The Power of Hope — Building Collective Power and Investing in Youth Civic Engagement

Anjum Sultana, MPH, is a Founding Advisor with Progress Toronto and a Mentor with the Muslim Youth Fellowship.

Victoria City Councillor Sharmarke Dubow — The Power of Hope

Today I want to share insights from a few events I attended recently by organizations in Toronto fighting for better representation in municipal politics and policymaking — Progress Toronto and the Muslim Youth Fellowship.

Last week, I had the honour of hearing Victoria City Councillor Sharmarke Dubow speak twice about his journey into politics and his policy priorities.

Sharmarke Dubow became a City Councillor the first time he voted on October 20th, 2018. He had become a Canadian citizen the year before on Canada Day. Sharmarke Dubow’s election was historic: he is the first Somali-Canadian to serve on a city council across Canada and the first Black City Councillor in the City of Victoria in 152 years. The first Black City Councillor in Victoria was Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, a merchant and later lawyer who served from 1867 to 1869.

Both times I was inspired by his personal journey into politics. Sharmarke Dubow left Somalia at the age of 8 as a refugee, spent time in refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia, and came to Canada in 2012. Before coming to Canada, he studied business technology at Cape Breton University’s international campus in Cairo, Egypt. For 20 years after leaving Somalia, Dubow was a fierce human rights defender and community organizer supporting refugee youth. When he came to Canada, he continued his community organizing with youth, refugees and immigrants through his work with Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society and the Inter-Cultural Association of Victoria. He also previously served as an executive on the Canadian Council for Refugees.

What was most inspiring about Councillor Sharmarke Dubow was not his personal story in isolation, but rather how his personal story connected to his work and how that uniquely qualified him to be a city councillor.

Councillor Dubow is the only transit user on Victoria Regional Transit Commission and a renter. So when he successfully pushed for free public transit in National Capital Area of Victoria (which begins this Fall with a pilot for people under 19) and established a Renters’ Advisory Committee to inform council decision making, there is a certain level of credibility and nuance only he can bring to those conversations. In 6 short months, he has transformed the political agenda in Victoria and beyond through progressive motions such as establishing a ‘land bank’ to use city land to develop affordable housing and creating a municipal housing authority.

Not only that — he is putting issues on the agenda that were previously not given the spotlight they deserve such as addressing Islamophobia and racism in Canada. In July, Councillor Dubow tabled a motion to support the legal challenge put forward by National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.against Quebec’s Bill 21.

I learned many things over the course of the two events — here are my top takeaways:

1)Representation Matters

As a Canadian Muslim, as an immigrant and as someone who became a Canadian about 5 years ago, I resonated with Councillor Dubow’s story on many levels. I also appreciated what past Fellows from the Muslim Youth Fellowship shared about how important it is to see people who come from diverse communities in positions of leadership not only politics but in the bureaucratic side of policymaking. Representation matters — it allows people from equity-seeking communities to see what they can become; it allows a diversity of ideas to be considered and be part of the public discourse; and most importantly it ensures the needs of all people are addressed, not just who has power, influence or dominance in society.

One of the challenges I’ve heard from fellow policy professionals through the Millennial Womxn in Policy community is how to stay in-touch with the realities happening on the ground since many of us do not work in front-line service delivery. One of the ways of ensuring you are up to date and pushing forward policy recommendations that are reflective of the needs of communities is to stay connected and involved with community-based organizations. That can mean providing pro-bono consulting or serving on a board or showing up to community events. Most importantly, it means building and nurturing a network that is diverse in the sectors represented, and the type of work people do so you have well-rounded perspectives and insights to draw from.

2) Stories are Integral to Pushing Progressive Policies

Throughout all the events, I was struck by the power of stories — of hope, of loss, of pain and of triumph, to galvanize people into action. I’ve seen this in my work at YWCA Canada through our recent initiative — Voices of #YWCAChildCareChampions to showcase the stories of parents and child care workers across Canada in our fight for Affordable Child Care for All Plan. When you’re pushing for progressive policies, stories are just as important as the data and evidence to back up policy recommendations.

Councillor Dubow spoke about the thousands of doors he knocked on in the lead up to the election and the people who shared their stories. For politicians to truly understand and faithfully represent the needs of their constituency, they have to be in constant dialogue. It can’t stop at campaign time. I also see the power of stories when resident voices are prioritized through platforms such as Victoria City Council’s Renters’ Advisory Committee — it ensures that the stories heard during elections are consistently considered during council terms and policymaking.

3) Invest in Paid Community Organizers

I heard Councillor Dubow mention this again and again — the importance of paid organizers. So much of the incredible work done by community-based organizations, grassroots collectives and social movements is done on a volunteer basis — which is good to start but not enough to sustain. That’s why I appreciate the work done by Executive Director of Progress Toronto, Michal Hay, to ensure there are paid organizer roles for the organization. When you are fighting for social and economic justice, that is labour — emotional, physical, and intellectual labour. It must be compensated and coupled with appropriate times for rest and reflection. It’s hard in our current political climate where we are running from one crisis to another, and in the public benefit sector where we are tasked with implementing bold visions with limited resources. It is a challenge however to truly realize the long-term systemic change we are seeking, we need to invest the resources upfront to ensure sustainable organizing.

4) Build Communities of Practice

One of the incredible people behind the Muslim Youth Fellowship is Samiya Abdi, a powerhouse in the Canadian community.

I’ve always admired Samiya in how she put her public health training into practice in a bold way — moving beyond the constraints of what the sector could be and envisioning a public health practice deeply grounded in community development and organizing. She truly embodies what civic engagement and democratic participation can look like for public health professionals. Not only is she a model for how to authentically put our values into practice, but also how to build communities of practice and care. The Muslim Youth Fellowship operates at the systems level to broaden and diversify who participates in municipal politics and policymaking. At a community level, the Fellowship also builds capacity, fosters leadership and creates spaces to practice solidarity and community development.

As she was describing the impact of the Fellowship and the wonderful Fellows, past and present, she shared how the Muslim Youth Fellowship created community and impacted more people than just the individual people selected for the Fellowship. I’ve seen the importance of building community of practices through the Millennial Womxn in Policy. It’s crucial to create support networks, have places to test out new ideas and build our own collective social capital to open doors and opportunities.

5) Invest in Self Care

A question was asked by one of the attendees of Muslim Youth Fellowship event to Councillor Sharmarke Dubow that I think deserves repeating: how do you practice self care and invest in your mental health when you work in spaces where you are the ‘first’? I think this is a question all of us who do community organizing and are involved with public benefit organizations must ask ourselves. For some of us, our community work might be the reprieve and provide us agency and confidence in a world where we are fighting for equity and inclusion. For others, it might be spending time in nature and engaging in relaxing activities. And for others, it might be disconnecting from social media from time to time, living in the moment, and spending quality time with loved ones.

It looks different for each person but I think the bigger question is: how do we create a society where the healthy choice is the easier choice? How do we make self-care less a choice but a condition of our society? And is self-care sometimes used to individualize care when we should be looking at more systematic ways of engendering care in our lives? I recently came across this great article that introduces the idea of community care and something I think all of us should be considering more.

Looking Forward

In a city as diverse as Toronto, we need to ensure we have all voices at the table and that the decision makers reflect the population it serves. If you haven’t yet, please check out and donate generously to both the Muslim Youth Fellowship and Progress Toronto. Both of these organizations are actively shifting the power dynamics in the City of Toronto — from working to build collective people-driven power through issue-based campaigns to investing in the next generation of policymakers. If we want a happier, healthier and more equitable Toronto for all, we need to build collective power and invest in youth civic engagement. It’s only through initiatives such as these that we can shift the needle and truly have a city that reflects the needs and desires of its residents.

Biography

Anjum Sultana, MPH, is a Founding Advisor with Progress Toronto and a Mentor with the Muslim Youth Fellowship. Currently, Anjum serves as the Manager of Public Policy & Strategic Communications at YWCA Canada, the nation’s oldest and largest women’s serving organization. Anjum is also the Founder of Millennial Womxn in Policy, a community of practice that connects over 1600 self-identified womxn and non-binary people working in policy across Canada in civil society, politics, private sector and public service.