The TYPS Team

The Toronto Youth Priority Symposium is being organized by a CITY Leaders team that formed earlier this year to address the issues of poverty, employment, and the larger issue of social exclusion in the city of Toronto. Through United Way and University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work, CITY Leaders is a leadership development institute for young people working and volunteering in Toronto’s communities and the social services sector. For more information, please go to www.cityleaders.ca. 

Joint with the efforts of 10,000 Youth Will Stand, TYPS an initiative to engage youth in civic participation, this symposium will be held to create dialogue between the Toronto mayoral candidates and the youth in this city. It is our hope that this will be a space for youth to advocate for their agenda and mayoral candidates to address issues from a youth perspective.

The TYPS team consists of six young individuals who are dedicated and passionate about engaging youth in meaningful civic participation that will ultimately affect their lives. Below are short bios about each one of us:

Liban Abokor

Liban is currently a Youth Mentor at Toronto Community Housing and is also the founder of Living the Lessons, a non-profit organization that is seeking to affect policy change within the education system to address drop-out rates. A political science graduate from York University, he also sits on the Board of Directors at Laidlaw Foundation and has previously held positions at the Ministry of Health and the Ontario Provincial Legislature. Liban is passionate about humanitarian aid, refugee issues,a nd civic engagement for youngpeople.

Zabrina Babbington

Zabrina is Coordinator of the Green Change Project. She completed her Social Service Worker Diploma program at George Brown College, has four years of undergraduate study experience in Psychology and Sociology. In addition to this, she is a certified Life Skill Coach, who has taught at the George Brown College. She has over five years experience working with youth from diverse cultural and sociological backgrounds with experience in group facilitation, youth program planning and event planning. Her academic training has been delivered from Systems and Bio-Psycho-Social frameworks, Anti-oppression theory, Recovery and Harm Reduction, Case Management and Community Capacity Building perspectives. She is also familiar with Mental Health Assessment and Crisis Intervention techniques. In addition to this she has taken courses in Environmental Sciences and Community Development, both of which provided her with knowledge about developing community oriented efforts in creating a greener neighbourhood. Zabrina has been working and volunteering with the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre for over two years and is a resident of Jane and Finch. Zabrina enjoys writing and artistic design projects. One of her greatest passions is supporting youth in creatively achieving their dreams and optimizing their potential. She hopes one day to co-manage The Centre for Green Change in the Jane and Finch community. The Centre would provide space for youth and adults to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams in an environmentally responsible manner.

Pamela Bastedo

Pam Bastedo currently works as the Development Manager of Meal Exchange. Meal Exchange is a non-profit organization that strives to develop youth leaders in their communities so they are able to work with their peers to create and implement community-based solutions to food security and hunger. Prior to her position at Meal Exchange Pam was working in Thailand with Project Umbrella Burma, a small Canadian NGO which works with youth refugees from Myanmar. She has also spent a considerable amount of time volunteering with other organizations such as the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Amnesty International and the World Wildlife Fund. She initially become interested in International Development and the non-profit sector during her Undergraduate Degree in Anthropology at the University of Windsor, and then attended Humber College where she obtained a Post-Graduate Certificate in International Project Management.  Pam is very excited to be part of the Toronto Youth Symposium and is looking forward to meeting young enthusiastic leaders in the community!

Michael Friedman

Michael is the Agency Relations Manager at North York Harvest Food Bank.  North York Harvest is the second-largest food bank in Toronto, distributing more than 1.4 million pounds of food last year through 60 neighbourhood programs. Michael is responsible for maintaining mutually beneficial partnerships with the food bank’s member agencies and assessing prospective food programs. 
 
Previously Michael was employed at the Manager of Partner Relations at DC Central Kitchen, a large community kitchen that distributes 4,500 meals each day to Washington, DC non-profits.  He spent three years managing the department that ran the kitchen’s food donations, volunteer program, agency relations, and community development.  He also made hunger awareness advocacy speeches in the greater DC area.
 
Michael began his pursuit of social justice as a member of Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps, a program that engages young people in direct work on the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. Participants in the service Corps program live out and deepen their commitments to social change through a year of full-time work at anti-poverty organizations. 
 
Michael received a B.A. in Anthropology from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2006.  

Malsan Gananendran

Malsan is currently the Project Coordinator of Action for Neighbourhood Change- Steeles/L’Amoreaux. ANC is about bringing residents together to make positive changes. This project is guided by the people who live and work in the community. A Community & Justice Services graduate from Centennial College, Malsan aims to bring the voices of the unheard to the table. He looks for opportunities to pass on knowledge and capacity building tools to others. Malsan is passionate about human rights and advocacy work; coming from a war torn country Malsan aims to provide opportunities and create awareness around issues that affect the quality of life for people living in Canada.

Lynn Liao

Lynn is currently the manager at For Youth Initiative’s newest site on 1669 Eglinton Avenue West. She runs a general youth program for “at risk” youth to increase their life chances as well as an Immigration Adaptation and Settlement Program (ISAP) for newcomer youth. Lynn received her Master’s in Community Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2008 and has since been involved directly with the community.

Lynn comes from the Kitchener-Waterloo community, where most of her work has been accomplished and is excited to become part of the Toronto network. She has worked on projects related to violence-against-women, youth with concurrent disorders, transportation infrastructure in rural areas, working poverty, systemic barriers in the education system, the Waterloo Region Social Purchasing Portal, and culture in mental health. 

Her expertise lies in participatory-action research, program evaluation, youth identity development,narratives, and qualitative data analysis. She is passionate about youth civic engagement, promotion of diversity, faith/spirituality, and community development. Lynn is also a member of Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada (YSEC) and is working towards starting her own social enterprise in the future.