Heading Goes Here
May 7, 2019
No Comments
About
Our Mission
The Citizen Empowerment Project empowers Canadians from underrepresented communities to learn about and engage with national legal and policy issues.
Underrepresented communities include youth, newcomers and low-income families. We create campaigns and public education initiatives focused on the biggest issues in our country.
Our organization is built up on the foundation of local youth and community workers. Our goal is to educate people from marginalized communities, specifically Jane & Finch and Rexdale, on how to be active members in the Canadian Political fabric. We intend to develop youth leaders through political education so they could act as agents of change in their communities by mobilizing residents through civic engagement.
Youth Council
As of 2018, we have started two youth council groups. One in Jane & Finch and the other in Rexdale. These two communities are unrepresented in Canadian politics and policing making decisions and it is our goal to change this narrative. We understand that power in education and once more people become engaged in their political system the better chance, we have at achieving representation. Our youth council meet on a weekly basis to learn and discussion the political system and how it operates in Canada, as well as current political issues dissecting them in a non-partisan manner. Additional we also implement leadership development training to further enhance our youth.
Sheneise Green
My name is Sheneise Green, I am 18 years old and this is my second year being a part of CEP’s youth council. I am currently attending Humber College and studying to get my Child and Youth Care Program diploma. Last year politics was very new to me and I didn’t realize the impact the policy makers and elected officials make on our everyday life. Now that I’m in college and have more independence and responsibilities, I understood how important it is to be a part of the Canadian political system. Being involved with CEP allows me to engage with other youth and people in my community, we get to learn and share experiences in a fun and safe environment and I get to make a positive impact of people in my neighbourhood by encouraging people to vote.
Husainatu Barrie
My name is Husainatu Barrie, I am 18 years old. I am currently an undergraduate student studying Political Science at York University. I decided to join CEP to enhance political education within my community and increase its value through civic engagement. I believe everything can be related to politics to grow exponentially. I have learned so much over the past couple year. In the future I want to continue this journey of learning and empowering my community.
Kwaku Nyanor
My name is Kwaku Nyanor. I’m currently in my first year at the Toronto Film School, pursuing my passion for acting. I joined CEP’s youth council in my last year of high school to learn about how policies and politics affect my community and I wanted to learn how to make some positive changes. Being a part of this youth council, I’ve learned so much and understood the importance of exercising my voice where it counts and not being afraid to speak, learn and ask questions to know and understand more.
Sherica Bogle
My name is Sherica Bogle. I am currently attending Humber College for the paralegal program. I decided to be a part of CEP’s youth council because I wanted to make a change in my community. CEP provides a safe space for young people to get involved in Canadian politics beyond voting and it keeps me up to date with current events and issues that are happening in my city, my province and my country. Being involved of this council makes me feel like I’m a part of a family with a common goal we all want to achieve.
Renaldo Brown
My name is Renaldo Brown and I am 19 years old. I am currently a student enrolled in the Social Service Worker program at Humber College. I joined CEP to learn more about politics and the impact it has on us as members of our community. Through the time I’ve been engaged with this program, I’ve learned a lot about politics. It also plays a major role within my field of work, as social worker we are going to be with clients who are oppressed within the system and to better advocate for them we have to be more aware of what’s happening around us.
Akua Gyimah
My name is Akua Gyimah. I am 18 years old and I am currently attending Humber college for the Social Service Worker program. I joined CEP because I felt I was ignorant to a lot of political issues and wanted to learn more about Canadian politics. CEP helped me vote for the first time. It was a good experience. I want to teach other youth to vote because it’s important for youth to get involved so we could express our voices.
Sajad Mirzaee
My name is Sajad Mirzaee. I am 16-year-old I am currently attending North Albion Colligate Institute. I joined CEP because I felt I needed to know what impact the government is making on my community. This is an area that I find most people my age has very little knowledge about and I wanted to be on the youth council to learn with other people close to my age. Although I am not eligible to vote yet, I feel like I will be more prepared with all the knowledge I am gaining when the time comes.
Shamar Bryan
My name is Shamar Bryan and I am 20 years old. I am currently a student enrolled in Humber College studying to be a Social Service Worker. I joined CEP to change young and old people’s minds and perspectives about politics in my community. I really wanted to change the notion that our votes don’t matter and to inspire my community to participates in democracy. Also I wanted to learn about Canadian politics because in the community I come from, Rexdale, no one ever learns about this topic. Over the year that I’ve been with CEP I learned a lot about politics and it’s making me more aware of what is going on around me.
Jaskaran Gill
My name is Jaskaran Gill, I’m 27 years old.
I work with newcomers to Canada helping them get settled in the country.
The reason I got involved with CEP is because I wanted to learn more about politics and what I could do to make changes within the community.
I’ve learned a lot but the one thing that’s stood out to me is that people are reluctant to trust politicians unless they can see changes being made. If CEP can drive that change maybe our communities will get more involved in doing this too.
Joseph Makanjuola
My name is Joseph Makanjuola and I am a graduate of Ryerson University with bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. I am is currently responsible for managing data collection and analysis associated with sleep-related research studies, for the design and development of novel devices used at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI). Prior to this role, I designed a biomedical signal processing software for the University of Guelph’s Human Health Science division. Apart from engineering and healthcare, I am passionate about serving my community through volunteering. My extensive volunteering experience has earned me the “TRI Volunteer of the Year 2017” award and was featured in Ryerson Today and Ryerson Engineering Prospectus. I joined the council to contribute to the positive growth of youth within his community, especially through mentorship in areas of civic engagement and STEM.
Nana Agyemang
Hi my name is Nana Agyemang, I received my Diploma in Community Justice Studies at Humber College and pursued a degree in Justice Studies at Guelph Humber University. I am currently working as youth worker for three different organization.Through out my young adulthood my mom would always tell me who to vote for. Since the age of 18, I voted for the same person just because my mom told me to. Now that I work with youth everyday and they ask me questions about the federal election or the Canadian political system it was hard to answer back because I didn’t know much but I’m super grateful for Harprit Gill And Chris Blackwood who introduce to me to tThe Citizen Empowerment. Now I am able to share my knowledge with the youth that I work with today. I went from voting for one person every year to enhance my skills, developing my leadership skills, enhanced my knowledge and became more engage with political issues in my country, province and city.
