OUR A-TEAM
Meet our Staff Volunteers
Shakhlo SharipovaExecutive Director, parent of a child with autism, advocate, community ambassador and leader for the Coalition of Women in Leadership, Thorncliffe and Flemingdon Park.
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Our staff/volunteers:
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, on a volunteer basis
Shakhlo Sharipova is a proud mom to a 21-year-old Ayub who has Autism and Kabuki syndrome. She is passionate about ensuring people access the programs and services available to them and as a community ambassador and the Leader of the Coalition of Women in Leadership, she connects local organizations and agencies to residents for better understanding their needs and perspectives regarding community development. Shakhlo, the Medical Doctor from Tajikistan, is also an advocate for the inclusion and equity for people living with disabilities. Shakhlo helps newcomer women settle in Canadian society and supports a network of families who have children with special needs by organizing events and activities. She has extensive experience in project management and fundraising with one of her proudest moments being when she helped provide equipment to open a social cafe in Tajikistan that employs young adults with autism. "...I am a founding member of our organization and have been engaging our families to work together so we can improve activities to be more accessible for our children. When our family settled in Canada from Tajikistan, I had no idea about how to navigate available therapeutic and educational resources for my autistic child and for myself, language was a significant barrier in understanding the educational system for our kids. We went through bullying and stigma. Then I met one family similar to my situation and together we started educating ourselves, eventually other families started to join us, and now we have a network of more than 20 families. We support each other, help in daily routines, during pandemic many support workers were unavailable, so we helped each other by taking care of each other's children, so parents can take some rest and respite. Some of our initiatives even were beyond the scope of our activities, for instance free food distribution and back to school campaigns. Throughout many years I have gained a broad range of knowledge in the disability services field and am very well aware about all available resources for our families. Leading our group and organizing workshops, meetings and events for our families, has helped me to gain organizational and leadership skills. I have completed a certificate course at Ryerson University, Non profit and Voluntary sector management, I am also a member of the Local Champions Network under Centre for Connected Communities, I have organized many events funded by Social Planning Toronto and C3. I have planned and conducted six large projects during pandemic time: Free Ramadan Meal distribution initiative, yearly Outdoor Summer camp for children with disability and their siblings (August 2020, July-August 2021), you drive campaign, back to school project and community potluck to celebrate diversity and inclusiveness. For all projects I have recruited almost 100 volunteers. Budget $30,000 for these projects have been raised through fundraising campaigns organized in our communities. Several strong partnerships have been developed while conducting these initiatives. I am a founder of the Coalition of Women in Leadership and Reach for Change female group to empower our women and lead them towards realizing their potential to achieve their dreams. I have strong managerial and leadership skills along with administration skills. |
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PROJECT MANAGER, on a volunteer basis
Hamida Begum
...Before coming to Canada my experience as an outreach librarian supported me to connect with families of children with disabilities. Social networking enabled me to participate and collaborate as a volunteer in programs for children with disabilities organized by the Toronto public libraries and Thorncliffe Youth Community. have been serving as lunchroom supervisor and childminder with TDSB for the last 10 years. In TDSB I worked in a real environment with children and their families. I examined their behaviours and how they manage disability through adopting manifold strategies. I have the skills to organize and participate as a leader in different programs for children with disabilities and their parents. I have performed as a leader as well as volunteer for Outdoor Inclusive summer camp for children with disability and their siblings in Thorncliffe; organized community awareness programs about different multicultural festivals at the Toronto Public library. Served as a volunteer in community orientation programs, annual open-house, and childminder capabilities that also facilitated my participation in outreach programs. As a social activist, I have the skills to organize, and participate in different programs for children with disability and parents for their guidance. I have facilitated training programs for educating parents on safety SOPs for children with a disability during the COVID pandemic at Thorncliffe. |
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