Experience working with CEE

 I worked at the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals. From its name, we can understand this non-profit organization works for Black Youth. The organization’s primary goal is to help establish Black Youth professionally. To achieve this goal, it has many programs, including mental help. I have worked with youth job placement programs. Specifically, my job placement was to work with the operation team. It’s called the backend/paperwork job.

 

The key learnings in the field would be:

 

a)      Operational / Project Management:

I have learned how to work with office documents and maintain the confidentiality of all stakeholders. I have been taught what information I can share and which one not. To manage projects, the organization uses web-based software. I have never used this software before. So, I learned how to use it and manage all projects with that software. I have also collected documents from different stakeholders and kept them organized in the folder for the audit. I have checked all records in detail, and if I find any issue, I use to contact my supervisor to know the further action. CEE regularly organizes scrum meetings. The objective of this meeting is to keep bonding with the employees and refresh the mind between work pressure. I joined scrum meetings and got a chance to meet with other department coworkers of this organization.

 

 

b)     Stakeholder Communications & Relationships:

I was responsible for communicating with the youth and employers of those youth, as well as the manager of my department, supervisor, and the finance team of my organization. I had to use a proper manner to communicate with them. I have learned how to push for documents by maintaining office decorum. Ultimately, my supervisor was confident enough to let me communicate with the stakeholders without supervision.

 

c)      Problem-Solving & Critical Thinking:

Regularly I had to update the wage reimbursement information with the new paystubs. Before the audit, I had to check all files and folders to see if all the necessary documents were available and updated. If not, I had to fix them. If I found any other issues, I contacted my supervisor. When I joined meetings, I learned how to maintain good relations with everyone, how to speak and, if any questions were asked, how to respond. While communicating with the stakeholders with documents, always check them in detail, and if any issues are found, then contact the supervisor.

 

1.                  Build on this learning:

 

This job taught me how to work professionally, communicate with stakeholders, maintain files and documents, etc. These learnings will be helpful to work with any organization, including community workers’ jobs. This is the basic knowledge to work professionally in any organization.

 

2.                  Opportunities:

 

I would like to work with other racial and community people with different issues, like newcomers, housing issues, Climate Crisis, etc. I want to explore and learn more about community work to work with any community base organization and understand the overall situation.

 

I understood that if I wanted to make any changes in the community, I would need to make my plan pass by the authorities and would need funds. Like from the city of Toronto. So, my priority is to work with the City of Toronto so that I know how they work and will understand how to approach when any organization needs to communicate with them. Moreover, it will be great to work with the city to contribute my learnings and goodwill to the city community. 

 

The YMCA. It’s a big organization with many branches throughout the GTA. If I work there, I will be able to work in a different community, age group, and social services. It will be a great opportunity to learn to communicate in a diverse area and learn how they manage their work or events.