THE GREEN LINE
ORIGINAL STORY
NEW HYPERLOCAL APP CONNECTS REGENT PARK RESIDENTS AND COMBATS STEREOTYPES
Hello Neighbour is a virtual community bulletin board that shows the downtown east-end neighbourhood through local residents' eyes.
Regent Park residents sit outside in the community garden at 40 Oak St.
: AMANDA SERAPHINA
JULIA LAWRENCE
Aspiring film photographer who studies journalism, communication and design at Toronto Metropolitan University. Visits beaches at 6 a.m. to clear her head.
AMANDA SERAPHINA JAMES RAJAKUMAR
Indian immigrant with a post-grad in journalism from Centennial College. Now living in Grange Park, meeting new people, and hearing different stories. Has four names, so it’s a pick-your-player situation.
September 15, 2023
A new app tailor-made for Regent Park is all about sharing news for community, by community.
Hello Neighbour is a hyperlocal way to stay connected for Regent Park residents, and its creators now want to see the app expand to every neighbourhood in Toronto.
Soft-launched last March, it features neighbourhood news, job postings, hyperlocal events, opportunities to join virtual or in-person tours of Regent Park and more.
Communications Coordinator Ibrahim Afrah says Hello Neighbour is the first app of its kind in the city, and that it aims to combat stereotypes by showing Regent Park through community members' eyes.
IBRAHIM AFRAH, COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR OF HELLO NEIGHBOUR, SITS IN FRONT OF A RAILING.
: AMANDA SERAPHINA
"We do have violence with our young people, but that is not the pinnacle of the whole story. The pinnacle of the whole story is [about] where residents gather, where residents come together to bring change. We have many stories [of] how that happened, and that's what we want to share with the new residents that are coming," he explains.
Indeed, despite recent revitalization efforts in the neighbourhood, Regent Park community members are still fighting negative stereotypes.
Kaitlyn Ferreira, community development specialist at Yonge Street Mission, acknowledges this outsider perception but says she specifically moved to Regent Park to live and work.
When people criticize the neighbourhood, Ferreira tells them, "'I feel safer in Regent Park than anywhere else in the city.'"
She adds, "I can be walking down the street and I recognize five people that I know from various community meetings or events. I have never felt safer."
With over 800 downloads so far, Hello Neighbour's founders took an old-school approach to promoting the app. They spoke to residents in person, and encouraged them to download it via QR codes on posters.
Walied Khogali, a board member for the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association, says the app was a collective effort driven by the association, local entrepreneurs and community groups, specifically Vision of Tomorrow and Yonge Street Mission.
Walied Khogali and Anita Li sit across from each other on a railing.
: AMANDA SERAPHINA
“It exposes the magic or what's possible when people collaborate, when people work together instead of working in silos," Khogali says. "I would actually like to see this app in every neighbourhood across the City of Toronto. It will make it way more accessible for folks to access those critical services, programming events and most importantly, people to connect with each other."
It's early days, so the team is still getting feedback to improve the app and attract more users. Locals who’ve seen Hello Neighbour say there's a lot of promise.
HUMAIRA RAHMAN, BORN AND RAISED REGENT PARK RESIDENT STANDS IN DANIEL SPECTURM'S LOBBY.
: AMANDA SERAPHINA
“If you're looking for a job in Regent Park and you live in Regent Park, this is the perfect way to find it," says local resident Humaira Rahman.
Karly-Lynne Scott, manager of communications for The Children’s Book Bank says, “I don't live in the community, but I work here and I think this would be a really useful app to know of other things that are going on in the community.”
KARLY-LYNNE SCOTT, MANAGER OF COMMUNICATIONS AT THE CHILDREN'S BOOK BANK.
: AMANDA SERAPHINA
In June 2023, after Bill C-18 mandated tech giants like Meta and Google to pay Canadian media outlets for news content shared on those social platforms, they responded by limiting Canadians' access to the outlets' social accounts and news links, leading to a country-wide media blackout.
So, Afrah’s focus is on making Hello Neighbour an essential hub for Regent Park.
“It's run by local residents with the support of so many stakeholders. The majority of the apps that you see, I would say, use a top-down approach while this one is a bottom-up approach where everybody is collaborating, [so] how do we make it as useful as possible?" he explains.
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