It’s not every parent who can boast three wannabe chefs in the family.

But Deqa Nur’s children, Osman, 13, Iqlas, 10, and Iqra, 7, seem intent on making sure their mom never has to cook later in life.

“My son is like, ‘Mom, I would love to have my own restaurant when I grow up,’” says Nur, laughing. “My 7-year-old, she says ‘I love cake so much that I want to have my own store so that I can give it to all my kids.’”

There’s just one problem: Nur has been unable to find local and affordable cooking classes for kids in her Central Etobicoke neighbourhood. And it’s not just cooking classes that are hard to come by.

Nur, who lives in Toronto Community Housing at Rathburn Rd. and The East Mall, says the area is sorely lacking in community space and services for not only youth, but also their families, seniors and everyone in between.

“Right now, what we don’t have is basically a hub that we could walk into where we could get recreation space for youth, for seniors, for family ... if you want that, you have to go to different places,” says Nur, who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and came to Canada in 1993. She is currently pursuing an honours degree in international development studies as a mature student at York University while raising her three kids with her husband.

Nur isn’t the only one raising concerns.

A recent study by Social Planning Toronto, commissioned by the City of Toronto, examining the feasibility of the creation of a community hub identified a deep need for community space and services in Central Etobicoke, which stretches from Dundas St. W. in the south to Dixon Rd. in the north, and from Centennial Park in the west, to just beyond Scarlett Rd. in the east. The study found the creation of community infrastructure has not kept pace with population growth nor demographic change in the area.

Immigrants now comprise about 42 per cent of residents in the area, which is also home to many government-assisted Syrian refugees. While the area does have affluent neighbourhoods — Premier Doug Ford and his mother, Diane Ford, both live in the area — the overall poverty rate hovers around 13 per cent, with some areas reaching as high as nearly 27 per cent. The ward of Etobicoke Centre is also home to the highest number of seniors when compared to other Toronto wards and has a large population of youth and low-income residents.

“These demographics show the existence of a high-needs population that is being underserved by the City of Toronto and by community service agencies currently,” said Colin Mang, co-chair of the Central Etobicoke Community Hub Initiative, a group comprising area residents and representatives from not-for-profit service providers, municipal agencies and community service agencies. The Initiative, which advocates for the creation of multi-purpose facilities, was formed three years ago in response to similar work of other neighbourhood groups dating back to the late 1990s.

Community hubs go beyond the typical recreation programs and meeting spaces offered by city-run community centres in that they can provide access to a broader range of in-demand health, social, cultural and recreational resources in one place, Mang said. These resources can include employment supports, health and mental health services, immigrant settlement assistance and Legal Aid.

Mang, who grew up in the area, points to the success experienced in northern Etobicoke at the Rexdale Community Hub, which opened in 2012. At that hub, about a dozen community service tenants lease space in the city-managed building. Services offered there include children and youth programs, housing support, healthy cooking, and settlement and newcomer services.

Mang notes that co-locating services into a single facility reduces administrative duplication and saves money on things such as cleaning and utilities.

“When organizations are co-located, they can talk to each other, learn from each other and adapt more quickly to the changing needs of the community,” he said. “It provides a tremendous service to residents, and we’re hoping for something similar here in Central Etobicoke.”

Where would a community hub in Central Etobicoke be located? Mang’s group is proposing the use of 50,000 square feet at the existing Etobicoke Civic Centre at Burnhamthorpe Rd. and Hwy. 427 — if the city’s plan to build a new civic centre at Kipling Ave. and Dundas St. W. goes ahead. The construction of a new civic centre, if approved, would free up space in the existing civic centre — designated a heritage site — by 2024.

Longtime local resident Maria Mikelenas-McLoughlin, who is in her late 70s, says community hubs can offer valuable services for seniors, such as exercise classes, access to a nurse practitioner and space to socialize.

“A community hub is an intergenerational place, and seniors need the security of a location where they know they’re going to be taken care of,” said Mikelenas-McLoughlin, a member of the Central Etobicoke Community Hub Initiative committee and president of the Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP) Etobicoke chapter.

Four years ago, she had spinal surgery and now uses a foot brace to walk. Once a week she has been driving 25 minutes from her home in the Islington Heights neighbourhood to Royal York Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W. for a falls prevention and balance class at a long-term care facility. She chooses to drive because taking public transit would not only take more time, but would also require her to walk some distance.

“At the moment, there are various services for seniors scattered throughout Etobicoke,” she said. “What a community hub for Central Etobicoke where I live would mean is that it would allow me to better manage my time and bundle needs.”

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Stephen Holyday, city councillor for Etobicoke Centre (Ward 2), said the area needs a community hub “without a doubt,” but it’s not yet clear exactly what form it will take. He said he agrees with the themes put forward by the Central Etobicoke Community Hub Initiative in that access to a diverse number of services and community gathering space are needed.

“I think there’s a lot of irons in the fire with respect to where the hub could go,” he said.

“My job as a councillor is to bring these needs together to CreateToronto (the city’s real estate portfolio manager) so we’re making strategic real estate decisions with a lot of foresight and I think we’re in a good place right now and we need to carry on.”