The Jane and Finch neighbourhood is so synonymous with gun violence that Prime Minister Paul Martin traveled to the area to announce his commitment to tougher gun laws Wednesday.
After a year of increased violence, Martin’s visit highlighted the area’s media image as an area of dangerous gang activity. York graduate Paul Nguyen would like to turn the tide.
One year ago, he created the website Jane-Finch.com with the hope of re-branding the neighborhood as a talented and vibrant community.
The website has gained massive popularity, with over 1,000 hits a day, thanks to word of mouth popularity among Toronto youth and the site’s creators, who have used the site as an outlet for their views and landed regular guest spots on City Pulse and CBC Radio.
“This place isn’t known for anything except for its bad rap. A lot of people from outside have a lot of bad ideas about this place. Even if they don’t get the chance to come here, [they should know] it’s not all gang violence that’s here,” says Nguyen.
The most significant strides in changing the reputation of Jane and Finch have been made through the site’s displays of youth musical talent.
“Debuting the musical talent from the Jane and Finch youth has given an outlet for kids to discuss the challenges they face living in the neighborhood,” said Phanath Im, a fourth-year U of T student who is a contributor to the site. In fact, the project has already claimed one success story: rapper Chuckie Akenz, who escaped gang culture through music.
Akenz’s music and videos, which are aired regularly on the site, discuss life growing up in Jane and Finch with honest and at times controversial lyrics. A now well-known artist in the Toronto hip-hop community, Akenz uses his experience to help kids struggling amidst the crime in Toronto’s ghettos by making regular trips to schools to and give talks that encourage them to stay away from violence.
“Kids are my thing. I love kids,” said Akenz. “People say stay in school and don’t do drugs. But when I say it I’ve been there, I’m not talking shit, they know when it comes from me it really makes a difference.”
“The site provides the opportunity for people to help youth stay away from violence in the community,” says the executive producer of Jane-Finch.com, Mark Simms. “Chuckie Akenz is a good example of this because he had nothing to do, he didn’t know what to do or where to go, and we opened up doors for him because of the site which kept him from the violence.”
Politicians have for the most part ignored music and entertainment as a way to uplift troubled communities.
“[Politicians] have invited us in to their offices to talk about [solutions for the community], and one of my biggest ideas was to construct a recording studio to encourage student to obtain a certain grade point average [with the incentive] of getting recorded,” said Nguyen.
“They could learn so many skills from the music industry, like discipline and hard work, but [politicians] just want a social worker to come in and fix everything. What’s popular though is this hip-hop thing, and we could use this in a positive way.”
With a mini “Jane and Finch Idol” in the works, the Jane-Finch.com project hopes their site will continue to help youth take pride in their community and give a teens a reason to stay off the street.
