> TRANSFORMING THE Y: WHERE ARE THEY NOW

Kingston Road YMCA Built in 1953, the Kingston Road YMCA has been a fixture of this tight-knit community for many years, with 95 per cent of its residents having some kind of connection with it. Now the building will be redeveloped to accommodate the growing east Toronto population. Condominiums will be built above this mixed-use project, with construction beginning in late spring of 2015. Once the rezoning stage is completed, the much larger YMCA will have expanded services and unique offerings for families of diverse backgrounds. While it continues to be used as is, “what’s new is we’ve been inviting community members into the space, to share personal perspectives as to what they want the future centre to look like, what the interests and needs are,” says Virginia Dimoglou, the centre’s assistant general manager. “We’ve been holding design workshops on the actual draft design to get input,” says Liz Nield, CEO of Lura Community Engagement Strategy, which has been helping with the Kingston Road YMCA community-engagement process. “People are involved in visioning and goal-setting.”

Cooper Koo Family YMCA “It’s incredible to see this come to life so quickly, especially when you’ve worked on the design and the whole process — watching it come out of the ground,” Krystal Koo says of the new Canary District neighbourhood. Her company, Dundee Kilmer Developments, has helped build the district, in partnership with Waterfront Toronto, Infrastructure Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, and local community groups. It will be used as the athletes’ village during the 2015 Pan Am Games. The recently constructed athletetraining centre is to be repurposed after the games as the great anchor — the centre of community. The 82,000-square-foot Cooper Koo Family YMCA is set to open in the summer of 2016. “What makes this project exciting is being part of the collaboration,” says Sarah Beldick, the centre’s assistant general manager. “Seeing non-profit organizations, residents, schools like George Brown, builders, all come together to help build a community that will be focused on health — social, emotional, mental, physical health.” Judy Steed, a future member of the Cooper Koo Family YMCA, is thrilled that the new YMCA will be accessible by bike on the extensive trails from where she lives. For many of her friends, the Y is regarded as a second home, “and maybe in some cases, as a first home — their place of refuge and comfort,” says Steed, who has had ties to the Central Y for more than 30 years as a volunteer, and for 13 years as a pilates instructor. “And to think that they are facilitating the goals of the community — the heart of which we all want, a place where we belong.”