Ubuntu | Toronto, CA
Improving access and representation in Toronto’s great outdoors.
Ubuntu, meaning ‘I am, because we are’, in South African Nguni is a not-for-profit organization created by Toronto-based trail runners Quinton Jacobs, Andre Morgan and Anoke Dunston, centered around the philosophy that when society thrives, we all thrive. The Fewer Roads program is just one of Ubuntu’s community initiatives, launched in response to the severe lack of BIPOC runners enjoying Toronto’s outdoor trails. The project invites People of Color to join regular trail runs. In just over a year, a network of over 100 runners from diverse backgrounds has signed up to experience Toronto’s beautiful green spaces and trails. Here, Quinton tells us how Ubuntu continues to bring his community together in a way he never imagined…
I’m South African Italian; Andre is Jamaican and Anoke is Tamil, and we are three runners who love being in the outdoor spaces around Toronto. Yet we noticed a lack of Black and Brown people in these spaces. Although running is typically considered to be an accessible sport, there are often barriers that are subtle and psychological that hinder people from taking part. If someone doesn’t see others like them in a space, they won’t feel like they belong there. Our goal at Ubuntu is to dismantle that psychological barrier.
The Fewer Roads program is a trail running group for Black and Brown people. Our goal is for People of Color to see themselves reflected on the trails where they are rarely seen, and to give them the power to step outside their comfort zones. We provide access to those outdoor areas by building transportation networks, coordinating carpools and organizing a special day, once a month, to take people to the trails.
The inaugural Fewer Roads run took place in the first week of January 2022. It was the coldest day of the winter. We set our expectations low that day, but we had an incredible group turnout – people’s eyelashes were frozen, and they had ice in their beards as we ran through Palgrave Forest – but that sense of accomplishment was incredible. That day, we could say to our runners: ‘If you made it out today, then you can achieve anything.’ Because this was the hardest it was ever going to be.
Around 35 to 50 people attend our monthly trail runs. When we run, we show up authentically. There are people singing Bob Marley songs. No one is left behind. Usually, Andre leads the faster runners while Anoke and I stay near the back. We have people who say, ‘But we are not runners,’ and that doesn’t matter. Perhaps they’re taking their first stab at running or just setting an alarm clock to join us in a space they’ve never seen before. Either way, they’re welcome.
As well as inclusion, another barrier for our runners is transportation. On offered us the resources to fix it. Thanks to On, we now have access to a school bus, so we can offer pick-up zones for our trail runs. Until now, we were depending on a few people who were already stepping out of their comfort zone to go to a trail run in an unfamiliar area, driving others they didn’t know.
We want to ‘make compassion cool again’. That’s the philosophy behind our work at Ubuntu. Another initiative, our Monthly Meals program, invites people to volunteer and cook for those in the community who depend on funded meals. We work with a craft brewery in the city that lends us their kitchen. We then distribute meals through the St. Felix Centre and Parkdale Food Bank.
We have more people interested in volunteering than we have space to offer. We give our volunteers an apron, an Ubuntu pin, and we tell them about who we support. The St. Felix Centre, for example, provides people in need with three meals a day for 365 days a year. Bringing in our [volunteer-cooked] meals gives the staff a reprieve and the time to do other essential work. An important part of this program is that our volunteers help to unload the meals at the Center and meet the people they are helping. This brings an even greater element of humanity to what we do.
My hope is that Ubuntu will achieve charity status in the next couple of years. Most of all, I hope we can help people pause and reflect on the notion of ‘ubuntu’. Both in their own lives and in their communities.
Through Right To Run partnership support, Ubuntu receives funds and support that are helping break down the barriers between BIPOC running groups and Toronto's great outdoors. To learn more about how you can get involved, visit: Ubuntu