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Devon Thompson

He has developed and implemented a number of programs in more than one communities.

Current Programs:
-Devon Thompson and Fidelia Nelson (a RCC with Toronto Parks and Rec) are co-founders of GAVE (Girls Against Violence Everywhere). This is a girl’s only program, where performing art and athletics are used to motivate females towards the pursuit of an higher education and help to develop important life skills.

There are severl groups within this program; the basketball program is now a part of YAAACE and is growing very fast, it now has over 30 girls from across the GTA <-this is with minimal funding-they really need help with this one…

-He has developed and ran a late night program to keep youth off the streets…
-He has developed the Oakdale basketball program; the program allows children from the community to access high level basketball skills and competition for less than $10 a family. They would have to pay $250-$500 dollars a week for this level of development in any other Basketball camp. The program services more than two hundred children and youth per year. Devon has been running this program for the past seven plus years; this year alone he has close to three hundred participants from ages 4-19 (girls and boys). Through this program they have given a significant amount of, Jane & Finch, youth the ability and skills, both athletic and scholastically, to enter and complete a college and university degree; quite a few of these youth have received scholarships from various Universities in the USA...

The program has also allowed the Youth, the ones that are now too old to participate, to acquire their NCCP certification; most of these youth are now working within the program and in other programs developed as a result of the Oakdale basketball program.

-He has also developed and implemented the Driftdale Project, which addresses the polarization issue plaguing the neighborhood.

The following is a background on the need for this project:

The gang violence was crippling in 2005, “the year of the guns". The kids from "up top", Shoreham/Gosford/Driftwood and a building at San Romanoway, are on the blue (the Cripps) side of Jane Street; the south side of Finch, "the bottom", is the Red (the bloods).
These are the main gangs in Jane and Finch...

The community shares four Recreation Centers, two malls and four high schools, this is where a lot of the beefs (issues/arguments/fights) begin, predominately with the younger groups (the 15-under). The older sets are robbing and selling drugs to one-and-other; this is where they're beefs begin, two of the above centers are located right in the heart of the two sets; these centers are Driftwood and Oakdale. The hardcore blue youth do not venture or want the other set to venture to the wrong center; Meaning, he won't go to your centre so do not come to mine.
 
 A harsher word for the climax of a beef is WAR, and in war you need recruits (toy soldiers),
you need an army and an army needs guns. Thus, the younger children are being recruited to rep (represent) "the colors" and rep it hard. <-(The last passage means: Kill and be killed for your neighborhood and its color...)

Now we have children who are stuck in the middle of this, children whom are looking for an-out (an outlet, security, safe space), they needed someone to put they're needs first. There was no program, to his knowledge, that addressed those needs. he knew that basketball was a common interest for both sets (the blue and red kids). So he penned a proposal and presented it to the CRCs at Driftwood and Oakdale Community Center. On September 19, 2003, with the assistant of Parks, Forestry and Recreation, he started the Driftdale project.

he convinced 7 of the best up-top 16-under basketball players to join with seven down-bottom players and made one elite Jane and Finch basketball team. he took the team to five different Cities in Ontario and played against the best the Province had to offer. They won almost every tournament. The team was entered in the 2005/2006 OBA season has Toronto Five-O and went into the 2006 Division 1 Major Midget Provincial Cup ranked 5th in the Province.

They loved it; the younger kids saw this and began to come to the programs at both centers. he had the older youths that are now gang members asking him why did we not do this for them;
some wanted him to start a 19-under team, so he did and some of the adult Basketball players did as well; they created a team called Jane and Finch's Finest….