Built resiliency and community, non-profit organizations have only become more important to our global society. With close to ten years of experience with different groups, I have spent much of my career working to help alleviate poverty in communities around Canada, and the globe.
Using my skills in project management and content engagement, I have been a collaborative team member for national brand organizations like Pathways to Education, one of the largest education non-profits in Canada. Not only did I act as the facilitator of education programming, but I led research initiatives for the Lawrence Heights program design. That role included quantitative research, case study creation, and presentation skills.
With more local organizations, I was charged with a more direct management position. Working in Toronto’s St. Jamestown community with City Hope, I ran the youth department, meaning I handled the fundraising, budgeting, program design, implementation, and staff hiring for the youth education and recreation initiatives. The Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre was another small organization I was able to improve with best practices and increased engagement. You can read more about the roles I have taken here.
I have been personally engaged and changed by the work I have done with nonprofits. It is the lessons I learned with these communities that inspired me to grow my career through education and other avenues of growth.
Over the years, the values I gained from working in places like Geneva Centre for Autism and Justice Action revealed the issues facing groups like the neurodivergent & Indigenous peoples. It was their ambitions and strength in diversity that propelled me back to school for my master’s program in Political Economy. It was through that education I decided that a ‘systems thinking’ approach to nonprofit management is best.
By looking at community and individual decisions and possibilities within a larger system, nonprofits can use resources within the community to help empower themselves. Done so sustainably, nonprofits can work to defunding themselves. A truly sustainable project has its own end. Developing programs with that in mind is a goal I want to bring to every project. It is more important to help communities, help themselves, and while I do believe in ‘stop gap’ groups like food banks and shelters, to really affect people I want to give them the keys to their own well-being.
Likam Kyanzaire 