Building a stronger community

Enhancing advocacy and engagement through a polished digital identity

The Cedarvale Upper Village Community Group (CVUV) is a passionate collective working to make their Toronto neighborhood safer and more vibrant. Despite their dedication, the group lacked a formal identity, making it challenging to effectively advocate for change. We partnered with CVUV to develop a professional brand and digital presence, allowing them to communicate their mission, engage with their community, and drive meaningful change

The "Who"

The Cedarvale Upper Village Community Group (CVUV) is a growing collective of passionate residents who are dedicated to making their neighbourhood safer, more accessible, and vibrant. With a strong focus on community, CVUV works tirelessly to advocate for improvements that will enhance the quality of life for everyone in the Cedarvale and Upper Village areas of Toronto. Their mission is clear: to create a neighbourhood where first-class transit, vibrant shops and services, beautiful parks, and inviting public spaces all work together harmoniously.

CVUV’s efforts are organized around four key pillars: Traffic & Safety, Construction & Development, Police & Security, and Parks & Public Spaces. By collaborating with city councillors, government agencies, developers, and the wider community, the group strives to make its vision for a thriving neighbourhood a reality.

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The "Why"

In the face of challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Crosstown LRT project that has stretched on for over a decade, a group of concerned residents decided it was time to step up for the collective good. However, there was a problem: CVUV had no formal identity, and without one, it was hard for the group to be taken seriously by key stakeholders like the City of Toronto, the provincial and federal representatives, Metrolinx, the Eglinton BIA, and even fellow residents.

The leadership team of CVUV recognized that, to effectively advocate for their community, they needed a professional and polished brand presence. This included the creation of a consistent and engaging digital presence—across email, social media, and a website—that would allow them to communicate their message and rally support. The group lacked the technical expertise, industry knowledge, and bandwidth to execute this on their own with confidence, and that’s where we came in.

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The "How"

Our first step was research. We needed to understand what other successful community groups were doing in terms of digital strategy and branding. This research revealed the best practices in the sector and helped us identify the most effective tactics for CVUV. We took a deep dive into their mission, values, and the key issues the community faced, ensuring that the brand we created resonated with both internal members and external organizations.

The next step involved developing multiple branding options for CVUV, including variations in colour palettes and iconography. These were shared with the leadership team, and after thoughtful discussions, we made recommendations based on the group’s goals and the most appropriate channels for reaching their target audiences. This careful iterative process ensured that the final identity was professional, impactful, and aligned with CVUV’s mission.

The "It"

Once the branding was finalized, we moved quickly to execute the plan.With the client’s approval, we translated the new identity into a fullyresponsive website, social media channels, and email templates to engage withtheir members and the broader community. These new tools provided CVUV with thedigital infrastructure they needed to communicate effectively, gather supportfor initiatives, and advocate for positive change in their neighborhood.

The solution was comprehensive, yet flexible enough to grow with thecommunity group. By creating an engaging digital presence, CVUV was able toraise its visibility, interact with its audiences, and build credibility as atrusted voice in the community.

The "Results"

The outcome was the creation of CVUV’s online presence. The new website, social channels, and email campaigns gave the group a professional image that was on par with corporate entities, allowing them to effectively advocate for the changes they wanted to see in the neighborhood.

We were able to meet all the KPIs we set for the project. The group’s digital presence was not only more polished but also more efficient in terms of engagement and outreach. In fact, we established new KPIs to continue testing and improving the impact of our efforts moving forward.

Beyond the numbers, the anecdotal feedback from stakeholders—community members, government representatives, and local businesses—has been overwhelmingly positive. CVUV has been able to successfully promote various initiatives such as marches, petition drives, and other community programs, with tangible engagement metrics to back up the success of these efforts. Most notably, CVUV has worked with the City of Toronto to perform a comprehensive traffic study and in turn, pause any development until that study is completed. Email programs and activations also saw significant participation, further validating the power of their new digital tools.

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