Tips from Glenfield-Jane Heights on how to build a youth entrepreneurship hub on wheels
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Tips from Glenfield-Jane Heights on how to build a youth entrepreneurship hub on wheels
The Green Line team visited Oakdale Community Centre to learn how social enterprise Urban Rez Solutions is curbing youth crime through mobile entrepreneurship classes.
Farley Flex (left) and Roderick Brereton (right), co-executive directors of Urban Rez Solutions, stand outside their community mobile unit parked outside Oakdale Community Centre.
: Amanda Seraphina/The Green Line.
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.
May 16, 2025
Tips for building a community entrepreneurship hub on wheels:
- Retrofit an RV with a common space for youth to hang out and receive entrepreneurship training.
- Paint the RV's exterior to be eye-catching.
- Add features like a studio, so youth can learn to produce music or edit videos.
- Partner with local stakeholders in your neighbourhood, and enlist youth mentors from the community who understand the community.
- Park at spots where youth usually hang out in the neighbourhood, and can easily spot the RV.
- Encourage youth to check out the RV by offering free food.
- Get to know local youth, their talents and personality traits, and encourage them to think of a business idea based on their interests.
- Teach them financial management skills and guide them to set up their own business.
Youth crime in Canada is on the rise — but instead of just worrying about it, one group is trying to prevent it.
In the northwest neighbourhood of Glenfield-Jane Heights, a new community mobile unit is getting youth off the streets and into entrepreneurship classes. In 2024, there was a 21 per cent increase in shooting and firearm discharges in the neighbourhood, according to Toronto Police data.
Urban Rez Solutions’ community mobile unit is parked outside Oakdale Community Centre at 350 Grandravine Dr.
: Walter Korolewych for The Green Line.
Across Toronto, there have been 175 youth arrests so far in 2025 — an increase of 59 per cent since 2024, according to the Toronto Police Service. The TPS also told The Green Line that there were 1,081 charges laid this year, up by 238 per cent since last year.
The Criminal Justice System Dashboard from Canada's Department of Justice highlights various factors contributing to youth crime, including low family income, lack of employment opportunities, declining mental health and more.
To curb the rise in youth crime across the city, social enterprise Urban Rez Solutions partnered with the City of Toronto's SafeTO initiative to launch a community mobile unit that drives through priority neighbourhoods, partners with local stakeholders and runs entrepreneurship programming for 14- to 29-year-olds.
Youth gather outside Oakdale Community Centre by Urban Rez Solutions’ community mobile unit to eat food and learn about entrepreneurship.
: Amanda Seraphina/The Green Line.
On the road since April, the unit stops at Oakdale Community Centre in Glenfield-Jane Heights every Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. It also visits Jane and Finch, Rexdale, West Hill and Orton Park.
Inside the 33.5-foot retrofitted RV is a common space for youth to hang out, as well as a studio to learn music production and video editing. The unit also offers crisis response services, arriving at youth crime scenes with a counsellor on board.
Roderick Brereton, co-executive director of Urban Rez Solutions, says it’s important to take a crime-prevention approach to communities that lack opportunities and positive role models. Brereton’s goal is to teach youth to think before they act, and make wiser decisions that’ll keep them out of the criminal justice system.
He adds that economics drives most criminal activity.
“I think entrepreneurship is a way that people can make a pathway towards legal income by investing in themselves,” he says. “Using their transferable skills and [doing] it well to get that optimal performance out of potential."
Alamin Zubeir, a 22-year-old from Glenfield-Jane Heights, stands outside Oakdale Community Centre.
: Amanda Seraphina/The Green Line.
Alamin Zubeir, a 22-year-old from Glenfield-Jane Heights, stumbled upon the community RV while he was out for a walk. Zubeir says seeing the unit was exciting, and made him believe that support was finally coming to his neighbourhood.
“They teach you to become an entrepreneur, especially in this community where a lot of young Black guys don’t have the knowledge to become their own bosses,” he explains. “They tell us what we can do to become young Black bosses.”
This kind of community-driven mentorship is particularly impactful, especially since Glenfield-Jane Heights lacks programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto, according to Brooklyn Watson, a local youth mentor for Urban Rez Solutions.
“The more funding that we have and [the more we hire] people who are actually from the community that understand the community, I think that would help with decreasing violence and gun violence,” she says.
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