LOOKING FORWARD: New Pioneer
Award winner Kevin King, 22, has made an impact among young people,
first as a student leader and later as chair of Toronto's Youth
Cabinet.
From his early years in Jamaica through his
schooling in Toronto, his grandmother's words have continued to ring true.
"She always told me you have to have manners, which means you have to have
respect," the 22-year-old George Brown College student said.
"And once you have respect for people, she said you don't need to have any
money. So you don't have to be rich, you don't have to have any of that stuff.
All you have to be is respectful.
"So I've been able to expand my mind, to think on my own, to explore my skills
and abilities, to build confidence in myself."
It wasn't always easy.
His mother left him behind in Jamaica when she moved to Canada in 1982. He had
seen her just one other time when he joined her here 11 years later.
He was raised by his grandparents, who instilled what he calls "fundamental
principles."
In Canada, those principles helped him get to know his mother as he struggled
to understand a new country.
"It's a theme many people have experienced over the years," King said.
"Many people who came from the Caribbean left their families behind and came
to Canada to make a new life. So when the kids come and join their parents
they have to make the adjustment to a new society and their parents as well.
"It's never an easy thing."
Facing such challenges had pitfalls and King admits there were times when his
life could have taken a more sinister turn.
But then his grandmother's words would pop back into his head.
"There are always opportunities for trouble," he said. "You just have to
choose a better way.
"As a young person, there are so many things that happen to you, especially
when you don't know so much and you have such little guidance.
"There were tons and tons of opportunities to go astray."
Instead, King chose to make a difference in his Rexdale community.
He was elected to the student council at North Albion Collegiate, where he was
instrumental in starting a breakfast club and other after-school activities.
He later joined the Rexdale Youth Council, where he helped organize a homework
club, fashion shows and HIV information campaigns.
His efforts attracted the attention of the Toronto Youth Cabinet, which
invited him to be a member and later its chair. In that role, he helped pry
$800,000 from the city for youth programs.
"I tried to get young people involved in the decision-making process, get them
around the table of opportunity," King said.
"A lot of young people from Rexdale, especially black young people, find
ourselves in a precarious position.
"I was reading the other day that in Montreal, a black student who graduates
from university faces an unemployment rate of more than 18 per cent, while for
a high school dropout who is white, in the same neighbourhood, the
unemployment rate is just 17 per cent.
"So when a white high school dropout has a better chance at getting a job than
a university graduate who is black, that gives you an indication of what's
happening in society.
"The impact of things like that on my generation is significant."
So he keeps harkening back to what his grandmother told him years ago.
"Once you learn to be confident in yourself, in spite of racism,
discrimination, in spite of the low expectations people might have for you,
you must be able to move beyond those things and move into a place where you
belong," he said.
"When we started to get young people involved in skills development,
leadership training, a whole host of things, we started becoming a community
and started becoming motivated.
"That propelled us into different opportunities. Some of us started going to
university, others to college, things that weren't necessarily expected of
us."
In 2000, King was one of 300 people from around the world identified as future
leaders and selected to go to a Washington conference as presidential
scholars.
And once again, he thought about his grandparents.
"They were the merchants of hope, the people who inspired me, who instilled
values in me," he said.
"I'm not where I am because of me alone. I'm here because of people who
supported me, who cared for me, who invested time and energy in me.
"It's been a long road, but it's not over yet. It just encourages me to
realize that there's a lot more to be done.
"While it's good to be recognized for things, there are a lot of people who
don't have these opportunities, people who are just as good or better, that we
don't know about yet.
"That motivates me to reach out to those young people — wherever they might be
— and show them the opportunities available to them.
"In the end, all that effort comes right back to you."
