Features
Changing Scarborough's violent imageOnce nicknamed "Scarlem," this community finds itself at the forefront of a change.
Matthew Gutwillig│April 13, 2009 The media portrayal of Scarborough as a violent-ridden community escalated during the “Year of the Gun” in 2005. Don Gillmor’s 2007 article in Toronto Life, “The Scarborough Curse” put the nail in the coffin for the area by describing it as “a mess of street gangs, firebombings and stabbings.” Through this turbulent time, local social agencies continue to work on reducing violence and restoring the community’s tainted reputation. East Metro Youth Services (EMYS) has been at the forefront of this effort and is a Scarborough-run mental-health centre for children that fosters two separate anti-violence programs for youth called the Respect in Schools Everywhere (RISE) program and the Violence Intervention Project (VIP). The RISE program is a city-wide initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Ontario Trillium Foundation. It began in September 2004 and focuses on engaging youth from “at-risk” neighbourhoods in activities throughout 12 schools across Toronto. “The youth have basically driven all of our practices because the program has a youth engagement focus,” says Saleem Haniff, the RISE program coordinator at Scarborough’s Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute. “That means they are involved at every single level of the program whether it is program creation or implementation,” says Haniff.
“When some youth hear [the negative reputation] it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and they internalize it,” says Haniff. “But what we do at RISE is show that there are youth who are tired of violence, unhealthy relationships and gangs, and that there is another side to it.” A safe place to live The other side to this debacle is that Scarborough is predominantly a peaceful place to reside. “The 42 Division is the safest division in all of Toronto based on population. It has been the safest division in Toronto for the last two years,” says Toronto Police Service 42 Division, Supt. Bob Clarke. The 42 Division in Toronto is the largest in geographical area and stretches north of Highway 401 to Steeles Avenue, between Victoria Park Avenue and the Pickering Townline in the east. Clarke says that major crime was down 15 per cent in 2007 and 13 per cent last year in Division 42. The major crime cross section includes homicides, sexual assault and robberies, amongst other offenses. According to the Toronto Police Service Homicide Squad, the homicide rate for Divisions 41 to 43 in Scarborough declined 30 per cent in 2008 from 2007. Voicing out against violence The other project of EMYS, the VIP, has been making a positive change within the community as well. The 11 year-old program engages youth from neighbourhoods that are deemed susceptible to violence. Methods used to teach youth include journalism, multimedia, and school-based prevention/diversion programs, amongst other projects. Youth are then able to propose their own ideas about how to keep their community and schools safer. “From my perspective its given them a place of empowerment, a platform for their voice to be heard in their community and a voice [to express] what’s important to them and the people around them,” says the VIP’s journalism coordinator, Priya Ramanujam. Youth in her program learn skills such as video-editing, film production, photography and copy-writing.
“Keyon motivated me to join the VIP because his death was such a surprise,” says Dhatt. “I never used to care about violence, but then I started realizing as I grew older that it does happen within my community and it feels like it’s getting worse.” The 18-year-old has written for the VIP’s newsletter and magazine about the violence-related problems surrounding gay youth in Scarborough and the success stories of local rap artists and producers. “I think violence can be reduced by changing our attitudes and changing the way we speak to people. It can start from a small issue such as a conversation gone wrong,” she says. “Showing the success stories and what people are able to accomplish motivates other youth to work harder.” Change has come Local city councillor, Norm Kelly, launched a campaign tackling the negative portrayal of the area in 2007 by requesting that journalists refer to crimes in Scarborough by naming major intersections, much like the rest of the city. Kelly believes that the majority of media makers heard his plea in an effort to alter the suburb’s reputation. “I think it has been a 70 per cent success. Most television stations refer now to the street names,” says Kelly. “The way the media now reports crime shows that slowly the reputation will change.” Ramanujam points out that it will take the entire Scarborough community to make a complete change. “Just like it takes a village to raise child, it takes an entire community to combat an issue like violence. We’re doing our part, so everyone else has to do theirs.”
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Related websites: Related articles: Scarborough tries to clear its "crime" rep T.O.'s latest gun victim discovered by his mother
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At Cedarbrae, 45 RISE youth delegates receive training in presenting educational material and workshops about gangs, bullying, dating violence, homophobia and gender-based violence to Grade 9 and 10 students in their own school and younger children in feeder schools. 
The brutal shooting of her 16-year-old acquaintance Keyon Campbell in December 2007 provided impetus for Ranj Dhatt to join the VIP’s journalism program.