Pages in this Folder:
Related Folders:
See also Department Site Map
Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation
This website has received support from celos.ca through the Trillium foundation.
For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park
posted September 1, 2007
In the last week of August we were contacted by some people from the British Pioneer Health Foundation. They wanted to post an article called Finding the Village in the City, describing a weekly gathering at a nearby community centre. Both that "village" and Dufferin Grove Park have been inspired by the "Pioneer Health Centre" in Peckham (part of London), England. Alison Stallibrass wrote a book about the Centre, called The Self-respecting Child. In it she described the work of Scott Williamson and his wife Dr.Innes Pearse at the centre they built in the 1930s, together with their colleagues. It was a community centre built on the idea that "there should be as little segregation of age groups as possible" and that the emphasis should be on a rich and varied environment rather than programmed classes or registered sessions. (From their web site: www.thephf.org)
At Dufferin Grove Park we stole as many general ideas as we could from Scott Williamson's work as related by Allison Stallibras, to make a "community centre without walls." We tried to have lots of things available to do but not much that's a scheduled program -- more of a focus on people choosing what they want to do and not being blocked from carrying out their intentions, as long as they don't bother other people. [Proviso: some folks are bothered by almost anything. Accommodating their dislikes has to have limits.]
With that approach, an amazing number of interesting and good things have happened -- lots of playing, music, food, building friendships, etc. Our area is economically and culturally very mixed and that makes it even more fun.