diversity : Featured Stories

By bringing together many of the city's strengths under one roof, Toronto's Fire & Emergency Training Institute (FESTI) has become a melting pot for fire fighters around the world.

Launched in January 2010, the Ontario Social Assistance Review Committee is taking a penetrating look at the province's support structures, and the implications for Toronto are big, says former United Way CEO, Frances Lankin.

Poverty and marginalization are persistent forces in the lives of Toronto's new immigrants. Carol Wilding and the Toronto Board of Trade put forward a series of strong recommendations in the 2010 local election. Where's the progress? And what still needs to be done?

For the first three years of its existence, the Black Daddies Club was a pilot project that aimed to build community and family in Malvern. Now, the group is moving into a new phase, with new programming, new research models, and a new neighbourhood at Jane and Finch.

Toronto's hip-hop scene has scored big this year with stars like Drake and K'naan. But beyond the hype, the youth organization Manifesto are building the next generation of talent and exporting their ideas outside of Toronto and Canada.

University of Toronto's Citizen Lab has opened its arms to the private sector, working with companies around the world on human rights issues. The lab is also tapping into the University's diverse student population to help it do its global work.

French Toronto is, on average, wealthy, smart and talented but flies under our radar. Though it has no distinct neighbourhood to call its own, the community builds itself around cultural institutions and cuts across a number of different nationalities.

The development industry hates it. The government doesn't want it. But inclusionary zoning is an idea that's not going away. Academics, activists, and opposition politicians like Adam Vaughan still tout it as an important piece of Toronto's affordable housing solution.

Whether it's what to wear to work or the intricate details of consulting, volunteers with the Mentoring Partnership Program have something to say about it. Veena Balram is one of 3,800 mentors that have been part of 5,300 GTA matches over the past six years.

Each year there are approximately 2,000 overseas adoptions in Canada, many of which create interracial families. Likewise, scores of domestic adoptions produce similar homes. There can be unique challenges for parents who raise children from a different background. Susan Crawford has solutions.

Rang Home Decor and Nucreation on Gerrard Street are two thriving family-owned businesses whose stories are told in the former Mayor of Toronto's new book that explores the city he led for seven years.

Is there much to learn from Toronto's experience with immigration? Lots, says the Cities of Migration project as it aims to share not just Toronto's ideas on successful immigration inclusion, but those of other cities around the world.

Even as it's entered the digital age, the Toronto Public Library has kept real live people at the heart of its enterprises so the world's biggest public library system continues to be a busy and crucial part of everyday Toronto life.

Diaspora Dialogues is creating a Toronto (& Canadian) literary scene that reflects one of the world's most diverse cities, helping its writers tell new stories that allow us understand ourselves better. At the same time, the program is feeding new kinds of work into the ever-growing body of Canadian Literature.

Makom wants to restore Kensington Market's robust Jewish culture with their participatory congregation. They hold services in members homes, artist studios and, guided by Jane Jacobs' adage that "new ideas need old buildings," in the historic Kiever synagogue.