21-year-old Ottawa man wins $1,000 grant after making a difference in his community

Twenty-one youth leaders will be honoured during the Youth Ottawa 21 Under 21 Awards next week. CTV’s Camille Wilson introduces us to winner Israel Nkusi.

Israel Nkusi, 21, is a leader, creator, mentor, and the founder of Maisha Mingi, a nonprofit organization working with youth who love music, holding workshops and connecting them to other programs, employment and education.

He started the program after one of his close friends passed away due to violence.

“Our friend MK was in between. He was trying to go to adult school, but he was also trapping in the streets and doing a lot of unhealthy behaviors. I was trying to tug him back and forth with some of the influences to come to the gym with us. He ended up dying partly because he wasn’t as committed as he should have been to those other activities and doing illicit activities,” says Nkusi. “I think after me and my friends went through that, we realized that there was a lack of incentive when it came to very serious programing that can change someone’s life.”

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Nkusi took advantage of the opportunity two years ago to build a foundation to encourage youth 18 to 25.

“I tried to kind of think of a solution to make an environment where it’s okay, where it’s positively reinforced to think about things like the future and mental health effects on what you’re doing out here and all that stuff,” says Nkusi.

Nkusi says his focus is to make youth feel like they’ve found an environment that’s positive and motivating; a place to talk about growth, themselves, mental health, executive functioning, and helping the community.

“I would like to see more rooms where these conversations are prioritized,” says Nkusi.

Nkusi was nominated by a core mentor for the 21 Under 21 Awards and is now the winner of the $1,000 grant, which will be presented at the Youth Ottawa Awards Gala.

“Honestly, at first, I didn’t really think about it that much because it was like okay, nice, I got an award. The more I understood that long term, this is honestly a blessing,” says Nkusi.

This is the 28th year of the Youth Ottawa Awards Gala. It’s presented by RBC, celebrating youth achievements and honouring their contributions in their community.

“They need to see a vision for their city, and they need to know that it’s possible that they can be recognized and that they can shape things. At the end of the day, young people need a vision,” says Jesse Card, Executive Director of Youth Ottawa.

The awards highlights youth recipients aged 14 to 21 who have taken initiative, shown great leadership and have gone above and beyond to make lasting impacts.

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“Israel is a perfect example of the type of youth that get recognized for this. These are youth that aren’t waiting around asking for permission. They’re doing things here and now,” says Card. “In society, we tend to focus on the problems, and we put Band-Aids on them, but young people are the ones that are going to solve the issues of homelessness, food insecurity, unemployment. These youth have these great ideas, and we should be putting more resources behind them instead of continuously putting Band-Aids on the same old problems. These youth are the ones that are going to drive the future forward and fix some of these long generational issues.”

Nkusi says he postponed his post-secondary education to focus on his program and he’s glad that it is all paying off.

“It’s nice to see older people who are where I want to be give me the advice and encouraging me to continue. It’s definitely nice, the recognition,” says Nkusi.

“Everybody’s about to graduate this year, so to be recognized like this and have an award, it feels like it’s like a graduation in itself. It’s like it’s my kind of recognition.”

Nkusi says applying and receiving grants for a nonprofit is challenging so he’s grateful to have be the winner of the award to put the $1,000 towards his program.

“Whether it’s in our programing or in our fundraising, we’re trying to have the result of our conversations and actions from those conversations be a positive impact,” he says.

“The name is Maisha Mingi, which is Swahili for abundant life. Abundant life is just like wherever you come from, whatever religion, the main point of these things is to come together, have conversations that are effective and positive. Very much like collaborations, networking sessions and any creativity,” says Nkusi, “Creativity is what brings about new ideas.”

The Gala takes place on Nov. 5 at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. Tickets can be purchased at Youth Ottawa 21 Under 21 Youth Awards - Presented by RBC.