Availability and Access to Resources

neighbourhood, many of them mentioned schools, gymnasium, swimming pools, basketball courts, the Jane and Finch mall, the Jane and Finch library and community health care (inside the Jane and Finch mall), the viewpoint of participants were that the above resources were inadequate for the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Throughout the interviews, it was clear that the youth in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood use these resources to become engaged, and this enabled them to live a productive life. Most participants mentioned that they did not experience any marginalization when accessing resources in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood but felt marginalized when they moved outside their immediate space to access other resources in privileged neighbourhoods. What this suggests is that exclusion is felt more strongly when accessing resources outside the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

A gender difference in patterns of accessing neighbourhood emerged. The female participants interviewed explained that they preferred to visit the Jane and Finch shopping malls rather than using the gymnasium or playing basketball; however, some of the female participants indicated that they do attend major events at the youth centre. Both males and females readily accessed the Jane and Finch mall and Ghanaian ethnic shops (selling groceries and clothes etc.) in the neighbourhood, as illustrated below:

The Jane and Finch neighbourhood has the following: swimming pool, gym, basketball court and community centre. I don’t experience any form of discrimination in accessing these resources because the neighbourhood is an immigrant neighbourhood…Black people get along with Blacks… Somalians and Ghanaians I think (Yvonne, 20, F).

The Downsview Park is accessible to all. I pick up free movies. Sometimes they showcase cultural activities for us to attend. They don’t request for any ID … Additionally, I go to the library once a while to pick books and you need an ID card to do that (Marie, 28, F).

resources without perceiving any form of exclusion, because Jane and Finch is an immigrant neighbourhood and “Black people get along with Blacks.” As another female participant stated, the community centre in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood serves as a place for relaxation: “When my niece and nephew come to stay with me during summer holidays, we go to the community centre to hang out.”

The sentiment that “Black people get along with Blacks” was not unanimous. A view expressed by a male participant was that the establishment of the youth centre at the Jane and Finch neighbourhood bred conflicts among youths. For instance, Jamaicans could easily get into a fight with Nigerians if a team lost a match. As another participant states: “It serves as social space to breed crime, because most of the youth use these places to exchange drugs.” Below is a comment from a male participant:

I witnessed some guys getting arrested at the basketball court. But it’s because of their lifestyle…they deal in drugs…their behaviour and dressing. We used to play the basketball with them but when we are done we leave ...we do not hang out with them (Emmanuel, 22, M).

Despite the lack of unanimous opinion regarding the centre many participants cherished the presence of the centre and described it as a youth space for social integration, and maintained that it greatly helped them identify and support their career goals in sports:

Jane and Finch neighbourhood has a community centre, swimming pool etc. I use some of the resources at the neighbourhood. You don’t need any membership card to access these resources. No discrimination felt with the use of these resources. I play basketball in my neighbourhood. And it is a place for integration because you get to meet other people and hang around (Austin, 25, M).

primary school indicated that comparing the Jane and Finch neighbourhood’s resources to other neighbourhoods, such as those in Brampton, shows the need for the government to improve and increase the number of resources for youth in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Below is a comment from one interviewee:

Jane and Finch community centre is something most ethnic minorities use. The neighbourhood has a public library and a shopping mall. The resources are not really enough; comparing the resources in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood to other neighbourhoods such as Brampton, there is a great disparity. Jane and Finch has two high schools the Westview and the Emery high school. These schools are not well equipped with computers; school library (limited number of textbooks). Resources are not really there but the community itself tries to provide these resources (Emmanuel, 22, M).

Participants unanimously agreed that resources—especially those in the schools and libraries—are insufficient in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood due to the tax base of the neighbourhood, and therefore poor neighbourhoods tend to get poor resources.