SAFETO bia
ABOUT Safeto bia
SafeTO BIA is a partnership between SafeTO and The Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area (DYBIA) to better understand the growing challenges of community safety and well-being (CS&WB) across Toronto’s Business Improvement Areas. This partnership explores the relationship between CS&WB and economic development to better support more safe and inclusive neighbourhoods.
Guided by a passionate, BIA-led advisory committee, SafeTO BIA held its inaugural summit in 2023, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders to drive cross sectoral collaboration. These efforts, combined with SafeTO BIA’s knowledge mobilization tools, ongoing partnership development and consultation process have earned recognition at The Ontario Business Improvement Association with the 2024 Merit for Advocacy & Governance Award.
KEY GoalS
- Clearly define existing concerns in BIAs through extensive community engagement strategies
- Support BIAs with tools and resources for knowledge mobilization
- Enable pathways to connect community partners in the public & private sectors
- Lead site specific pilots advancing community safety and wellbeing initiatives, placemaking, and community collaboration with multi-pronged solutions.
Ways to engage
BIA’s can engage in the pilot in a variety of ways, both passively and actively. If you’d like to participate, please reach out to calves@downtownyonge.com
- BIA Advisory Team – Available to any BIA who would like to support shaping the SafeTO BIA deliverables and project outcomes. Online Sessions are from 10am – 11am and continue biweekly.
Past Engagements
Consultations were complete in October 2023, Engagement initiatives includes the SafeTO BIA Summit(Dec 6th 2023), information sessions (July – October 2023) and one-on-ones or a group discussion (July – October 2023)
Project Resources
CS&WB Toolkit – a folder with various resources for street safety, key service providers, community audits and other materials to support community safety and well-being initiatives.*Please note this is subject to change, and to be edited periodically. The most updated document can also be found on canva.
Social Service Provider Map
Open source map identifying services and support in the City. Meant to provide more information for BIA’s when managing community safety and well-being concerns.*Please note this is subject to change, and to be edited periodically.
CS&WB Resource Booklet
A working document collecting resources and precedents for community safety and well-being projects. This document is searchable by using key words.*Please note this is subject to change, and to be edited periodically.
SafeTO BIA Survey Results A final document of summarized survey results from ~300 business across the city in the BIA communities.
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Presentations, Data & Project Highlights
- SafeTO BIA Overview & Key Highlights
A sharable 3 page PDF of the SafeTObia Pilot - SafeTO BIA Presentation (Stage 1) – June 2023
Details about the scope of the SafeTObia pilot - SafeTO BIA Presentation (Stage 2) – Oct 2023 Details about the consultation & engagement phase
- SafeTO BIA Presentation (Stage 3-4) – January 2024 Details about the BIA summit results
- SafeTO BIA Presentation (Stage 5) – April 2024 Details about the SafeTO BIA Survey & Next Steps
- Review of SafeTO BIA Qualitative Data
Results from all engagement stages (stage 2-5)
Questions?
For more information on SafeTO BIA, please contact
Cassandra Alves
Community Safety and Well-being Consultant
SafeTO & Downtown Yonge BIA