Tamer Ibrahim Stands Up for Young People: From English Major to Youth Advocate

A love of Russian literature influenced Tamer Ibrahim’s (MA'10) life in an unexpected way.

Tamer, who has a BA in English from York University and an MA in English from Lakehead, was especially fascinated by writer Leo Tolstoy’s explorations of the privileged world of the Russian aristocracy and the light he shed on the plight of the country’s peasant farmers, who barely eked out a living.

“I was attracted to literature’s ability to interpret sociological environments – like various social classes,” Tamer (MA’10) says. “It relates to what I do today.”

He joined the Laidlaw Foundation seven years ago – a Canadian grant-maker that aspires to create a society where all youth have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. 

“I work with a group of champions interested in the well-being of young people,” Tamer says. “When the systems designed to support them aren’t working, they ask tough questions and then work to change them.”

Since 2019, Laidlaw has been helping youth negatively affected by the justice, education, and child-welfare systems become healthy and engaged citizens. Often, these young people are struggling with racial, economic, and social barriers.

Tamer says, for example, there’s a lack of comprehensive data and knowledge-sharing between organizations that operate in the child welfare sector. 

“At one of our roundtable discussions, experts told us that young people would deliberately come into conflict with the law to escape group homes with toxic, or even dangerous, living environments. That needs to change.” 

Tamer’s compassion for youth who’ve had the deck stacked against has defined his career.

“Fresh out of Lakehead I was hired by UforChange – a grassroots youth-led organization in the Toronto area that offered fashion, film, and photography workshops to newcomer youth,” he says. As the Operations & Community Development Manager, Tamer helped developed UforChange’s fundraising strategy and prepared grants. “I also managed special projects with incredible partners like Google Canada, Artscape, and the Inspirit Foundation.”  

Currently, Tamer is Laidlaw’s Youth Collective Impact Manager and has shifted his focus from assisting individual young people to tackling systemic barriers faced by youth across Ontario. The project is a partnership between the Laidlaw Foundation, the McConnell Family Foundation’s Innoweave initiative, and the Government of Ontario.  

“We want to decrease youth homelessness and increase employment and graduation rates,” he says.

How exactly does the Laidlaw do this?

They team up with community groups and organizations who’ve identified a problem, such as high drop-out rates among people of colour in a certain city or region in Ontario. 

Laidlaw then works with this local coalition made up of people with lived experience and members of school boards, mental health centres, community centres, and anti-racism groups to design an integrated strategy to improve the graduation rate. Laidlaw also supports these coalitions through coaching, workshops, and funding.  

In his spare time, Tamer is the Board Chair of the For Youth Initiative, a non-profit organization that enables Black, racialized, and newcomer youth to navigate systemic barriers, plan for the future, and access the resources and mentorship they need to thrive. 

It’s another way that Tamer makes sure that he is always there for young people who need someone in their corner.