This organization’s ‘connected community approach’ is changing how social services are designed

This Storefront has prioritized community well-being every step of the way

Why It Matters

COVID-19 has forced many organizations that focus on community well-being to reimagine how they provide essential services. Strengthening community resilience and well-being using innovative social R&D methods is how social service organizations are moving forward post pandemic.

This story is in partnership with the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Before The East Scarborough Storefront opened 20 years ago, social services for the disproportionate percentage of community members living below the poverty line were scarce. 

“There was very little [philanthropic] money on the table and a huge crisis in the community where people were struggling with marginalization and racialization. Refugees were arriving and there were virtually no services in the neighbourhood,” says Anne Gloger, principal of The Storefront.

The creation of The Storefront came after public health workers and volunteers from the Caring Alliance saw that something needed to change. They contacted various agencies that were mandated to service East Scarborough but hadn’t been able to reach as m

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