Community Changemaker is empowering Sudbury's youth to redefine success
As an award recipient, Kamilah Francis received a $5,000 microgrant and leadership training
Kamilah Francis wants young people in the Greater Sudbury area to define what success means to them.
Recently, Francis was named a Community Changemaker for 2023 by Ontario Community Changemakers, supported by 8 80 Cities.
Ontario Community Changemakers is a leadership and micro-grant program for young Ontario residents to help spark new ideas and invigorate change in their local communities.
Through this award, Francis is the recipient of a $5,000 micro-grant and leadership development training.
In its third year, the program supports leaders from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to deliver their own creative projects that will activate public space, enhance civic engagement, and/or foster social inclusion.
"I've always done work in the community, so don't really do it for the name, but it's kind of cool to be the one in Northern Ontario to receive the award," Francis, who is behind the group Future North said.
Future North is a five year project dedicated to improving available resources and employment opportunities for youth and young adults in the District of Sudbury and Manitoulin.
What we want to do is have young people think about success in a different way.- Kamilah Francis, program director at Sudbury-based Future North
Her changemaker pitch focused on helping youth individuals create their own definition of what it means to be successful.
"What we want to do is have young people think about success in a different way."
She said a lot of people think success is tied to having a certain dollar amount attached to their name or having a certain status of fame.
"But for some people, being successful is just having a stable job and being able to cover all of their bills and have a little bit of extra for some leisurely activities and time."
Through her changemaker project, Francis wants young people to understand that they can be successful in their own right and make it achievable based on how they define it.
"There's so many pivots that happen [in life] that it never necessarily always works out the way exactly we think it will."
Francis, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in Behavioural Neuroscience, added, "It all does end up coming around and being great in the end."
She admitted her own path toward becoming a program director with Future North wasn't a linear journey.
She told CBC's Jonathan Pinto on Morning North that she took an extra year after high school that she wasn't expecting to take and then took an additional two years to complete her undergrad degree.
Francis worked in brain injury for a short while which was initially tied to her neuroscience degree, but now works in youth engagement.
"It's just showing that although I've had all these different pivots, it's okay and there's a lot of people that have very similar stories."
With this micro-grant, Future North is launching a speaking series which will offer youth a chance to listen to the stories of people in the community who took different routes to get to where they want to be, and how they define success.
Francis said her team was initially hoping for at least 12 speakers to kick off the series, but instead received 25 expressions of interest.
The first speaking engagement is scheduled for September 22 at Night on the Rocks at Sudbury's Science North, followed by more in-person and virtual sessions in the upcoming months.