Diversity Scholarships And Success

Likwa Nkala joined the Toronto Community Housing Corporation in May 2019 as the Manager of Community Economic Development leading city wide program delivery for employment and skills development activities for TCHC residents. After the re-structuring of the corporation he accepted the role Manager Community Safety and Support Central region within the Operations Division. In this role he oversees safety initiatives, tenant engagement processes and programs and economic development and recreational
programming.

Likwa came to Canada as a Zimbabwean refugee claimant in 2001 and became involved with East Metro Youth Services' Violence Intervention Program, apre-employment work opportunity to gain some Canadian work experience. Likwa worked as a frontline staff in that program for 4 years before, drawing on his business background and training, he helped establish the provincially funded Youth Outreach Worker (YOW) Program in 2006 as a response to the summer of the gun. In 2012, after successfully leading the expansion of the YOW program, Likwa became a Manager at East Metro, responsible for province-wide YOW support and resource development. He has led the development of an online learning and onboarding portal for Provincial Youth Workers in partnership with YouthREX (York University); he proposed the YOW model as an option to support northern Indigenous communities; and supported the co-design and delivery of Anti-Black Racism training across the province. He has served on the boards of Culturelink and the African Social Development Council and has also been a member of working groups consulting with the provincial government on youth and gangs, Ontario Youth Action Plan, Opioid Emergency Task Force, City of Toronto Youth Equity Strategy and the Evaluation of Toronto Community Housing programming.

Likwa believes in the power of engaging members of a given community to be the facilitators of change for themselves.