New hyperlocal app connects Regent Park residents and combats stereotypes

A new app tailor-made for Regent Park is all about sharing news for community, by community.

Hello Neighbour is a hyperlocal way to stay connected for Regent Park residents, and its creators now want to see the app expand to every neighbourhood in Toronto. Soft-launched last March, it features neighbourhood news, job postings, hyperlocal events and more.

Communications Coordinator Ibrahim Afrah says Hello Neighbour is the first app of its kind in the city, and that it aims to combat stereotypes by showing Regent Park through community members’ eyes.

“We do have violence with our young people, but that is not the pinnacle of the whole story. The pinnacle of the whole story is [about] where residents gather, where residents come together to bring change. We have many stories [of] how that happened, and that’s what we want to share with the new residents that are coming,”  he explains. 

With over 800 downloads so far, the founders took an old-school approach to promoting the app. They spoke to residents in person, and encouraged them to download Hello Neighbour via QR codes on posters.

Walied Khogali, a board member for the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association, says the app was a collective effort driven by the association, local entrepreneurs and community groups, specifically Vision of Tomorrow and Yonge Street Mission.

“It exposes the magic or what’s possible when people collaborate, when people work together instead of working in silos,” Khogali says. “I would actually like to see this app in every neighbourhood across the City of Toronto. It will make it way more accessible for folks to access those critical services, programming events and most importantly, people to connect with each other.”

It’s early days, so the team is still getting feedback to improve the app and attract more users. Locals who’ve seen Hello Neighbour say there’s a lot of promise.

“If you’re looking for a job in Regent Park and you live in Regent Park, this is the perfect way to find it,” says local resident Humaira Rahman.

Karly-Lynne Scott, manager of communications for The Children’s Book Bank says, “I don’t live in the community, but I work here and I think this would be a really useful app to know of other things that are going on in the community.”

In June 2023, after Bill C-18 mandated tech giants like Meta and Google to pay Canadian media outlets for news content shared on those social platforms, they responded by limiting Canadians’ access to the outlets’ social accounts and news links, leading to a country-wide media blackout.

Afrah’s focus is on making Hello Neighbour an essential hub for Regent Park.

“It’s run by local residents with the support of so many stakeholders. Majority of the apps that you see, so I would say is a top down approach. While this one is a bottom up approach where everybody is collaborating, how do we make it as useful as possible?”