November 28, 2016
Councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10 York Centre), Chair of the Community Development and Recreation Committee, along with City of Toronto staff and members of the Toronto Child and Family Network, today launched the Raising the Village initiative as well as a supportive advertising campaign under the slogan "It takes a village to raise a child."
This initiative promotes the availability of new data, research and tools that measure the well-being of Toronto's children and families. With this new information, governmental and community partners can work together to improve the outcomes for these children and their families.
"As a city, we need to work together to help ensure that every child has an equal opportunity to experience everything that this world-class city has to offer," said Councillor Pasternak. "The ongoing work that will be part of the Raising the Village initiative will help us ensure that we build a more child-friendly city."
Raising the Village was developed by the Toronto Child and Family Network in partnership with Toronto Children's Services. Along with extensive research, Raising the Village contains 28 child health and well-being indicators from a variety of sources. There is also a new tool for planning and policy-making that shows areas of Toronto with the highest inequities, called the Child and Families Inequities Score. Raising the Village is accessible online at
http://www.toronto.ca/raisingthevillage.
"Through Raising the Village, we can see that children from different socioeconomic backgrounds are experiencing different outcomes," said Elaine Baxter-Trahair, General Manager of the City's Children's Services division. "This initiative will help us address these gaps so that we can improve the health and well-being of all children across this city."
The outdoor advertising campaign called "It takes a city to raise a child" is being launched today to promote awareness of the availability of the new research, data and tools.
Members of the public are invited to join in a conversation about how Toronto can become a child-friendly city through the hashtag #childfriendlyTO.
Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit
http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us @TorontoComms.
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Media contact: Aggie Fortier, Strategic Communications, 416-397-5326, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
