OUR MANDATE

To create and facilitate sustainable processes for acquiring and maintaining real property for use by community, cultural and arts organizations in the Bloor Dufferin neighbourhood.

This mandate may be expanded in future years. In the meantime, we understand our mandate to mean that we will:

Convene Ward 9 arts, cultural and community organizations and groups who are threatened by displacement.
Support the community in Ward 9 to obtain or retain commercial and light industrial spaces for community, cultural and arts uses.
Sustain CCST’s initial asset of $2 million. We will not deteriorate our assets.
Begin to serve as a resource for Ward 9 arts, cultural and community organizations and groups, helping where we can with research, legal agreements, government relations, advocacy, partnerships and community connections.

PURPOSE & PRINCIPLES

In Toronto’s Ward 9, we are rapidly losing arts and culture spaces, as well as spaces for residents and community organizations to meet and work in. From Dovercourt House, to the Matador, St. Anne’s Parish Hall to the Bloor Collegiate Auditorium, these spaces have served as our community living rooms. They have offered sites of support, joy, meaning, mentorship and civic dialogue. Such spaces are integral to both liveable cities and connected communities. And they are more important than ever as residential spaces shrink.

The Community and Cultural Spaces Trust is committed to sustaining affordable spaces for community and culture using an assets-based approach. We will prioritize spaces that are already working for the people who create, work, organize and gather in them.

CCST exists as a result of years of community organizing for equitable and inclusive development. CCST’s founding principles honour this legacy. We are committed to: