The first person I am honoured to introduce in the “Inspiration Breeds inspiration” series is Gavin Sheppard. I’ve been sitting here staring at the screen trying to put into words the amount of inspiration and motivation I have gained since meeting Gav. It’s next to impossible. I have never met someone so willing to put his personal needs behind the greater good of society. He strives for excellence in every aspect of life and his work never ends, yet somehow he still remeains untired and unphased. Gavin has been able to change the lives of many people and inspire everyone he comes in contact with. To many politicians I’m sure his work is somewhat avant garde, but to the people his work helps it is beyond necessary. From myself and everyone you have ever worked with, shared your unique gifts with and raw ability to inspire, I would like to thank you Gavin.

Gavin’s Bio:

Gavin Sheppard is the founder and project coordinator for I.C. Visions—North America’s first government-funded hip hop recreational centre. Having founded the innovative community project at the age of 17, he is proud to announce that I.C. Visions recently celebrated its eighth anniversary in July of 2008. Re-titled and refocused as “The Remix Project” in October 2006, this newest evolution of the I.C. Visions program, has become both an official priority project of the Mayor’s Community Safety Secretariat and the United Way of Greater Toronto. The Re-Mix model continues to build on the I.C. Visions foundation, highlighting the impact of urban entertainment and culture as tools for engagement and empowerment, and introduces elements of hands-on training and mentorship into the mix.

 Gavin is a founding member of the Grassroots Youth Collaborative, a collective of some of Toronto’s top youth-led organizations serving their peers in the GTA. His experiences within the field of youth engagement and talents for working with young people have led him to be called upon by many different institutional bodies as an authentic voice regarding youth issues. Recently named to the experts panel overseeing the study “Social Inclusion in the Americas:  A Role of Cultural Programs and Policies for Youth” being undertaken under the auspices of the OAS Inter-American Committee on Culture (CIC), Gavin has been a loud and authentic voice regarding the power of art and culture as an engagement, empowerment and development tool. His public policy engagement work has ranged from presenting at the UN Habitat’s Safe Cities Conference in Monterrey, Mexico, to writing the framework paper for, and presenting at, UN Habitat’s Youth Violence and Crime conference in Durban, South Africa to the Ontario Region of Canadian Heritage’s all-staff retreat to Canadian Federal Government caucus summits on the gun violence currently afflicting Toronto, to Harvard University, to meetings with diverse funders who are seeking to better understand and engage young people. Gavin has been a tireless advocate for youth voices and the assets they bring. He identifies the need for social programs that embody youth culture and the arts in Toronto’s most under-funded communities.

Constantly involving himself in opportunities to further the cause of the arts and alternative education, Gavin is currently serving on the board of directors of Schools Without Borders (SWB) – an innovative non-profit that introduces young people to diverse cultural and life-skill-based learning opportunities around the world. It is through SWB that he has been involved in facilitating exchange programs with young people from the slums of Toronto, Canada, to the favellas of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Gavin self-identifies as a connector. It is for this reason that over the last two years he has become a strong member and now the Chair of the Laidlaw Foundation’s “Youth Engagement” committee. In his capacity at Laidlaw, Gavin often goes beyond the required role of assessment and recommendation for funding of youth-oriented projects, but reaches out and attempts to connect and network the groups he’s working with to other opportunities or groups who he thinks can benefit from each other. Gavin’s passion lies in seeing good people come together to create great works.

It is this with this passion in heart that 2008 finds Gavin continuing on his pilgrimage for inspiration.

What Toronto means to Gavin:

“Toronto is a city of possibility. To me, it is one of the most
exciting and incredible gatherings of people on this planet (and I’ve
been a lot of places). There is a critical mass of intellectual,
creative and fun loving energy that is bubbling over in Toronto. We
have been a world-class city for a long time. We are finally assuming
our role as a world leader now and that shit is really exciting to me.

Toronto is a world leader in everything from public policy to public
parties. Our city is one that celebrates. Unabashedly. And we have so
much to celebrate. It’s incredible. I’m sick of the bullshit so here
is the official proclamation:

In it’s place is the new Toronto. The Toronto that all of us who are
really doing something or trying to make it work have come to know.
The Toronto that has us all supporting each other, building, climbing
and striving. The Toronto where we don’t wear yankee fitteds anymore
we rock jay’s. The city where we are damn proud of ourselves and of
our sisters and brothers. The one that can’t nobody hold. The very
same city that got people from young to old rocking, speaking and
screaming 1 LOVE T.O.”

Straight Goods. Ya Dun Know. Differently Still. Guy.

Ya Zee It,

Gavin Robert Desmond Sheppard