COFFEE, COOKIES BEAT DRUG DEALS

Jane-Finch residents' unique approach lauded

Fighting drug dealers with coffee and cookies?

That's the unique approach one public housing complex in Toronto's
Jane-Finch community has taken with amazing results.

``People were getting sick and tired of the drug dealers hanging around,
making a mess and doing things they wouldn't do in their own homes,''
recalled resident Barbara Bielskis.

``So we set up welcoming tables in the lobby with coffee, cookies, juice
and community information. Residents started stopping and chatting and
getting to know one another.

``It made the drug dealers nervous. And pretty soon, they moved on.''

Security guards, local police and the province's ``zero tolerance'' policy
for drug use in public housing also helped, Bielskis admits.

But none of that could have happened if the residents at 15 Tobermory Dr.
didn't care about the quality of life in their community, she believes.

That caring - and countless other examples like it in the area - were
celebrated at the 400-unit housing complex yesterday as the Ontario
Trillium Foundation named Jane-Finch one of five Caring Communities for
1998.

The $20,000 award, created in 1997, is the only one in Canada that honours
communities for dealing with social and economic challenges in creative
ways.

Unlike other awards that sin gle out agencies or individuals, it recognizes
communities as a whole for their efforts to work together, said the
foundation's executive director Julie White.

Communities in Sudbury, Georgian Bay, Hamilton and the North Shore First
Nations were other award recipients yesterday.

All winners will be invited to share their experiences at a national
conference on community building in Toronto in October.

Jane-Finch hopes to use the $20,000 to build and furnish a community centre
at the York Gate Shopping Mall, which is donating the space. The community
will also use the award in its longstanding battle to improve the area's
image.

``It's about time we got some recognition for the great stuff that happens
in this community,'' says Bielskis, 39, who heads the 15 Tobermory Dr.
residents' council.

``People who don't live here think Jane-Finch is nothing but crime and
problems,'' she says.

While the area's massive rental housing complexes are plagued by poor
design, tenants and community groups have worked hard to overcome these
physical challenges.

``I feel safer in this community than I do downtown. And we raise good
kids, too,'' Bielskis says, adding that her daughter and the children of
many of her neighbours are enrolled in university.

Patricia Rodriques who lives at the 382-unit Firgrove public housing
complex has her own story of community caring.

As a poll clerk during the 1997 federal election, the 51-year-old mother of
three was appalled by voter apathy among her neighbours.

So during last fall's municipal election, she and former tenants'
association president Kathleen Blair wrote a letter to every tenant urging
them to vote. Then they knocked on every door to deliver the message
personally.

``It takes two hands to clap and you can't expect politicians to do things
for you if you don't even vote,'' Rodriques says.

``The most beautiful thing that happened on election day was to see people
who said voting doesn't make a difference coming out to vote,'' added
Blair, 52, who has raised five children in the area.

With the support of the Jane-Finch Community Ministry, the efforts
increased voter turnout 10-fold, to 50 per cent from just 5 per cent in the
1994 municipal election.

``This has been an empowering experience for the tenants,'' says Barry
Rieder, a minister in the community.

``A local politician who ignored this community in the past is starting to
support services such as the local breakfast program.''

With about 70 nationalities in Jane-Finch and more than 110 languages and
dialects, the community is one of the most diverse in the country.

High numbers of unemployed people, teen mothers, children under age 16 and
working poor families coexist with a sizeable group of middle-class
homeowners.

The challenge of bridging those racial, economic, social and ideological
barriers prompted social activist Ruth Morris to spend her retirement years
working in the community she's called home for almost 30 years.

As head of the Black Creek Anti Drug Focus Coalition since 1990, Morris has
been instrumental in getting the major banks to make financial services
more accessible to low-income people in the area.

The Trillium Foundation, an arm's-length agency of the provincial
government, is funded through proceeds of the Ontario Lottery Corp.

It is the province's largest charitable foundation and last year gave out
$17 million to about 400 community organizations across the province.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson