Toronto Neighbourhood Centre (TNC) Values
TNC members believe that well-being is
a social achievement and not exclusively an individual one, and that
every community needs a range of supports to flourish, including:
- government policies and programs that ensure equality of opportunity, income security, affordable housing, childcare, employment equity and human rights
- well-funded public education, healthcare and social services
- opportunities for civic engagement, celebration, expression, mutual support and democratic participation
- thriving local and regional economies
- sustainable relationships with the environment
Neighbourhood Centres are dedicated to
empowering neighbours to work together to meet local challenges and
create shared approaches to building community. They provide a crucial
focus and support for community development, and address the needs of
their area by integrating services, capacity building and social reform.
Inspired by the tradition of innovation
within the Settlement house movement, today’s neighbourhood centres
take many forms as they generate local solutions to global challenges.
Together and separately TNC members seek to catalyze change by:
- Developing relationships of trust and mutuality among people from different backgrounds and experience, as individuals, families and groups
- Bridging between those who are affected by decisions and those who make them
- Providing open and safe space for people to meet, organize, celebrate and participate actively in community life
- Building on people‘s potential and gifts rather than focusing on their problems
- Releasing the potential of communities as places of creativity and enterprise
- Strengthening the voice of people normally left out or ignored
- Cherishing our independence in order to remain flexible and responsive to opportunity
- Pioneering innovative approaches and solutions to neighbourhood issues
- Investing and reinvesting in community assets to build local sustainability