By Lincoln DePradine
Yanique Williams and Tamara Tatham bear in mind, as youngsters, how their Malvern neighbourhood in Scarborough was usually negatively stereotyped.
The 2 now credit score mother and father and group help, together with the work of organizations like Malvern Household Useful resource Centre (MFRC), for helping them in embarking on skilled careers in sports activities and public coverage.
Williams, now a supervisor with Uber Canada, as soon as interned at Toronto Metropolis Corridor and labored with former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, in addition to with federal MPs that served in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities.
Williams, talking Tuesday at a MFRC occasion on the group’s headquarters, described Malvern because the “basis’’ of who she is, and because the place that ignited her “ardour for politics and public coverage”.
“Regardless of the place life takes me, I at all times will likely be Malvern-made,” Williams advised the viewers gathered to have fun MFRC’s “#MalvernMade 2025”.
The occasion, first held final 12 months, “is about connection, dialog and recognizing the wonderful contributions of native changemakers”, stated Josh Berman, MFRC’s govt director.
The objective of #MalvernMade, in line with Berman and different MFRC officers, is “to showcase optimistic tales from a neighbourhood that’s usually within the information for the unsuitable causes, shifting the narrative to focus on its resilience and achievements’’.
Additionally they describe it as an “initiative that continues to amplify tales of resilience, management and group affect, inspiring others to drive optimistic change’’.
#MalvernMade, which included a panel dialogue and likewise mixed as a Black Historical past Month occasion, featured inspiring tales not simply of Williams and Tatham, but in addition of 4 others.
One in all them, Syeda Ali, was known as “an inspiring member” of the group and likewise as “a budding entrepreneur” with culinary expertise and management abilities.
Saye Sathiyakumar, a Sri Lanka-born born business-owner, associated how mentoring helped him via “robust occasions’’; and movie director Ron Dias persevered for six years to create the independently made “Morningside, Chew of a Mango”, which is now opening in theatres throughout Canada.
“It’s a movie by the group, for the group and made by the group,’’ stated Dias. “Scarborough made me who I’m. As a result of it taught me by no means to surrender.”
Shem Parkinson, an govt producer and a broadcaster at KiSS 92.5, stated he takes pleasure in representing Malvern every morning whereas working on the radio station.
Tatham, for her half, recollected how her life was impacted after she determined at age 13 to depart working monitor—the place “successful was straightforward”—to focus on basketball.
“Little did I do know that call will change all the pieces. Basketball wasn’t only a recreation; it was an opportunity to grow to be one thing larger,’’ Tatham stated. “Rising up in Malvern, I knew the worth of sports activities as an escape; a option to rise above your circumstances.’’
Tatham acquired a scholarship to attend the College of Massachusetts, the place she performed basketball.
On commencement, she turned knowledgeable elite participant and achieved her final dream of representing Canada twice on the Olympics and in successful gold on the 2015 Pan American Video games in Toronto.
Tatham has been a coach with the ladies’s staff on the College of Toronto and with the Raptors 905 outfit.
“The street wasn’t straightforward, the challenges had been many, however I didn’t let that cease me,” she stated.
“Rising up in Malvern, a spot the place the percentages had been usually stacked in opposition to me, formed me into the girl that I’m at the moment.’’
Williams stated her political employees work started when she was first employed by Michael Coteau, who attended Tuesday’s MFRC’s #MalvernMade.
A Liberal MP, Coteau is a former faculty board trustee and an ex-Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament.
He is also a former Malvern youth employee. “What I learnt right here in Malvern allowed me to be a greater decision-maker as a politician,” Coteau stated. “Thanks, MFRC, for serving to make me who I’m at the moment.”
Williams, as Uber’s present public coverage supervisor for Western Canada, stated she works “shaping insurance policies throughout 4 provinces and leads the nationwide security initiative centered on street security, private security, girls’s security and well being. Whereas I not work in authorities, this function nonetheless permits me to proceed advocating for safer, extra accessible communities—values that had been instilled in me proper right here in Malvern’’.
Williams arrived in Canada from Jamaica together with her mom, who nonetheless lives in Malvern.
“My journey in Canada began proper right here again in January 1995, when my mom and I emigrated from Jamaica and we moved right into a small home, with two of my aunts and some of my cousins,’’ she stated.
“My profession has been about turning advocacy into motion. It’s onerous to consider that I’ve had the chance to work instantly for a premier of this province and to help the mandate of the nation’s prime minister,’’ added Williams.
“Reducing my enamel as a staffer at each the provincial and federal ranges gave me the chance to develop insurance policies that advance gender equality, range and inclusion, in addition to financial improvement. On the coronary heart of my work has been guaranteeing that underrepresented voices are heard in decision-making.’’
LJI reporter
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