Farzana Javed, a mother of three, quickly got ready and came to Emery Collegiate’s grounds on Saturday afternoon for recreation for her kids. Her friend had told her about Community Carnival at the school; and without wanting to lose any time on having other friends come with her, Mrs. Javed brought her kids for a fun filled day.

“It’s summer and kids get tired of sitting at home,” Mrs. Javed tell us the reason for her rushing to the grounds.

Nury Rugeles, assistant executive director of Delta Family Resource Centre, says “we’ve organized this [community carnival] to raise awareness about lack of space in the community. We want to bring forward this [lack of space issue for community and kids] to appropriate political channels.”

Pointing to the school’s grounds, Ms.Rugeles, said “[this soccer field] isn’t really for kids to enjoy and interact; there are no trees here for kids to sit under or any other recreational equipment.”

“We like to promote connections between the neighbours,” she added, as parents and their children continue to enter the carnival by first signing a petition to support recognition of this need.

In collaboration with Heart and Stroke Foundation, Delta Family Resource Centre is striving hard to make parks and recreation centres accessible to low income families with facilities where children can enjoy physical activities. There is only one community centre in the neighbourhood, according to Ms. Rugeles. Since families cannot afford to have expensive gym memberships, the recreation services remain inaccessible in this high priority neighbourhood of North York, and this is compounded by high immigration trends, low income housing, and health concerns.

The predominant cultural communities in the Humber Summit neighbourhood served by Delta are South Asians, Caribbean, Somalians, Latin Americans and a few Italians.

Delta Family Resource Centre also works closely with a youth advisory group called SWAAG to collaborate with youth and to give them the much needed voice within the educational system and their communities. This youth group advises Delta of their needs and concerns, so they can be adequately addressed by staff. The issue of recreational space and subsidized programming is one of them.

In this Summer community carnival alone, more than 200 families were served by Delta Family Resource Centre.

Author: Pratiti Patel