The South Markham Community Action Table (SMCAT) was established through York Region’s Community Safety and Well-Being Plan and consists of a network of residents, service providers and other stakeholders who come together to address priorities of Housing Stability and Mental Health and Mental Well-Being. The SMCAT supports a variety of activities and initiatives in South Markham.

This website was developed to support the community in navigating services supporting housing stability and mental health/mental well-being in South Markham and York Region.

How It All Started

2018

Safety and well-being are a shared responsibility across organizations and sectors, residents and government. To understand safety and well-being in York Region, data and community indicators were used to understand factors affecting community safety and well-being.

2019

York Region adopted a place-based approach, recognizing the diversity and complexities of each community across the region. This approach allows each geographic area to determine which actions would be most effective in addressing the unique needs of each community.

2020 June

Four communities across York Region were selected to be focus areas for the Community Safety and Well-Being Plan - south central Markham, northern Georgina, central Newmarket, and south-central Richmond Hill.

2020 August - 2021 March

Through consultation with residents, service providers, school boards, York Regional Police, and local government in each priority area, mental health and mental well-being, housing stability, and economic stability were identified as areas of concern.

From these consultations, key feedback included mention of not knowing where or how to access resources, especially culturally appropriate ones. Participants shared that the priority risks are all interrelated and that the pandemic also made existing risks worse and created new ones. Finally, it was shared that solutions to address these priority issues should be developed by each local community in a collaborative way.

2021 September

The South Markham Community Action Table (SMCAT) and three other CAT tables in the other three priority areas, were established. The SMCAT consists of a network of residents, service providers and other stakeholders working together to develop local, place-based plans to address the priorities of Housing Stability and Mental Health and Mental Well-Being.

Each Community Action Table developed their own Community Action Plan with short, medium, and long-term goals to reflect priority issues in each community identified by the CAT. This Community Action Plan can be found in York Region’s Community Safety and Well-Being Plan (pg. 62).