"I first took the 3-month course with Olivia at Ryerson in 2017, as part of my job as a campaigner at a journalists' rights nonprofit. I was hooked immediately. I put what I learned to work at my job and saw the impact it had right off the bat. [see here for more: https://www.changeleaders.ca/press_freedom]. I began to volunteer with ICL, helping with the website and comms, and started shadow facilitating, taking any opportunity I could to continue learning and engaging with the material.
From 2018 onwards I participated in many dozens of trainings, first as facilitator and then frequently as instructor. I began to work part-time on staff in 2019 as communications manager, and joined full-time in 2020, while continuing to teach trainings. During this time I was involved in some capacity in almost every aspect of ICL's operations, including curriculum design, fundraising, grant writing, project management, facilitator coordination, website design, social media, and partner development and teaching. I took Marshall Ganz's Leadership, Organizing and Action online course through the Harvard Kennedy School in June 2022. I moved from Toronto to Vancouver Island in 2021, and left the ICL staff in early 2023 when I began working full time as a union organizer here in BC. This current work grows directly from the experience at ICL, and I couldn't do any of it without the lessons I learned here.
In short: I spent years of my life working at ICL because I believe deeply in the power of what we teach.
It's an extraordinary experience to work with a group of people, most of whom have no individual or institutional power, and start to see a sense of hope and confidence grow as they learn to tell their own story, understand how to link up with others, identify the levers they could use to move decision makers, and develop a plan to win. I've seen deeply moving personal transformations take place as people share their stories and develop new solidarity with their peers. I believe this is how we will develop the collective leadership that will win the radical changes to our society and economy that we desperately need."