The San Romanoway Revival project applied a model created by the SNAP program to actively engage community members and foster community leadership among project participants.
The SNAP program’s Participant to Leader model guides the process of transforming participants into empowered leaders.
It all begins with listening to and responding to local interest and acknowledging that local perspectives are expert perspectives.
The next step is to create innovative experiences to engage members of the public who have not yet been fully engaged.
After that, the aim is to entice regular participation around topics of interest to residents, and to inspire community connections to form among peers.
The plan is to then profile community champions to positively reinforce participant behaviour. Finally, once a group of new champions emerges, project staff begin to build their capacity and provide opportunities for them to act as empowered leaders.
THE PARTICIPANT TO LEADER MODEL
SNAP ensured that this model was applied to all elements of the San Romanoway project. After listening and responding to the residents’ interest in urban agriculture and job skills training, SNAP organized a variety of training sessions at San Romanoway, including:
- Garden management and urban agriculture training
- Certification for residents in orchard management, fruit tree care, and horticulture
- Internship opportunities in natural landscaping and tree care
- Carpentry skills to contribute to on-site outdoor furniture
- Leadership and community organizing
- Fundraising
“For me, through this project we have become a thriving, transformed, enthusiastic and involved community — people of all ages, and all walks of life working and living together side-by-side.” – Phyllis Brown, San Romanoway Resident
These sessions attracted participants from many different backgrounds, and provided ample mentorship time as well as opportunities to connect with neighbours and nature (engagement strategies that enticed regular participation and connections).
In the later years of the project, the Green Champion program and other leadership initiatives were implemented to profile key community member as capable and valued. These have empowered various community members to become leaders on-site.
There are now resident leaders overseeing the pollinator garden and orchard, and the gardeners have established a Garden Committee. They elect their own leaders from among the group, fundraise together, and have confidence to seek support from property managers when needed.
Some residents have even gone on to find employment and pursue a career in green jobs as a result of the program, a further indicator that the emphasis on job skills training has been successful in creating engagement and empowerment.
Having homegrown on-site community leadership is a powerful asset for project longevity, and a great bridge to open and honest communication between tenants and building management.
“Through TRCA SNAP they gave us the guideline of how to form committees, we have board members and they taught us everything about the garden. We learned to gather rainwater, we have 120 residents involved, basically everyone working together to make the garden run well.” – Paul McLean, San Romanoway Resident Leader