask how the process could advance with as little assistance as possible from outside the neighbourhood — drawing instead on the capacity and ownership the youth had shown. Between 2020 and 2023 the number of activities grew from ten to ninety, and participants from fifty to six hundred.

What made the growth sustainable

The friends settled into a rhythm of institute campaigns every cycle and weekly study circles that did not stop. Before and after each campaign the youth in the institute reflected on opportunities to invite others, and on what helped a new participant attend their first book — or a previous participant return for the next one.

Equally important was the practice of bringing those moving through a particular book alongside those moving through the previous one — so that almost everyone in the process was also accompanying somebody. Two experienced tutors from outside the neighbourhood worked with ten tutors from among the population, alongside a still-growing number of youth and junior youth identified for their desire to serve and their vision of growth.

A pattern that quietly reshapes a young life

In a given year a young person in this pattern of action might receive 200 hours of study — about 130 in campaigns and 70 in other settings — and have 100 or more hours of programmed service: a weekly junior youth group, monthly camps in the school year, week-long camps during the summer, devotional gatherings, home visits.

By 2024, sixty-two youth had been mobilized into service, including eight who had completed the seventh book in the main sequence. The pattern is not held up by any single individual. It is held up by the conviction, shared by all involved, that understanding, capacity and ownership grow as friends are accompanied into the field of service.