2023 Bud Knight Award Winner - sERGEANT lLOYD DIXON
Sergeant Lloyd Dixon is a Sergeant in Uniform Recruiting in the Peel Regional Police Service. Sergeant Dixon has demonstrated outstanding commitment to the youth in his community through his volunteer work with Ontario Youth in Action, Canada Elite and various basketball leagues over the last decade.
Inspired in 2013 from coaching his son’s basketball team, his commitment to youth has now evolved into embracing youth mentorship. This has resulted in his loyalty to coaching the next generation on and off the court. He guides youth with respect, instilling the benefits of self-discipline, hard work and teamwork; skills that will make them successful as adults. As the Sergeant in Uniform Recruiting, he serves as an exemplary role model with a wealth of knowledge when it comes to encouraging youth to join policing. He did not shy away from the opportunity to share his experience as a Black officer to approximately 1,000 students in the height of the George Floyd tragedy. Considering the interactions that some of these students had with police were typically negative, this forum allowed youth to see the police through a positive lens. By building bridges with youth in the community, Sergeant Dixon has forged a constructive relationship with the entire Black community.
While dedicating countless volunteer hours every week at United Scholastic Academy and Victory Academy, Sergeant Dixon engages in various activities to ensure both the school’s and youths’ success. He mentors with youth and families and provides business mentorship through interviewing skills to set them up for success. Worthy of noting, his efforts within this school benefit marginalized members of the community, specifically as they relate to young Black males. His direct involvement mentoring hundreds of youths has served as a positive influence by guiding them on the right path in life including steering them away from the criminal justice system. As the volunteer liaison, Sergeant Dixon has coordinated visits to the Knights Table, where his students actively participate in stocking shelves and handing out care packages to the needy; further reinforcing the importance of giving back. Through his mentorship, he has helped five students achieve full scholarships to the Universities of Calgary, UBC, Maine, Howard and Harvard. In the years to come, Sergeant Dixon will see more reward as twelve student-athletes will graduate this year.
Sergeant Dixon is someone who is both humble and embodies humility. Instead of being motivated by formal rewards, he has made sacrifices in his personal and professional life to enrich the lives of others. To ensure the success of his students, Sergeant Dixon purchased a personal van for transporting youth to practices and games. He also changed his work schedule and paused his promotional aspirations to facilitate an optimistic environment for youth.
Sergeant Dixon is grateful for the nomination, however formally providing him the recognition that is deserved will further reinforce his outstanding commitment to youth in the community.
Congratulations Sergeant Dixon!!!
2023 YOUTH AWARD WINNER - mORGAN sHEPPARD
Sudbury resident Morgan Sheppard has been involved in numerous programs, committees, and teams in her school and her local and provincial community. She feels strongly that “it is incredibly important and beneficial to help out within your community.” With the inspiration of her parents in mind, Morgan has gone above and beyond the status quo to promote safety, equity, and youth engagement.
Morgan has been an active member of her school’s Student Senate and OSAID Program since 2021, the former was where she learned about the OSAID Provincial Youth Advisory Program. In her school’s OSAID program, Morgan worked her way to being the chapter leader, but when presented with the leadership opportunity of mentoring local youths, Morgan couldn’t help but participate and support the important cause. As part of the provincial advisory team, Morgan was an integral part of the Drugs and Driving province-wide seminar on SAID Day in 2022. More locally, Morgan was the leader behind the successful impaired driving awareness events and activities within Sudbury to promote smart and safe choices to her peers.
Quick to volunteer, Morgan is also the Youth representative on Sudbury’s Pride committee, a co-leader of her school’s Social Justice and Equity Club, and a volunteer with the Safe Ride Home Sudbury program in partnership with the Sudbury Police Services. Morgan is also a very physically active student, playing on her school’s softball and hockey teams. She is not only a player, but also a coach at her school for the elementary softball team, allowing her to mentor the younger players/students.
Morgan’s drive was not just community-based, but also educational. She has been a model student working her way to being awarded with her school’s nomination for The University of Toronto’s National Book Award, as well as the winner of the Wordstock Sudbury 2022 “Youthwords” contest in the poetry category. She was also awarded numerous awards at her school’s “Reel Girls” Film Festival for her short films.
In the wise words of Morgan herself, “You never know how much you can accomplish until you try.” It is due to Morgan’s dedication to safety and her involvement with the school, local, and provincial community that she is the winner of the 2023 Outstanding Youth Award.
Congratulations Morgan!!
2023 Community Award for Youth Service Winner - kILEY fLEMING
2023 cOMMUNITY aWARD FOR yOUTH seRVICE wINNER - kAREN pATTE, pHd
2023 cOMMUNITY aWARD FOR yOUTH seRVICE wINNER - kAREN pATTE, pHd
Kiley Fleming is the Program Coordinator at Alexandra Park Community Center (APCC), a multi-faceted non-profit charitable organization with a multitude of resources, programming, and services available to individuals from the local community. As the program coordinator, Kiley oversees several programs at the APCC including: Women’s Healing Circle, the H.O.O.D. youth basketball league, youth gaming night, after school activity clubs, and the MAIP on-site music studio. Kiley provides support to youth in the community by providing employment opportunities, mentorship, tutoring, mental health and wellbeing by creating an exclusive space for them to archive their goals.
Kiley grew up in the Alexandra Park Community neighbourhood and now, she dedicates her career to serve and better the youth the very same community she grew up in. Kiley is a role model and leader to the youth by listening to their concerns, connecting and assisting them in education and sports programs to help them build up their self-confidence to succeed in life. Kiley is a leader and an inspiration to many youths and community members in the Alexandra Park Community.
It is our honour to award Kiley the Community Award for Youth Service. Congratulations Kiley!
2023 cOMMUNITY aWARD FOR yOUTH seRVICE wINNER - kAREN pATTE, pHd
2023 cOMMUNITY aWARD FOR yOUTH seRVICE wINNER - kAREN pATTE, pHd
2023 cOMMUNITY aWARD FOR yOUTH seRVICE wINNER - kAREN pATTE, pHd
Dr. Karen Patte is a truly engaged researcher who embodies the motto “nothing about us without us” in her youth engagement work. As an Associate Professor at Brock University, Dr. Patte’s research focuses on youth mental health and inequities – with one central fact: what happens in childhood and adolescence can shape health and success into adulthood. Along with Scott Leatherdale at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Patte is well known for co-leading the nationwide COMPASS study, which surveys more than 70,000 secondary school students every year in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia. Common across all of her research activities is a passion for involving youth in all stages of the research process. To that end, Dr. Patte led the integration of a youth engagement program into the COMPASS study. As part of this work, her team formed the COMPASS Youth Ambassadors and Youth Knowledge Mobilization Leaders committee. It has been through this integration of youth engagement that Dr. Patte has expressed a continual focus on providing space for youth to be authentically and equitably involved in research that impacts them, while also making sure that youth-focused research and knowledge mobilization is informed by youth themselves.
Beyond research and teaching, Dr. Patte is a truly engaged community leader. Her passion for youth engagement, collaboration, and teamwork crosses all of her work. Dr. Patte leads with a true belief and understanding that youth need space and authentic recognition for the critical contextual knowledge that they bring to projects they are involved in. She works to lead from behind, offering support and scaffolding for youth, so they can learn both from and with the research team. Her tireless commitment to creating a safe and inclusive space is a common thread among all the youth and community-oriented work that she does.
Dr. Patte’s colleagues describe her as one of the brightest, thoughtful and most community minded leaders, academics and researchers. She is a passionate, resourceful, kind, and forward-thinking leader, who puts effective and equitable youth engagement at the forefront of all that she does. Her clear gifts for community-engaged research and knowledge mobilization, along with her impressive academic successes, present the fine and holistic qualities that are deserving of the COYO Community Award For Youth Service.
Thank you for your dedication to the youth in our communities. Congratulations Dr. Karen Patte!!!!!!.