When the contractor peeled back the floor of the Cabbagetown Youth Centre's gym, he wasn't expecting to find a stream running beneath it. It was an unexpected expense, but one that the Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) Foundation wasn't going to let prevent them from fulfilling their promise to revitalize Cabbagetown's basketball court, taking it from a run down facility to one the community could be proud of.

 

"MLSE stepped in and gave us something we probably never could have dreamed of before," says Monique Lisi of the Cabbagetown Youth Centre. "The gym is the heart of the whole community centre. It's like we had major heart surgery and they fixed our heart up physically."

 

The mission was part of the MLSE Foundation's legacy grant program. Since launching in December 2009, the MLSE Foundation has revitalized 24 basketball courts, hockey rinks and soccer pitches in the Greater Toronto Area, and is on the cusp of announcing a huge partnership that is bigger than anything they've done before.  

 

MLSE is the company that owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and the Toronto Marlies. The foundation is a charitable arm that is shaping communities and giving youth access to state of the art athletic facilities. The basketball courts, for example, are branded with the community court's name and a big Raptors claw that genuinely excites the children and youth of the communities. They've given people a safe place to play, and in many of the disadvantaged areas where these courts have gone in, the impact has been monumental. 

 

The Cabbagetown Youth Centre (CYC) opened in 1972 as a boxing club to provide inner city youth with positive alternatives through sport. Since then, the centre has grown exponentially to provide sports and recreational programs, social and skill develop programs, mentorship, after school programs and much more. It services thousands of people in the Cabbagetown, St. Jamestown and Regent Park communities each year, but hadn't received any renovations since 1983.

 

By 2011, the centre was falling apart. Comprised of a converted garage, CYC was granted matched funding from the provincial and federal government to rebuild the infrastructure. But the renos didn't cover the indoor court, a cracked and run down facility that was sometimes closed due to a leaky roof, but arguably the main artery. Lisi and CYC met with Bridgette Estrela, the community engagement lead at the MLSE Foundation. When the discovery of the stream caused the project to run over-budget, Estrela took it back to her team. 

 

"We believe that being able to provide basketball courts to communities gives kids a place for them to play and it inspires them to dream big," Estrela says. Since joining MLSE from another small not-for-profit she has helped facilitate 20 revitalizations. According to the 2012 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card, 67 per cent of current sports facilities need repairs or replacements. 
 

"These courts are in dire need and they are incredibly run down, and [completing projects] shows that there are people that care about them in their participation of sport and healthy active living," Estrela says. Her team is small and many people from the foundation donate their time to help on the projects, from painting walls at hockey rinks to building shelving. MLSE invested $92,000 into CYC's indoor court. They replaced the floor, installed maple competition class flooring, Plexiglass, padding, and repaired the water damage. 

 

MLSE works with local contractors hired via a tender process. Sometimes they also partner with other organizations to help with aspects of the renovations or future programming needs. Projects times vary, but are usually completed within a few months. Celebratory launch parties are thrown once the revitalization project is complete and athletes from MLSE's roster often participate. 

 

Lotherton community, located on the outskirts of Lawrence Heights, is also a recipient of a legacy grant. Located in an industrial neighbourhood, the basketball court is the only nearby place for recreation. Everyday children and youth were playing on it even though "the court was totally debilitated," says Tara Bootan, coordinator for Action for Neighborhood Change Lotherton area.

 

"It was not functional. The concrete surfacing was ripped out, falling apart, cracked, they had holes, there were two basketball rims, they were broken and falling down, you could not play with the nets," she says. "We were fortunate that we were able to connect with MLSE to come in and rehabilitate our court because had it not been for them we would have been in dire straight and our community was absolutely in need of space for our youth to be. It's a place for our youth to go to participate, have some recreation, come together as groups, socialize together and have an impact on the younger ones as well." 

MLSE invested $127,000 into Lotherton's Caledonia Village Court to remove and dispose existing asphalt, install new asphalt, resurface Plexipave court and adjacent multi-sport pad, create news walkways and fences, and upgrade the backboards and trims.

 

Many of the revitalization projects have taken places in disadvantaged areas of Toronto and the GTA where youth can be known to get into trouble. Evidence suggests that sports facilities can act as a deterrent (discouraging youth from offending) and a diversion (keeping youth occupied so they don't have time to defend). 

 

The Ontario ministry of youth and child services released a literature review in 2008 on the roots of youth violence and examined the implication of sports-based strategies in high-risk communities. It found that sport is most effective at reducing youth crime and violence when the sporting activity is "part of a program that is inclusive of all youth and run with the specific goal of reducing youth violence," when "emphasis is placed on the acquisition of skill and social interaction" and "the sports program also opens up other opportunities for youth such as volunteering and future employment."

 

Among other things, the review also noted the significance of including local leaders and members of the community in the sport schemes, and the value of adequate funding to allow for programs to last extended periods of time.  This is where the capacity programs come in. "We've learned that if you build it they wont necessarily come," Estrela says, which is why MLSE is now working on building lasting community and programming partnerships for future revitalization projects.

 

Many recipients of legacy grants are already building partnerships with community organizations to develop and offer lasting programming of their own. 

 

Come summer, Lotherton will partner with the City of Toronto's Parks and Rec department to facilitate programs that help youth learn basketball skills and gain access to mentorship, as well as additional partners to startup programs for youth and the community. The Cabbagetown Youth Centre has introduced a refed basketball league, which will give youth opportunities to potentially compete in places such as Hoopdome and the Ontario Provincial Championships, opportunities that Lisi says would never be available to them otherwise. 

 

"You don't know that you can connect a gym floor with self-esteem, but there's a direct connection and it's physical and tangible," she says. "What it's given to us is its made tangible what we try to do for these kids in everything else that we do, which is to build confidence to give them self esteem, to give them programs that will not only bring enjoyment and allow them to be kids, but build leadership skills through team sport that they'll have for the rest of their lives." 

MLSE encourages communities to reach out and apply for legacy grants, so more of the city's run down facilities can find their "forvever fix" and more of its youth can have a safe place to learn and play. 

 

Sheena Lyonnais is Yonge Street's managing editor. Last week, she wrote about Literacy Through Hip Hop, a program that gives at-risk youth access to education in an alternative way.