Learn more about the construction trades pathway here:

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East Scarborough Works is a demand-led, supply-driven, network-managed approach to local workforce development that ensures when local jobs are created, local people have the best possible chance of being successful candidates for those jobs.

We have seen an opportunity:

Over the next 2-20 years, significant investment in public institutions and infrastructure in East Scarborough is forecast. These public projects are bringing investment to the KGO community: The University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC) master plan includes investments of $0.5 billion in expansion; the anticipated Scarborough “super-hospital” and LRT expansions hold the promise of millions of dollars of investment in construction jobs over the next decade or two.

East Scarborough Works leverages local investment to benefit the community by creating local employment opportunities. It acts as a bridge between players, creating new processes and pathways to link people looking for work to jobs and training for the jobs being created in the community, particularly jobs resulting from public spending in institutions, organizations and infrastructure projects.

CURRENT PATHWAY OPPORTUNITIES

Construction Trades employment pathway: Connect with local jobs coming up through a major expansion planned for University of Toronto Scarborough ($500 million dollars over the next ten years) in partnership with UTSC and the LiUNA Labourer’s union (Local 506 and 183)

Working with People in the Social Sector employment pathway: Get training, coaching, and job search support to secure employment in the social sector.

FUTURE PATHWAY OPPORTUNITIES

We are exploring future pathway opportunities related to the following public projects and anchor institutions that are forecast to bring significant investment to the East Scarborough community:

Scarborough Health Network "super-hospital" expansion

LRT and other Scarborough transit expansions

Toronto Zoo (see Press Release about recent 3-year Memorandum of Understanding signed between The Storefront and the Zoo)

Did you know that there are good jobs with diverse career paths coming to Scarborough? The Storefront and the East Scarborough Works network can support you to get on the pathway to prepare for, secure, and keep local jobs. Learn more, and be part of the change to build a more prosperous and thriving East Scarborough!

What are these employment pathways all about?

Prepare to train and qualify for local jobs we know are coming, with the support of an employment coach at The Storefront

Our training pathways are designed to lead directly to real, decent jobs in sectors that we know offer growth opportunities and career options (examples include: construction trades, health care, and social service work).

Work with a dedicated employment coach who is there to support you all the way through your training and employment journey, even after you secure a job. Additional supports may include:

- Support with personal issues that get in the way of work, like legal, housing, and immigration
- Building the skills you need for the job (for example, through coaching, workshops, or a training program)
- Employment supports, like resume and interview prep
- Financial support
- Addressing other barriers that can make it hard to access training (for example, arranging transportation to training sites elsewhere in the city)

We are working directly with employers and major institutions: they want to hire local and they’re excited to work with the East Scarborough community.

East Scarborough Works is a workforce development network that combines a deep understanding of what local employers are looking for in employing candidates, with a deep understanding of the people and networks in the local community, and then uses all available resources to create effective workforce development pathways between local people and local jobs.

Our work has revealed that private sector employers, anchor institutions, and those responsible for public infrastructure projects are inspired to hire locally, but there’s a disconnect between the jobs that they create and the employment supports intended to prepare people for the job market. East Scarborough Works uses the Connected Community Approach to create new processes and pathways that leverage existing employment programs, essential skills training, and social supports so that local people are as prepared as possible to take full advantage of the jobs being created in their own community.

East Scarborough Works is demand-led.

This means it starts with gaining a full understanding of an employer’s needs, now and in the future. Forecasting future opportunities and identifying skill requirements well in advance of when hiring begins allows us to create strong pathways to connect appropriate individuals with appropriate training and supports, so they can be ready to secure and retain employment when hiring begins!

Visit our Multimedia section to learn how East Scarborough Works is already working for the University of Toronto - Scarborough (UTSC) and the Labourers International Union of North America (LiUNA)

Wrap around service providers who offer support to individuals are effectively preparing candidates for the local workforce. They assist people in stabilizing their lives so that people can spend the time needed to focus on job searching and then eventually retaining employment.

Employment organizations support people looking for work through the development of job search skills, referrals to wrap around service providers, towards training opportunities, etc.

East Scarborough Works has intentionally aligned a myriad of service providers, including community agencies and employment organizations, among many others, to support people looking for work along this pathway.

Scarborough Collaborative Employment Network East – SCENE

Scarborough Collaborative Employment Network East (SCENE) is an informal group of employment agencies offering Employment Ontario programs to their community members. The members include YWCA Toronto, PCPI, Centennial College, JVS Toronto, ACCES Employment, and The Storefront and all agencies are poised to play a key connector role within East Scarborough Works.

Visit our Multimedia section to learn how East Scarborough Works is already working for our wraparound support partners including PTP Adult Learning & Employment!

Check out more resources and information about East Scarborough Works

The Storefront was a key participant in Metcalf’s sponsored Resilient Neighbourhood Economies Initiative (RNE) where we explored and tested ideas for building local economic resilience. This work helped us pioneer and grow our Connected Community Approach (CCA), which works across traditional boundaries between residents, local change makers, sector players and decision makers, to better connect people to the systems that support them, the systems to the people they support and to each other. In the CCA framework, people and organizations are encouraged and supported to collaborate and co-create initiatives.

East Scarborough Works (ESW), a project of The Storefront, grew out of our work with RNE, originally run as a pilot under the Ontario Local Poverty Reduction Fund. The purpose of this early work was to:

Understand what local systems helped or hindered local people from getting local jobs being created as a result of public spending
Create a local workforce development network that included employers, unions, residents, employment organizations
Prototype solutions to system fragmentation

ESW Outcomes 2016-2018

The Guild Inn

In 2016, Dynamic Hospitality, in partnership with the City of Toronto, set out to restore the historical Guild Inn in East Scarborough, turning it into a state of the art event venue capable of housing a variety of events including: weddings, corporate, social or charitable gatherings. The restoration included a full-service restaurant, Bickford Bistro (http://guildinnestate.com/). The East Scarborough Works partners worked with Dynamic Entertainment to create a local hiring strategy to:

Access to a motivated pool of qualified local candidates;
Streamline the hiring process, by leveraging employment organizations to assist in fielding inquiries, conducting outreach and screening resumes;
Leverage training partners to provide training that met Dynamic’s specifications
Leverage social service partners so that candidates had the supports they need to succeed.
Leverage Employment Ontario and Toronto Employment and Social Services supports and financial incentives while new employees are training on the job;

Result: Upon opening, 22 local residents were successfully employed at the new facility

Working with People in the Social Sector

Public investment in East Scarborough can be seen in a number of sectors including the social sector. In 2017, as part of East Scarborough Works, The Storefront and its partners engaged in an innovative research project Exploring Success in the Social Sector designed to a) explore the barriers people living in poverty might face in accessing employment in the social sector and b) identify possible strategies for reducing those barriers.

Among the key recommendations from this research was to: “introduce a comprehensive, demand-led, social sector training program in a geographical area which factors local trends and labour market forecasting into the curriculum and post-program supports”. To that end, The Storefront and its partner the Centre for Connected Communities developed Working With People in the Social Sector, designed to leverage the Connected Community Approach/local partnerships to help people living in poverty to bridge to employment in the social sector or relevant academic upgrading.

Result 2018: 23 local residents successfully employed in social sector jobs (92% of participants)

City of Toronto Pilot

In 2018, the Centre for Connected Communities (C3) was awarded one-time funding to support East Scarborough Works.

In consultation with Social Development Finance and Administration, it became apparent that an effective use of the funds would be to explore and prototype how this place-based networked workforce development strategy (East Scarborough Works) could support multiple City strategies and initiatives including:

TO Prosperity: Poverty Reduction Strategy
Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy
Youth Equity Strategy
Toronto Newcomer Strategy
Toronto Community Benefit Agreements

This is our current work. The network is in place. East Scarborough Storefront and its sister organization the Centre for Connected Communities are able to play an intermediary role to leverage existing programs and resources for better outcomes. We are currently exploring how this intermediary role can best support decent work for the people of East Scarborough in collaboration with multiple City departments. We are designing prototypes that may, in time, lead to the creation of and focal point for East Scarborough Works: an East End Skills Training Centre.