Ted Dawson
Founder, Executive Director & Outreach Co-ordinator
"Nobody tells me what to do...except for my granddaughter."
A Nova Scotian country boy at heart, Ted also has roots in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. An undergraduate degree with Honours in Economics was not the most important result of his 4 years at St Francis Xavier University. Rather it was the connections made with people and the work he did with Amnesty International, the local L’Arche community, and with X- Project, (a student led organization which involved small groups of students heading out weekday evenings to local segregated black and Mi’kmaq communities to tutor children) that instilled in him a desire to give back to communities and people.
After spending the next two years as a full-time live-in assistant to people with intellectual disabilities in the L’Arche community on the edge of the We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton, Ted moved into social services and eventually, beginning in 1993 into a 30 year self-employed carpentry and renovation career. Raising a family, hobby farming, coaching sports, community outreach, a passion for vintage tools and much else also consumed those many years.
Beginning in 2013 Ted volunteered for 2-3 months each year for 6 years outside the town of Moshi, at the base of Mount
Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania working on infrastructure projects and in the woodworking shop at a small rural technical school. Connecting daily with many locals on an intimate working and social basis was by far and away the most gratifying aspect of his many experiences there – connections he maintains to this day.
As a people person, a connector, a humanist, an environmentalist, a gardener, an activist and someone with strong management skills and a big heart, Ted brings decades of experience in many realms and a passion for social justice to the board and the team at On-The-Ground Toronto. Together with his wife Ewa and the founding team they have made their vision a reality.
“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with a sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained.”
Helen Keller
