We are pleased to announce the incoming young leaders for the 2022-23 Pathy Foundation Fellowship at Coady Institute.
The 12-month Fellowship provides community-focused experiential learning opportunities for graduating students of Bishop’s University, McGill University, Queen’s University, University of Ottawa and St. Francis Xavier University. Applicants submit a self-designed initiative proposal to work with a community with which they have a connection, to foster sustainable positive social change in Canada and around the world. The Pathy Family Foundation supports each Fellow with funding of up to $40,000.
The seven incoming Fellows will attend skill-building sessions and planning workshops at Coady Institute before commencing the nine-month community phase. Fellows will work with community partners to implement a broad diversity of projects, from network-building with Black and Indigenous activists in Ottawa, to collaborating with Inuit youth of the Canadian Arctic, to community-building within supportive housing in Dartmouth, and more.
Félix Aupalu (McGill)
Community: Inuit people of the Canadian Arctic (Puvirnituq, Nunavik, Québec), Montreal, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Inuit Youth Collaborating for a Bright Future
My initiative has a very clear and concise goal. I want to host small events and gatherings (online and in-person) that allow Inuit youth to share and discuss important topics and subjects; my initiative will aim to create spaces that encourage togetherness, celebrates excellence, and contributes to our vision of our future. By creating these spaces for Inuit youth, this project will address our community’s ability to feel heard, collaborate on solutions, heal through community, and share stories of success. The gatherings will be both formal and informal in a way, and will be informed both by traditional and contemporary methods of community building.
Jami Horne (StFX)
Community: Horton High School Learning Centre, Greenwich, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Leading for Change
My proposed initiative for the Pathy Fellowship is dedicated to the community who first inspired me, believed in me, and encouraged me beyond measures – the Horton High School Learning Centre. My aim is to implement a combined after-school/lunch-hour program for interested Learning Centre students who identify as having a physical or intellectual disability. The main goals of this program would be to create increased leadership positions, employment opportunities, and lasting community connections for the students in the Learning Centre. This initiative would ultimately result in heightened disability representation, visibility, and platforms for sharing lived experience, not only within Horton High School, but within the surrounding community.
Jamal Koulmiye-Boyce (uOttawa)
Community: Black and Indigenous youth activists organizations, Ottawa, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Building Networks for Black & Indigenous Activists
My initiative will build a formal network among Black and Indigenous activists engaging in anti-racist and decolonial organizing across Ontario. It will achieve this through 3 main outputs: a virtual map that highlights existing organizations and initiatives, a dynamic social media presence, and an annual symposium. Together these pieces will provide a centralized space to share resources; address local, regional, and national level issues; and share knowledge on how individual organizations were created and scaled, making it easier for others to do the same. Ultimately, it will help build and sustain these movements by providing structures that encourage and facilitate collaboration and community building among Black and Indigenous activists.
Attou Mamat (McGill)
Community: Montreal Steppers, Montreal, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Practicing Transformative Justice Through Art
My initiative is a participatory art-based workshop program to introduce young Tioh;tia:ke/Montreal students to the feminist, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive principles of transformative justice. Although schools would serve as entry points for this program, my hope is for the project to be expanded to other community spaces where youths gather. Through poetry, dance, visual arts, and more, this project would help young people in Tioh;tia:ke/Montreal, with particular attention given to Black, Indigenous, and other racialized youths, develop the tools they need to provide care to each other and their communities.
Courtney McKay (StFX)
Community: Indigenous Women and Girls in Atlantic Canada, Ulnooweg Development Group, Atlantic Region, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Empowering Indigenous Girls Through Business
My project idea centres around young Indigenous women and facilitates knowledge sharing related to business acumen. The participants will attend sessions that are structured around necessary skills such as marketing, finance, management, entrepreneurship, and e-commerce. Simultaneously, participants will undergo activities related to confidence building, networking and engagement with their culture and community, providing a space, knowledge, and supports that will enable them to realize their full potential in the business world.
Jackie Stendel (McGill)
Community: At-risk youth, LOVE, Montreal, Canada
Initiative Synopsis: Art and Environmental Belonging with At-Risk Youth
My initiative is to introduce a program that explores social and environmental sustainability with at-risk youth through transformative social engagement. The program will engage youth by looking at the multifaceted nature of the climate crisis, possibilities to form reciprocal and grateful relationships with nature and methods of fighting for sustainability with art-creation methods. Through art-making and leadership activities, youth will find personal connections to environmental issues, form relationships to local ecologies, develop meaningful communities and work as a leader to inspire others.
As the 2021-22 cohort nears the end of its community phase, they will return to Coady Institute at StFX University in May to complete a debrief; when Fellows will evaluate personal and professional growth, outcomes from the community phase, next steps, and visioning of possibilities in their journey as change-makers.
To learn more about the Fellowship and incoming cohort visit pathyfellowship.com or follow Pathy Foundation Fellowship on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.