Session 4, 4:00pm: Views on What Makes a Child Friendly Home
Akilah S. Richards, Marley Richards, Oliver Przednowek, Meghan Wills, Stephanie Sewell, Richard Sharpe
Akilah S. Richard
Akilah is passionate about mindful partnerships and conscious parenting. She uses audio and written mediums to amplify the ways that unschooling, in particular, is serving as healing grounds and liberation work for Black, non-Black Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Her celebrated unschooling podcast, Fare of the Free Child, and the numerous workshops and gatherings she has been part of have garnered the attention of Forbes Magazine, The New York Times, Good Morning America, and most importantly, BIPOC families interested or living in more healthy, consent-based, intergenerational relationships. Her recent experiences within the intersection of privilege, parenting, and power are detailed in her latest book, Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work (PM Press).
Marley Richards
Marley is a youth rights advocate who values young people being clear on their boundaries and comfortable being their authentic selves. She has co-organized and hosted workshops in North America and Africa to offer adults guidance on supporting young people taking education into their own hands, focusing on confident autonomy and emergent structure. While much of her outreach is aimed at adults, she discusses solutions to youth rights violations among other young people by way of debate. She is currently a volunteer for the National Youth Rights Organization and an unschooler.
Oliver Przednowek
Oliver is a self-directed learner, passionate mountain biker, and mountain bike trail builder. Self-directing his education has allowed him to pursue his non-academic interests in a meaningful way, while at the same time pursuing the subjects he is most interested in on the academic side of things. While he is passionate about riding bikes and building bike trails, he also has a deep love for physics and computer science. Oliver is the co-founder of Chelsea Youth, a youth-led community non-profit organization advocating for increased transparency and environmental protection in Chelsea, QC. He is currently taking a gap year to travel, develop an app, ride his bike, and build trails.
Meghan Wills
Meghan is a certified L1 and L2 Unified Mindfulness, Mindfulness Coach in Ottawa, ON, Canada, with a background in human resources, hospitality and philanthropy actively supporting Children, Youth and anti-discrimination related initiatives in our communities. Meghan recently acted as the Chair of Parents for Diversity until July 2020. She has also been recognized as a lead meditation teacher and empowerment guide successfully awarded the Founders Fund – Ideation Fund in 2020. She is passionate about inclusive wellness and mental health support because of her own continued experiences as a multi-racial Black Canadian Woman (she/her) with a Jamaican heritage. Mindfulness is accessible to harness in our emancipation of mental slavery; it empowers self-awareness, self-mastery, and equanimity.
Where to find Meghan Wills:
Website: www.mindfulnessmeghan.com
Contact: meg@mindfulnessmeghan.com (Email)
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCot6JoalmQwJL-JZGyl3UtQ/featured?view_as=subscriber
Facebook & Twitter – @mindfulnessmeg
Instagram – @mindfulnessmeghan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanjstewart/
Stephanie Sewell
Stephanie works with families who are seeking guidance and support with their child or teen’s educational journey. She helps to bring out and validate the young person’s intrinsic motivation not only for learning, but for life. Her work is informed by her experiences as a school teacher, homeschool parent and co-op organizer, children’s choir conductor, and Board Chair for Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning. Stephanie believes that each young person deserves, and is capable of co-creating, an educational path that works for them.
Richard Sharpe
Richard works for the Department of Justice Canada. He has been involved with the Dream Legacy Foundation focusing his work on addressing the needs of Black communities in Canada. He is the lead on three organizations: the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent Push Coalition; the Federal Black Employee Caucus; and the 613/819 Black Hub. Richard is an activist working with others to achieve true human rights for people of African Descent locally and nationally. Richard and his wife have homeschooled their three children in Ottawa.