Friends In Trouble

How I came to FIT:

One day at Westview Centennial Secondary School, Antonius Jamal Clarke, and the president of the student council and a close friend of mine invited me to a meeting at his house about an idea that he wanted to let me and other peers and friends at Westview and in the area to hear about and possibly get involved in. Later that week, a few friends and acquaintances gathered together at Jamal’s house and discussed what was happening in the community, our role as leaders in different community groups and in a school, and the individual efforts each of us were involved in terms of making a change in our lives and the lives of our friends and family. Antonius expressed that we were the youth that were accessing community organizations and guiding them in their visions of community work and youth engagement. We had a role that was more than a participant within these organizations. We sat in community capacity building groups, and at times were research subjects and consultants for these agencies that asked us what initiatives/approaches worked, what programs made no meaningful impact in the community or in resident’s lives.

Antonius’s vision was to take ownership over our community, and to contribute more fully, beyond sharing our ideas and dreams for our community or stating what worked or didn’t work, we wanted to identify and address the issues that impacted our lives and our community the most. Antonius provided us a write up of his ideas so far, and we sat, discussed, debated, and dreamt over those ideas and the possibilities of our own agency, with a vision, mission, mandate, philosophy and ideology that it was our community, our home, and we knew it inside and out and that we possessed not only valuable information, insight, local knowledge, leadership capabilities and positions but also had an ownership over the schools, centres, agencies, malls, and housing properties in the area as we were the students, individuals, and renters that occupied those spaces and contributed to the community daily.

The emotions were high and the commitment grew. Yet, we were on the start of a journey that had many spirals, highs and lows, booms and busts. In the beginning, like all things, our movement was inspirational and we brought together many friends, classmates, peers, teachers and community workers. We secured space at Westview, and started implementing our programs. With our activities in the community, growing recruitment and membership, we received recognition among the community that we were here and what we had was something unique, refreshing, needed, and that it was about time. Our involvement with other agencies and organizations continued, yet we spoke with a new found authority and negotiated for the interests of our community, namely resident-led development.