Please visit:

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf10587

and vote for a terrific community paper www.goodnewstoronto.ca

Good News Toronto (GNT) seeks to drive ever-increasing awareness of, and participation in community volunteerism with the objective of improving quality of life in the GTA. This would be accomplished by providing the volunteer community with the following elements;

•a platform to celebrate and make visible local volunteer activities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) such as the Mastodon Hunters Association being featured in our Dec’10 issue, and

•a means of connecting interested parties, community leaders and volunteers with a forum, resources and contacts to aid in the spread of ideas and activities that support community volunteerism,

GNT would invest the Aviva Community Funding to improve the quality of the existing print publication and expand the reach of the publication to better promote community volunteerism. These improvements are specifically designed to attract and retain ongoing and increasing advertising revenue from like-minded corporations, individual and other entities in the GTA to ensure a self-sustaining project within 12-months of launch.

Quality improvements would be achieved by bringing the existing paper up to modern print media standards in the areas of layout and content. Reach improvement would be achieved by creating a modern digital presence for the property. This would permit greater access to broader consumption via digital, mobile and related devices utilized by a growing proportion of GTA residents. Of particular importance would be younger and new residents – many of whom are more likely to consume this content in a nonprinted format.

GTA residents will be a provided with an alternate news medium that focuses on successful community volunteer-based undertakings, positive role models, and the ways and means of volunteer-based community improvement. The desired end result is to see benefits flowing to all residents of the GTA in the form of overall increased quality of life fostered by community volunteerism.

The lasting impact will be singular media entity that stands in contrast to the mainline media, one that focuses on success, positive news and outcomes and activities or individuals who have lead or contributed to positive change in the community.

The need for this undertaking has existed for some time and as yet, has not been effectively addressed. At present, aside from GNT, there is no media property that seeks to highlight the positive activities, contribution and individuals in the community. There is no central, neutral and wide reaching property to provide a positive alternative to the existing media.

To date, only GNT has sought to provide a forum for positive, encouraging news and reporting aimed at fostering a stronger sense of community with a call to action that speaks to all GTA residents. Even in it’s present format, GNT has consistently received overwhelmingly positive support and feedback from readers, community leaders and potential advertisers.
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