A Pathways Lawrence Heights graduate, Trevaun has dedicated his career to supporting young people. In 2024, he received the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association Young Changemaker Award.
Trevaun was 12, painting a mural in his neighbourhood, when a Toronto Community Housing manager stopped him.
“She said I seemed mature for a kid my age,” he recalls. “And then she said, ‘I want you to work for me.’” Trevaun had been volunteering in the community for a year, planting flowers and helping with gardening projects.
The offer couldn’t have come at a better time. His single mother was struggling to support Trevaun and his sisters. Trips to the food bank often yielded too little, and at school, some teachers openly predicted that kids from Lawrence Heights wouldn’t amount to much. Around the same time, a neighbourhood gang was trying to recruit him.
“I always wonder, if I hadn’t had that opportunity with Toronto Community Housing, would I be here today?”
Trevaun took on the role of youth animator, going door to door to invite residents to community meetings. The first lesson he learned was persistence. To get 40 people to attend, he had to knock on 300 doors.
In Grade 9, Trevaun joined Pathways, following in his older sister’s footsteps. The bus tickets and grocery cards eased the pressure at home, but there was something else he needed from the program.
“I loved the feeling of connection, the vibe in that room,” he says. “My support worker, Zach, was just a funny, uplifting person. He really helped guide me.”
In his off hours, Zach ran fitness trainings at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre, creating a fun, competitive spirit that filled the gym with people of all ages. Before sessions, he texted Trevaun to make sure he’d be there.
“He could have just gone home at the end of his shift, but he didn’t,” says Trevaun. “It was such a selfless act.”
Growing up without his father, Trevaun saw Zach as a role model, someone who consistently showed up for young people. It was an example he wanted to follow.
After high school, he continued his outreach work with Toronto Community Housing while working a series of jobs to help support his family: maintenance worker, deli clerk, drug store cashier, bike mechanic, basketball coach. He was also an after-school counsellor at the community centre, helping young people through the same challenges he faced growing up.
“My goal was to make people’s lives easier,” he says. “I think it stemmed from seeing my mother struggle. I don’t want anyone to have to experience what we did.”
In 2019, Trevaun founded Mind on Strength, combining fitness and mental health workshops to create a safe, supportive space for youth.
“I want youth to know that no matter what they’re going through, they will get through it,” he explains. “It’s about resilience, and it all starts in the mind.”
To raise awareness and funds for the program, Trevaun began taking on long-distance walks across southern Ontario, often wearing a 55-pound weighted vest. Ahead of Mother’s Day in 2024, he walked more than 100,000 steps from Toronto to Hamilton to fund a spa day for hardworking mothers in Lawrence Heights.
When young people join him on these walks, he shares the advice that has kept him going since he was a teen: just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
“I always tell youth, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” he says. “It may look like a rough season now, but one day, one year, one opportunity can change everything.”
