Regent Park Focus

The 2025 Engaged Journalism Conference was held at The Metropolitan University, bringing together journalists, educators, and media practitioners to explore the successes, challenges, and funding strategies behind community-based journalism initiatives. The event was co-organized by Gabriela Perdomo Páez of Mount Royal University and Magda Konieczna of Concordia University, with Anita Li of The Green Line serving as co-host. Participants included representatives from news organizations across Canada and the United States, each sharing insights into how their outlets serve local communities. Among the featured organizations was the Focus Media Arts Centre, represented by Dawar Naeem and Tyrone MacLean-Wilson, with Executive Director Adonis Huggins delivering a keynote presentation.   Huggins traced the roots of the Focus Media Arts Centre to its beginnings in Regent Park, Toronto, where it emerged from a grassroots effort to challenge the negative stigmatization of the neighborhood...