The GTA Faith Alliance is a multi-faith charitable organization which works to create educational and employment opportunities to divert at-risk youth from gangs and crime. The alliance was founded in February 2003 as a joint effort of approximately 40 religious leaders focussing on the issue of youth violence, particularly involving gangs and guns.[1] [2] It received charitable status from the Canada Revenue Agency in 2009.[3]
The Alliance has formed its activities on the work of Reverend Eugene Rivers of Boston who has utilized a corps of pastors. These pastors have worked to create alternatives to street gangs for disadvantaged Black youths.[2] The Alliance brought Rivers to Toronto in early 2006 to meet with police and community leaders in an attempt to replicate the "Boston Miracle" in Toronto.[4] As a result, the Alliance launched a program to recruit 400 mentors who would lead 70 youth oriented after-school programs in churches across the city in an attempt to divert at-risk youth from gangs and crime.[1]