By Dawar Naeem
Community Journalist Focus Media Arts Centre

The Employment and Economic Development (EED) Working Group’s overarching goal is to increase sustainable employment rates and entrepreneurial opportunities for local residents. This Working Group’s responsibility is to engage residents and stakeholders to develop and lead the implementation of an action plan with support of the Regent Park's Social Development Plan stakeholders Table.

The Employment and Economic Development working group of the Regent Park Social Development Plan held a hybrid meeting on Zoom and at CSI Community Living Room situated on the ground floor at the Daniel's Spectrum in Regent Park.

Brain Eng, the Co-Chair of the table began with the introductions and Ismail Afrah presented the Multi-Media based Land acknowledgement. Introduced by Brian Eng, Joey Shalizi of the Black Scholars Dollars spoke to the table about creating a network for funding black post secondary students. The goal of the program is to help black post secondary students obtain funding to support them in their education journey. One of the Resident in attendance questioned, “why is the program supporting youth from diverse backgrounds who are not black? Joey replied that currently the program is focused on supporting black post secondary students. Obviously there could be room to have a larger discussion regarding what other resources exist for youth from other ethnic backgrounds.

In Collaboration with Daniels Corporation, the EED table organized a Meet and Greet with employers hiring in Regent Park and surrounding areas. Basharat Food Services, St. Michael's Hospital, Daniels Corporation and Dixon Hall presented and shared employment opportunities for Regent Park Residents.