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The Rest of The Story, Now the Why. With Wayne Steer
The Rest of the Story; Now the Why
You read in the June issue of Community Now! magazine, about my honor of being presented with the 2020 Outstanding Fundraising Professional Award at the AFP Calgary & Area Chapter Generosity of Spirit awards held on May 18th of this year.
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More recently, you may have learned that after eleven and a half years, I have made a move from Fresh Start Recovery Centre to become the Campaign Manager for Grace Yan, who is standing – with poise and grace - to be Calgary's first female mayor of colour.
You may ask, “If you have found such a wonderful “dream job”, why would you ever leave it for something else”?
This is an excellent question and the answer - while simple - requires some background to fully explain.
As we navigate our way through life, our paths are filled with many blessings, challenges and opportunities. As I look back on my journey, I recognize that two of the greatest blessings in my career path were discovering the fundraising profession and being introduced to Fresh Start.
A quote that I have come to appreciate that is attributed to many including Confucius and Henry Ford is “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” As a fundraiser, this vocation provides a great deal of satisfaction and, in the right environment, the opportunity to build great latitude and depth of experience to become a well-rounded, empathetic person who can effectively tell stories that inspire confidence, hope and generate support for your cause.
In late 2009, Dr. Tony Myers introduced me to Stacey Petersen, the Executive Director of Fresh Start Recovery Centre. By this time, I had been a passionate professional fundraiser and an active member of AFP (Association of Fundraising Professionals) for five years.
On February 1st, 2010, my journey of discovery, understanding and growth began to flourish when I was hired as Fresh Start’s Director of Fund Development to manage and direct a $13.4 million capital campaign to build and pay for a new 40,000 square foot, purpose-built recovery centre in the Calgary industrial district of Greenview as well as raising annual operating funding to provide housing, treatment and support for people affected by the disease of addiction.
At the time that I was hired, much of the groundwork had been done with respect to community consultation, creating a good neighbor agreement and a reasonable amount of funding had been committed by the Province of Alberta and the Federal Government.
While I've written before at length about he work that I’ve done as a member of the Fresh Start team, I would like to concentrate more now on the culture that helped me develop as a person and as a compassionate professional.
At Fresh Start, through the day I found myself interacting with the men who came to the facility seeking treatment and a better way of life. They would sit down in my office, tell me stories of their past and confide in me about their hopes, their dreams and how they planned to make those dreams come true.
The 14-to-16-week program is an intensive one and not every one of the men completed the program. Typically 8 in 10 would be able to complete the program with 1 in 10 coming back after relapsing.
The men who did complete the program became a constant source of inspiration to me and they also became a great resource for being able to demonstrate the success of the program through stories and to show the integral role that donors play in making it possible for adult men (and now women) of all ages seeking treatment, to be able to access award winning recovery services if they had no financial resources or funding options.
Many of those men progressed in their recovery and their weeks and months of continuous sobriety turned into years. Some of the men who once came and sat in my office in the early days now sit in their own office at Fresh Start and serve as an inspiration and a resource for men - and now women - who come seeking a Fresh Start to a better life.
The overwhelming majority of my coworkers at Fresh Start have traveled the path of addiction and recovery; some with 30, 40 or more years of continuous sobriety following the principles of the 12 steps.
In my time at Fresh Start I have developed an understanding and deep appreciation for the fact that drug addicts and Alcoholics - dedicated to their long-term recovery - are some of the most trustworthy, empathetic, dedicated and reliable friends you can have. In fact, my workplace became my own personal Wellness centre as I navigated through many difficult situations and received advice and support.
During some of my darkest times, when I didn't know where to turn, drug addicts and Alcoholics in long term recovery came to my rescue and provided shelter, perspective and connection that helped maintain an overall positive attitude and hope.
Some of the educational opportunities that were offered through Fresh Start also helped to build resilience, understanding and personal strength. Programs such as the family healing programs as well as the Brain Story offered through the Alberta Family Wellness Initiative helped to create a deeper understanding of many components of mental wellness that equipped me to weather some pretty tumultuous storms.
Fresh Start became much more than a workplace, it provided a sense of home, family and community.
With respect to professional development, Stacey Petersen was very gracious in providing the flexibility for me to be able to explore many leadership and growth opportunities with AFP on the local, national and international levels.
Besides being involved with the AFP Calgary board for 16 years and rising to the position of president for a number of years, I also had the good fortune to be recruited by Scott Decksheimer to join him as a member of the inaugural AFP Canada board along with Paula Attfield, Dana Ades-Landy, Shantal Cashman, Leah G. Eustace, Ken Mayhew, Pamela G. Simmons, Karen D. Willson and rise to the position of chair elect before stepping back to serve an additional year as president of AFP Calgary in 2019.
In 2011, I became heavily involved with the Diversity and Inclusion committees at both the local and international levels of AFP. In 2012 I was asked by Lori Gusdorf to chair a task force for AFP International to redefine diversity and inclusion for the fundraising community worldwide and after working with the talented committee, delivered a new and improved definition for Diversity and Inclusion. This was rolled out at the Diversity and Inclusion summit in Pittsburgh, PA in 2013.
In 2017 I was later invited to be part of a new task force put in place to enhance the definition of diversity and inclusion under the direction of Birgit Smith Burton, Y'Anad Burrell, Eugenia Colon, Beverly L. Herbert, Carl Marucci, Darius Maze, Lilya Wagner and Heba Mahmoud to create “IDEA” - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access.
In the Fall of 2019, I attended and took part in the AFP Global Woman’s Impact Initiative in Phoenix, AZ. This conference punctuated the magnificent contributions of women creating impact in many parts of the world.
In my 17-year fundraising career, I have been blessed to have been influenced, mentored and inspired by many highly capable women, both Caucasian and of colour, who have served to advance my understanding and appreciation of and proficiency in the profession of fundraising.
Women such as Luce Moreau and Andrea McManus - who recently became the first two Canadians ever to be honoured as AFP International Distinguished Fellows – the late Simone Joyaux, Birgit Smith Burton, Alice Ferris, Tycely Williams, Joyce Mitchell-Antoine, Robbe Healey, Paula Attfield, Rachel Hutchisson and so many others.
For as long as I can remember, I have had a great deal of respect for the power that women of all ages and ethnicities have to create change and impact. I have been a steady advocate for equal access to opportunities for women who possess the skills and passion to do the job.
I understand and appreciate the monumental talent, capability and contributions that accomplished women - whether Caucasian, of colour or “of the rainbow” - have made and will continue to make.
While I have been a strong advocate for equal opportunity for women and people of colour, I believe that my support has been largely overlooked or covert. A few incidents have occurred recently that told me that if I were truly going to be taken seriously as an advocate for equal treatment for women and people of colour, I would have to do something that clearly demonstrated this.
In March of this year, a mutual friend introduced me to Grace Yan and told me that she believed that we would make a formidable team. Grace and I met and talked … and talked… and talked, and after a time we agreed that this was a good match.
I came to realize that talking the talk was not enough, and that in order to really be an effective advocate and promoter of equal treatment of women and people who identify as BIPOC, I would have to “walk the talk”.
So, after eleven and a half years at Fresh Start, I made a bold move and joined Grace Yan on July 1st, 2021, to work as her Campaign Manager for her bid to become Calgary’s first Female Mayor of Colour on October 18, 2021.
I did not make this decision lightly and considered Grace’s business experience and good business sense, her ability to bring people together and create consensus and connect people and to inspire newcomers to Calgary to believe that their dream of creating wonderful lives for their children and family in our wonderful city IS possible.
My job from now until October 18th, 2021 is to instill Grace in Calgary City Hall and make history with Calgary’s first female mayor, who is BIPOC.
To do that, we will need help from YOU as well as many, many Calgarians. Help in volunteering, help in advocating and especially now, help in raising the funds to affectively let people know what Grace stands for and what she can do for you as the 37th Mayor of the City of Calgary. I invite you to join me to share this goal for a better future for Calgary. Wayne Steer, Campaign Manager; Grace Yan For Mayor
