Here are the Candidate Profiles for the four nominees for the OPIRG Guelph Board of Directors.
The election will happen at our Annual General Meeting, on March 30th, 6:30pm (online). Register for the AGM here: https://tinyurl.com/OPIRG-Guelph-AGM-Registration
In order to be able to vote you must be a member in good standing of OPIRG Guelph. If you are NOT a graduate student at the University of Guelph or a full-time undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, the deadline to fill submit your membership form is Wednesday March 23rd at 6pm. Please email it to mandy at organizational@opirgguelph.org. Here is the form: https://tinyurl.com/MembershipForm-GoogleDoc
Odesia Howlett
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Community Member
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I previously served on the board of Guelph Pride and Out on the Shelf, including a year as Chair of Guelph Pride. I have strong leadership qualities.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I wish to align my morals (activism, justice, and inclusivity) with a board that explicitly works to solidify those things in the community.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
Bring more variation of trainings to the community, more student-focused marketing, and collaboration with more on- and off-campus organisations.
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism and ageism.
a. What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
Oppression can close the door before people can event get enough information on a topic to make decisions for themself. Being anti-oppressive means consistently and actively looking for barriers and breaking them down to give the autonomy to people to make their own decisions. It also means being aware of our biases and privileges and stepping aside for the benefit of the overall goal.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
Anti-oppression only goes as far as the people who know it. It’s my hope that OPIRG can expand their knowledge of anti-oppressive strategies to the student and Guelph community in bite-sized and fun ways. Sometimes “anti-oppression” can have very heavy connotations, but it’s my hope that the OPIRG board can share in the achievements, goals, and joy of anti-oppressive life!
Brittany Lee
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Community member
2. What kinds of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I am a perceptive and analytical person. I have worked and volunteered in decision making and direction taking positions, I love collaborating and connecting with others. I have a lot of personal interest in, and have been engaging in various trainings and learning around conflict resolution and open communication. I am task oriented and believe in equitable divisions of labour.
I have over 15 years of experience in community engagement, and have experience with financial tracking and responsibility.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I love the work and energy that OPIRG Guelph puts into the community. I so appreciate that they operate at the nexus of social and environmental justice, which is showcased through the community work and events that are coordinated, and through the wide variety of action groups that are supported. I’ve participated for many years as a student, and now as a community member, and I would love to contribute to their offerings in a new way. I want to exchange knowledge and experiences with many folks whose lives look different than mine.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
- I would love to see more idea generation and facilitation of take home activities that can be done – a way to build / maintain connection to each other and the earth
- A community potluck or outside gathering while the weather is getting warmer
- 1 new partnership with a community organization / leader, particularly one where action groups are connected to folks in the larger city that are working in similar spaces / towards a common goal.
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a. What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
There are countless ways that oppression impacts, affects, and shows up in our work. In who has access / time / energy to participate, who feels welcomed or accepted, who even knows about OPIRG and the work that’s being done. Then there are barriers that exist once folks are in the door – who is praised, who’s had access to certain training / skills / education, who’s ideas or critiques are given space or value. Every single oppression can come into play at any and all times, and what we continually see is that folks who are multiply oppressed have the hardest and least safe experiences in this world.
There is so much space for community partnership and support that OPIRG offers, but knowing that these supports exist and how to access them is a barrier.
An dynamic that is commonly critiqued or flagged is that issues and problem most often get addressed when they are being championed by middle class, higher education, white folks. And not when the folks in that community or who are most impacted by that issue are advocating for themselves. I think it is so important to continually ask ourselves and those around us, who do we believe? Who are we paying attention to? Who or where are we giving our money to? Who do we feel compelled to mobilize for? If our answers are consistently reflecting that it’s only people who look like us or whose images uphold cultures of white supremacy, then that is a sign that we have a lot more unpacking and unlearning to do.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
I get to occupy both places of privilege and marginalization, visibly and invisibly. And some things that continually stick out to me are how we need better models and examples of engaging in conflict and being with discomfort. We need discernment, to move from intention and not urgency, more internal and external emotional awareness, and to simultaneously broaden our ability to hold generous assumptions about people, and to interrupt when harm is happening or about to happen.
An outcome of living in cultures that uphold white supremacy is that we are taught to prioritize being “nice” over being honest and kind. We shy away from hurting one person’s feelings, and in doing so allow multiple other people to be hurt instead by their words or actions and our inaction. And, while these learnings run deep, we can teach ourselves and those around us that another way is possible.
Some ways that I see this unlearning happening are by practising active listening, where we reflect what we heard when someone was sharing and what it meant to us or what we made it mean, and then asking what feels true to them.
Adrienne Marie Brown was speaking to situations where transphobia or other phobias show up in your space. She mentioned that if that’s happening we have to re-evaluate the containers we’re existing in and trying to hold for one another, and also examine the invitation to the space that was extended. She said, “It can’t be, oh you can come belong but then I’ll have to not belong. We can all belong, and grow together. But it means that we’re going to have to let go of some old ideas that were created to keep us apart”. The ideas in this quote really resonate with me. Working from and living anti-oppressive values means that we are all going to have to let go of some stuff we’ve been carrying for a long time. That creating safer spaces for folks who’ve been marginalized requires all of us to be with the discomfort that can arise when we re-centering power.
Ariel Oleynikov
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Student representative.
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I served as a student representative on the OPIRG Guelph board this past year, and hope that I get the opportunity to do so again. Over the past year as a board member, I have had the opportunity to attend multiple workshops and trainings and learn from my fellow board members, which has allowed me to develop skills such as anti-oppressive facilitation, and learn more about the social and environmental justice issues prevalent in our community.
My current job is in harm reduction and community support. I have a lot to give from a safe drug use standpoint, as well as a lot of insight into the lives of our unhoused neighbours. For this reason, I have even more of a vested interest in supporting our community, and I believe that being part of OPIRG will allow me to help with that.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I served on the board this past year and I am not yet done contributing to OPIRG. I was able to attend some events and workshops, but being online and a student made it difficult to participate to the full extent. Though I will be graduating Spring 2022, I will continue to serve as a student representative, but I will have more free time to attend events and workshops, and help support their facilitation.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
- OPIRG does a lot of fantastic work with supporting our community, such as providing funding for workshops and other PIRGS, and supporting external efforts. I would like to encourage us to move towards exploring more environmental justice issues as well, as those are intrinsically tied to social justice. I would love to see an almost equal ratio of social to environmental justice initiatives.
- As I mentioned, I have a vested interest in supporting the unhoused community in Guelph. With so many initiatives already begun – Your Downtown Guelph Friends, Kitchen Bees, etc – there are many ways in which OPIRG can get involved. I hope that we can support our neighbours without homes more this year.
- Part of what makes OPIRG great is that we are here for the students. I would love to push OPIRG towards running one to two student centered events a semester, so that the campus community is more aware of our work.
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a. What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
No injustice exists in a vacuum. All of those mentioned above are interwoven, and they are a result of, and an unavoidable part of, the system and society in which we live. The optimal worker in the capitalist system is a cis, able-bodied, white man who holds a certain amount of societal power (ie: middle class), and follows “norms” that were unofficially decided by the colonizers who took this land from Indigenous peoples. Though these traits are commonly seen as ideal by the current workforce, members of OPIRG and, I believe, the younger generation are beginning to challenge the “norms” and phase out whatever typical oppressive regime has been in place for too long. This, of course, does not mean we are doing enough, and we are nowhere near the goal of equity, but it does mean we can believe in a light at the end of the tunnel.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
As mentioned, I have been lucky enough to attend anti-oppression workshops run by OPIRG, as well as other orgs, mainly at UoG. One of the methods through which we are able to work towards anti-oppression is by continuing to be committed to listening to and amplifying diverse voices. This includes being certain that each hiring committee includes folks that represent various identities. As well, this includes creating low-barrier events: providing food, allowing a sliding scale if payment is needed for entry/participation, making directions and/or transportation available, and offering supports such as visual aids, auditory aids, ASL interpreters, or any others that may be pertinent.
Furthermore, while we can implement these anti-oppression strategies, it is imperative to continue teaching more and new people about them. In line with my third goal for OPIRG, if we were able to provide training for students, and even younger community members, I think we would see a rise in social and environmental justice interest and initiative.
Jasper Smith
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Community member.
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
Chair, co-chair, executive committee, and committee member of Guelph Pride (including volunteer coordination, social media/marketing, fundraising, etc). Helped to disrupt the lack of wider 2SLGBTQIA+ involvement in the organization, created new policies/procedures around anti-racism, anti-oppression, mandatory anti-o training for all members/volunteers, mentorship opportunities to support new folks getting involved w little experience, reduced barriers by creating new ways to join the committee/offering childcare or for children to join as well/etc, expanded our community partnerships considerably
Founded Gender Intersect, trans and non-binary support group, doing everything from social support, critical mental health support/supervision, mediations with police, etc.
Created the trans peer support program with ARCH, paying trans/non-binary/two-spirit people from the community, training them in community counselling skills, and paying them to support others in the community in a supportive environment.
My focus is on relationships – our relationships to ourselves, one another, and the earth. This has led me to university (studying conservation biology and psychology), to direct action groups (Earth First, etc), supporting various social justice initiatives, collective organizing, social work to live, developing land-based supportive programming, and continues to be my central focus/motivating force.
Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I feel great about the work I did with Guelph Pride and creating a more equitable structure of decision-making and supporting documents (updated policies, comprehensive planning outlines, mentorship guidelines, supportive partnerships within the community, increased donor base), but now it’s being run by folks that represent a wider array of the community and I feel good about stepping back and letting other folks continue to grow that organization.
I feel passionate about social and environmental justice and it’s where my heart truly lies. It’s central to what I feel called to in my life. I love the work that OPIRG does, the way it’s supported my work in the past, and I would love to be able to contribute my skills, experience, and networks of support to the work of OPIRG more directly.
I do a lot of hands-on, frontline work and I appreciate having the balance of being a board member to support organizations doing work I believe in other ways and am excited to collaborate with other board members as well.
Help spark more ‘good trouble’ in and for the world!
List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
Supporting workers and volunteers in OPIRG to accomplish their goals and the objectives of the organization with greater ease and sense of being supported by a wider network of care.
Work with other board members and collaborators to increase the influence of community-level social and environmental justice initiatives, either by or through OPIRG itself.
Make life a little easier and spark a little more hope for people, plants, and all kin in our communities.
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a. What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
OH what a question. Can’t address social or environmental justice without an awareness of intersectionality and how it impacts structural violence in these ways – from environmental racism and its impact on healthcare/longevity/ability, on-going violence and cultural genocide towards Indigenous communities who are generally ‘holding the line’ in terms of land (and whole ecosystem) preservation worldwide, classism and how it relates to extractive industries and ideas about what ‘nature’ is and isn’t (and who/what belongs there/doesn’t, or what it’s ‘for’). And how heterosexism just makes for an incredibly dull organizational culture (among other shortcomings, of course).
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
I try to integrate my on-going learning about various aspects of anti-oppressive work into what I do on a continuous basis, so I would be happy to share those things. I also run workshops on nonviolent communication, transformative conflict mediation/resolution, effective communication strategies, anti-oppressive approaches to facilitation, and of course lots of workshops on meaningful inclusion of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities that emerge from an anti-oppressive lens.