CRRC Staff
Czarina Garcia (she, her)
Coordinator
Czarina is a dedicated mother, a life-long learner, a community healer, educator and art-activist. She is a second generation Filipinx-Canadian womyn and treaty person currently living in Nogijiwanong, on Williams Treaty 20 Territory, the traditional land of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg. She was born and raised in the GTA and previously studied at Toronto Metropolitan University for Business Management, and brings over 10 years of professional experience working with small to medium businesses in management logistics and operations. In 2018, Czarina moved to Nogojiwanong and is currently studying at Trent University, working toward a double major in International Development Studies and Environment and Resource Studies.
Since moving to Nogojiwanong, Czarina has worked with the Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC), the Community Counselling Resource Centre (CCRC), and has supported the local community and culture through volunteer opportunities with the Nourish Project, GreenUP Resource Centre, KWIC, CCRC, and with Trent student groups including the Trent Visual Arts Network (TVAN), Trent Youth Entrepreneurship Society (TYES), and Student Association of International Development (SAID).
Czarina is a certified Ayurveda-Yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, and embodied social justice educator. She is passionate about social justice and channels her skills, resources, and experiences in creating community-led, BIPOC-centered spaces that liberate dialogue, education, and living practices in cross-cultural knowledge sharing and community healing through collective decolonization. Czarina continues to create opportunities for healing within community through decolonization work, by weaving together diverse knowledge, experiences, stories and visions into the collective fabric of community awareness through a lens of understanding, acceptance and compassion.
As CRRC’s Coordinator, Czarina recognizes that systemic and individual racism are complex, deeply-rooted issues in the community, and in this role, she is dedicated to the work to combat racism and to advocate for those impacted by racial injustices and systems of oppression.
Email: czarina@racerelationspeterborough.org
Patricia Wilson
Community Advocate & Outreach Coordinator
Patricia is a natural community engager, social justice advocate and a nature lover at heart. She is a mixed-race, Jamaican-canadian woman who was born and raised in the Durham Region but came to the Kawarthas for school and stayed because she fell in love with the beautiful natural spaces and vibrant community of Nogojiwanong/Peterborough & the Kawarthas !
Patricia holds an B.Sc in Biology with a Specialization in Conservation Biology from Trent University and a diploma in Ecosystem Management from Fleming College. Having worked with various local charitable and non-profit organizations, such as the YMCA, Farms at Work & Kawartha Land Trust, and has specialized in volunteer & event coordination, Indigenous engagement & relationship building and community collaboration & partnership development.
She is also the Founder of Diverse Nature Collective – a grassroots organization that works to empower, mobilize and create space for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour within the environmental movement and reduce barriers in accessing nature.
She looks forward to continuing to advocate for racialized voices within Peterborough through her new role as CRRC’s Community Advocate & Outreach Coordinator and working with the incredible and dynamic team at CRRC!
Makanju Adebayo. O.
Program & Event Facilitator
Ph.D. STUDENT (IDSR Program)
Aging and Health Major
Adebayo Makanju has close to a decade occupational experience working as a socio-economic planning/policy analyst working on social justice and improved societal development. At present he is a doctoral student in the Interdisciplinary Social Research Program (Aging & Health) At Trent University. His work focuses specifically on the economic, spatial, and health dimensions of aging in the global South. He is a member of varied international organizations (Sonar-Global Network, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, CanAge e.t.c). In Canada, Adebayo volunteered for the upcoming Walk for Alzheimer’s in Peterborough, CanAge community advocator, and is still exploring varied opportunities to upscale his research and communal impact. In addition, back home in Nigeria, Adebayo started a communal health group named “DAAGBA IN WELLNESS” (daagba means aging in my native dialect), since its inception in late 2016. Over 400 adults living with one form of Non-Communicable Disease (NCDs) benefited from the quarterly free medical check-ups, tests, lectures, and pesticide-treated mosquito nets distributed to them.
NB: Please sign my petition for the advocacy for the need for a healthy aging policy in Nigeria: https://www.change.org/p/the-land-of-jollof-rice-and-unhealthy-aging,
Kharington Petgrave (he/him)
Assistant Social Justice Educator
Kharington (he/him) is an educator, advocate, and activist, attending the Trent University Faculty of Education. His experiences as an Afro-Caribbean person, have informed much of his historical research and teaching philosophy to center the experiences and stories of all marginalized peoples. He has also spent time working in several student government/ leadership capacities, including the newly-formed Trent Bachelor of Education Equity Committee, and the Trent Durham Student Association. He is extremely excited to join the CRRC team as an Assistant Social Justice Educator.
Will Ward (he/they)
Campus Outreach & Student Engagement
Will Ward (he/they) is a 21yrs old Black, trans and queer settler living in Nogojiwanong. They work part-time as a personal support worker and musician while studying psychology at Trent. They can usually be found reading, writing, speaking or beside a piano and in spare time scheming systemic change, baking cinnamon buns or walking in the mud with their dog. Will’s main focus is decolonization of institutions like education, policing and healthcare by partnering with like minded folks, co-creating systems of accountability and organizing spaces of community care.