What is the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet?
Established in 2018, the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet (SCMYC) is the official youth contributing body, focusing on local crime prevention education, awareness and initiatives in Mississauga. The SCMYC presents youth leaders in community safety, crime prevention education and emerging crime prevention trends. Together they promote participation in Safe City Mississauga’s crime prevention services and initiatives through the youth lens and perspective. SCMYC membership is open to youth between the ages of 18 and 29 who live, work, and/or learn in the City of Mississauga
Core Goals
Education
Education is one of the strongest factors in preventing crime, but it can also be a great source of power for youth in other capacities. The Youth Cabinet seeks to encourage the pursuit of education of all forms, not solely in the interest of community safety, but in order to build a youth population that is stronger and more prepared for the challenges of the future.
Engagement
In order to foster change and improvement, we simply need to go out and just do it! The Youth Cabinet facilitates Safe City Mississauga’s two awareness campaigns, #FutureGrad and #WhiteRibbon, and is always seeking ways to engage new people and organizations to promote our goal of community-led safety.
Empowerment
The goal of empowerment is to instill youth with the confidence they need to carry out their own goals and dreams. We seek to empower youth by supporting their pursuit of education, providing them with valuable opportunities, and developing their capability to engage in their community.
Opportunities
Volunteer Opportunities
True to our core value of engagement, the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet is offering the following opportunities to give back and get involved in your community:
- Youth Cabinet opportunities
- General Safe City Mississauga Ambassador opportunities
Partnership Opportunities
Are you an organization, club or community space looking for opportunities to collaborate and contribute to community safety? The Youth Cabinet would like to invite you to take a look at our partnership package and consider partnering up with Safe City Mississauga.
Current partners
- UTM Sociology and Criminology Society
- Sheridan Police Foundations Student Association
About Us
Meet the 2019-2020 team!
Avani Joshi (Chair)
Avani Joshi is a third year student at the University of Toronto Mississauga studying criminology and forensic science. Avani volunteers as the Chair for the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet. Avani took on this volunteer position to help with crime prevention in her community and to make connections in the legal field. In the future, her goal is to work in the legal field as a criminal lawyer and later move on to work for organizations such as the Innocence Canada. Her hobbies include dance, reading, and writing. She also takes part in a UTM dance team, called Fusion, in which she is the head choreographer. In her free time, Avani likes to read classic fiction novels. Some of her favourite books are 1984 by George Orwell, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.
Tian Jing (Research and Capstone Project Lead)
Tian Jing is a soon to graduate Pre-Law student at the University of Toronto with a diverse professional history. Tian volunteers as the Research and Capstone Project Lead for the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet. He joined Safe City Mississauga in 2019 because of his passion for crime prevention, creating safe communities, and assisting victims. In the future, he aims to achieve his ultimate goal of attending law school to become a criminal prosecutor. With over ten years of work experience in customer service, marketing, and management, he hopes to contribute his interpersonal skills and work ethic to Safe City Mississauga to make an impact through his endeavors at this organization. When he is not busy fighting crime, he can be found exercising, thrill-seeking, trying new foods, and playing with his cat.
Mashal Khan (Communications Lead)
Mashal Khan is a fourth-year undergraduate doing Forensic Biology specialist and Psychology minors at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM). Mashal volunteers as the Communications Lead for the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet. She is passionate about social justice issues and take particular interest in initiatives focused on human rights, gender inequality and crime prevention, and aims to pursue a career in criminal law. Mashal is a research intern in the Forensic Laboratory at Toronto Police Services as well as is part of Forensics outreach team at UTM. Mashal is also one of the three team leads at UofT International Health program focusing on issues surrounding global health. In her leisure time, Mashal likes to spend time with friends and family, play badminton, solve sudoku and watch FBI files.
Marilena DelMonte (Outreach and Project Support)
Marilena DelMonte is a recent graduate of the Police Foundations two year program offered at Sheridan College. Marilena volunteers as the Outreach and Project Support for the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet. She joined Safe City Mississauga early 2019 as one of its many Ambassadors. Marilena is currently working towards her Human Resource Management Certificate as business is one of her side passions. Aside from her studies, Marilena loves to volunteer and is currently volunteering for two other non-profit organizations. She is an executive member of the Sheridan Business Associations, a student-led association at Sheridan College. As well, she volunteers at the Peel Children’s Safety Village alongside Peel Regional Police. Her favourite saying is “smile, make others happy, and enjoy life”.
Shanika Gordon – Chair, Research Lead
Shanika Gordon earned her Bachelor of Arts Honours degree from York University where she majored in Criminology and minored in Humanities. She is most passionate about social injustices that arise as a result of criminological and socio-legal issues. Shanika is currently employed as a Bail Supervisor with the John Howard Society of Peel-Halton-Dufferin. Shanika is an active member of the Peel Region community as she has volunteered for Safe City Mississauga’s Aspire Program, the Ministry of Children and Youth Services as a Diversion Program Facilitator and the Young Black Women’s Project initiative founded by the Peel HIV/AIDS Network (PHAN) as an advisory board member. As Research Lead for the Youth Cabinet, Shanika utilized her research skills to explore the existing gap between the current Canadian post-secondary education system and labour market– a topic collectively chosen by the Youth Cabinet members as the focus for this year’s Annual Youth Project. Based on her findings, Shanika constructed the Annual Youth Project Report titled “Bridging the Gap Between Education & Employment: Unemployment & Underemployment from a Canadian Youth Lens.” Shanika believes that work done by youth contributing bodies, such as the report identified above, have the potential to ignite progressive conversations about the ways in which communities and their governing bodies can work together to improve the lives of youth and in turn, create safer communities.
Gerald Adad, Outreach Lead
Gerald graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in Criminology and History. Across his undergrad career, Gerald volunteered as a managing editor for the University of Toronto Undergraduate Criminology Review and as a Mentor for PAIR Mentorship. He currently volunteers as a Probation Officer for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services’ probation office in Mississauga and participated in the Energy Exchange Program at Modo Yoga Square One. He is Team Lead for a successful Neighborhood Watch for 400 Bloor Street and was also Sponsorship Lead for Studio.89’s Sauga City Cook-Off fundraiser event, held in August 2017. As Outreach Lead for the Youth Cabinet, Gerald has helped foster partnerships with organizations across Mississauga such as the UTM Sociology and Criminology Society and the Sheridan Police Foundations Student Association. He also led the FutureGrad and White Ribbon Campaigns carried out across several schools, libraries and organizations within the Mississauga community. Gerald believes that an engaged and empowered community is the key to a safer community and thus is focused on trying to build this vision in any way he can. He is currently employed as Safe City Mississauga’s Neighbourhood Watch and Research Coordinator.
Asya Twahir, Communications Lead
Asya is in her fourth year at the University of Toronto Mississauga pursuing a Specialist in Political Science. Asya has volunteered with Safe City Mississauga’s Aspire program as a Site Coordinator. Outside of Safe City Mississauga, Asya has been a project leader for Alternative Reading Week – a UTM initiative that aims at inspiring lifelong community involvement – as well as a member of a Social Innovation Project team that researched how to communicate available services to those in the community who may benefit from them. Asya enjoys connecting with her community in order to form long-lasting positive bonds. Asya believes that the youth of every society, when educated, guided, supported, and given a voice can be the vessel through which that society can flourish and improve with each new generation. In her time as Communications/SCM Ambassadors Lead, Asya has helped with Safe City Mississauga’s annual campaigns as well as coordinated and communicated volunteer opportunities to Safe City Mississauga Ambassadors. In addition, she has developed creative skills by contributing to the social media presence of Safe City Mississauga. Asya is thrilled to have worked with the Youth Cabinet and is excited for what it has in store for the future in terms of supporting community growth through the youth.
Sarah Rahman, Chair (July 2018 – December 2018)
Sarah Rahman holds a degree in English Honours from Ryerson University and has been an active volunteer with Safe City Mississauga since 2014. Her involvement with Safe City Mississauga initially started with the Aspire Tutoring Program which she was an integral part of until 2019. Sarah went on to serve as Chair of the Safe City Mississauga Youth Cabinet from its formation until January 2019, before moving to Ottawa to further her career. During her time as Chair, she was involved in the interviewing process for volunteers who were interested in becoming Safe City Ambassadors. Sarah also heavily contributed to the Future Grad and White Ribbon Campaigns through her efforts to recruit Safe City Ambassadors from her Aspire tutoring site location to volunteer their time to assist with the campaigns and her contribution of social media content for the campaigns on Safe City Mississauga’s social media pages. As Chair of the Youth Cabinet, Sarah also helped establish the framework for the first Annual Youth Project. One of Sarah’s final contributions to the Youth Cabinet entailed her hosting the Resume Writing and Cover Letter Workshop held for Safe City Ambassadors which perfectly aligned with the focus of the Annual Youth Project.
Our Projects
Bridging the Gap Between Education and Employment:
Unemployment & Underemployment from a Canadian Youth Lens
The 2018-2019 Youth Cabinet team report titled “Bridging the Gap Between Education and Employment: Unemployment & Underemployment from a Canadian Youth Lens” explores the disconnect between Canadian post-secondary education and the needs of the current Canadian job market. The report sheds light on the potential criminogenic effects of unemployment and underemployment through the application of several criminological theories. The report is intended to spark conversation on how to properly engage and empower educated youth in ways that facilitate their success in the current job market.
To read the full report, click here:
Our Campaigns
FutureGrad Campaign
| What? | Why? |
|---|---|
| The #FutureGrad campaign aims to prevent students from dropping out of school. The campaign posters and wristbands remind students the importance of finishing high school. | Students that are engaged in school and succeed in graduating are less likely to engage in crime. 40,000 Canadian students drop out of school every year and 1 in 3 high school dropouts leave after Grade 9 or less. Over 80% of the inmates in federal jails are dropouts. |
| How? |
|---|
| We provide campaign kits consisting of posters and wristbands to be posted and distributed among your community. We encourage posting pictures of the wristbands on social media with the #FutureGrad in order for a chance to win in our sweepstakes challenge. |
List of Participants from 2018:
- Big Brothers and Sisters of Peel
- City of Mississauga
- Father Michael Goetz Secondary School
- Glenforest Secondary School
- Clarkson Secondary School
White Ribbon Campaign
| What? | Why? |
|---|---|
| The White Ribbon Campaign is the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. The White Ribbon Campaign runs from November 25 (the International Day for the Eradication of Violence Against Women) to December 10. | 1 out of 2 women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16. In 2011, domestic disputes accounted for 14,516 incidents in the Peel Region. |
| How? |
|---|
| We provide a kit with posters, ribbons and pledge forms for you to distribute to your community. |
List of participants from 2018:
- The Salvation Army
- City of Mississauga Library
- St Francis Xavier Secondary School
- Ascension of our Lord Secondary School
- TD Bank
Contact Us
Address:
Mississauga Civic Centre (Ground Floor, West Wing)
Suite 1055A – 300 City Centre Drive
Mississauga, ON L5B 3C9
Phone:
(905) 615-4155
Email:
info@safetcitymississauga.on.ca
