Core Team & Steering Committee

CORE TEAM

Core Team members include direct staff of OIYPP: Project Coordinator and from The Circle - Communications Manager.

Gabrielle Fayant
Project Coordinator

Gabrielle Fayant originates from Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in Alberta and identifies as a proud Michif woman. Gabrielle has worked with Indigenous youth at a grassroots level for almost a decade. Gabrielle has used her knowledge on the ground to influence systemic changes such as working on the implementation of TRC Call to Action 66. Gabrielle has been a Youth Advisory to OIYPP since 2015. She has witnessed the positive impacts that OIYPP fosters in community and supports the grassroots efforts of Indigenous youth.

Shereen Munshi
Manager of Partnerships and Strategic Communications
The Circle

Shereen Munshi is a communications professional who was born in Zambia and immigrated to Canada with her family 10+ years ago. As a proud University of Ottawa alumnus, she has since gone on to amass experience working in the Canadian non-profit and philanthropic sectors. She has a compulsion to uphold principles of equity and justice in her work and is nurturing a growing aptitude to amplify deep analysis of people, place, policy and power to inform the philanthropic and non-profit sectors.

Shereen sits on the Data Policy Coalition Steering Committee, is a proud member of the Next Generation Philanthropy Collaborative (NGPC), and serves on the Ontario Youth Partnership Project (OIYPP) Core Team.

STEERING COMMITTEE

Steering Committee consists of 3 members, under the guidance of the Project Director and Chair of the committee.

Quinn Meawasige
OIYPP Steering Committee Chair

Quinn Meawasige is 27 years young and is Ojibwe from Serpent River First Nation. His community is a signatory of the Robinson Huron Treaty of 1850. Quinn recently graduated from Algoma University with a Bachelor of Arts in Community Economic and Social Development (Honours) and a Certificate in Anishinaabemowin from Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig.

Upon graduating, Quinn became a founding member of the Nimkii Youth Collective, a grassroots Indigenous youth led language, arts and culture initiative. The Nimkii Youth Collective received a 2-year grant from the Test Innovation Steam of the Youth Opportunities Fund under the Ontario Trillium Foundation to carry out a two-year lands-based language project at Nimkii Aazhibikoong; a year-round lands-based language and culture camp located in his traditional territory.

Quinn was a youth advisor for the Ontario Indigenous Youth Partnership Project (OIYPP) - an Indigenous youth led and designed grant/partnership project that helps to support Indigenous youth explore and execute ideas to transform their communities - from 2015 to 2019 and just recently transitioned into the role of Chair of the OIYPP Steering Committee.

Kris Archie
Executive Director
The Circle

Kris Archie, a Secwepemc and Seme7 woman from the Ts’qescen First Nation, is passionate about heart-based community work and facilitating positive change. In her own words: “My lived experiences as a mixed blood woman, mother and community member informs my desire for inclusion, accessibility, and justice”. Kris is the Executive Director of “The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada”, an open network to promote giving, sharing, and philanthropy in Aboriginal communities across the country. In all of her roles, Kris works to transform philanthropy and contribute to positive change by creating spaces of learning, relationship-building and activation.

Jocelyn Formsma
Executive Director
National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC)

Ms. Formsma is a member of the Moose Cree First Nation, Ontario. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Ottawa. Jocelyn brings to the NAFC many years of work and volunteer experience building strong relationships and advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples. Most recently, she was Called to the Bar of Ontario and has been working as a lawyer for a First Nations-owned law firm. Prior to this, she worked for numerous national Aboriginal organizations and First Nations organizations. In addition, Jocelyn serves as the Chairperson of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Board Member of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, is a Champion of the Feathers of Hope, Founder of the Morningstar Fund and is an Advisor to the Ontario Indigenous Youth Partnership Project.

PAST CORE TEAM MEMBERS

Thea Belanger
Sara Hsiao
Amasena Delormier
Lyndsay Taibossigai
Wendy Cooper
Amanda Mitchell
Arti Freeman
Wanda Brascoupé Peters