In this episode, Sally speaks with Tamer Ibrahim of the Laidlaw Foundation about Youth Collective Impact, or Youth CI.
Tamer is the manager of Youth CI at Laidlaw and also sits on the board of directors at the ‘For Youth Initiative’: a non-profit organization that has served, inspired and advocated for thousands of teens and young adults in York South-Weston since 1995.
Youth CI is a program of the Laidlaw Foundation, in partnership with Innoweave, that helps organizations in local communities across Ontario develop, launch and implement collective impact approaches that directly improve outcomes for youth in their community.
Tamer talks about what has been learned in the first 5 years of this unique program in Ontario and how making space for young people to lead change has had an impact on the systemic issues young people face. Youth CI and Laidlaw have been intentional about the importance of listening to and supporting youth in finding solutions and have been consistent and successful in building youth leadership into all aspects of their work.
Tamer and his previous colleagues at the foundation, Ajeev Bhatia (@ajeevbhatia) and Ana Skinner (@ana_skinner) developed and use these principles to ground their work:
- “We are brokers of inherently colonial wealth”
- “We don’t know every issue impacting every community”
- “We have to say ‘No’ a lot”
We think these principles are important in any philanthropic context; talking about them has made the work of Laidlaw and Youth CI clearer and strengthens the foundation’s relationships with grantees.
Tamer also talks about how there are no straight lines to impact and building our ability to speak clearly and honestly with one another will help us sit with discomfort and find new solutions.
Resources:
- Tamer Ibrahim: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamer-ibrahim-5b451726
- Youth CI: https://laidlawfdn.org/funding-opportunities/youth-ci/
- Laidlaw Foundation: https://laidlawfdn.org
- Laidlaw Foundation Twitter: https://twitter.com/laidlawfdn?lang=en
- For Youth Initiative: http://www.foryouth.ca
- Innoweave: https://innoweave.ca