All of what follows appeared in The People Today Chronicle, a Canadian community newspaper, as a profile of Jerome Sylvan and his philanthropic work. The article mentions Sylvan’s participation in Landmark Education’s leadership programs.
Jerome Sylvan strives to transform community
by Shawn Michael Samaroo
Jerome Sylvan lives every day, every moment to bring “transformation and power” to the lives of others.
“I have made the choice to dedicate my life to community service. Across this country, we can see transformed communities – people living powerfully to share their lives with their neighbors, and other people. I want to see a society of kindness, of service,” he said when The People Today Chronicle interviewed him for this story.
Sylvan wears many hats – devoted church member serving at the Agincourt Pentecostal church in Toronto; family man with two teenage sons still at home; technician in the IT department at Bell Canada where he has worked for more than 20 years; chairman of the Board at the Malvern Rouge Valley Youth Services; president of his own company dedicated to training youths in entrepreneurship; co-chair of a national prayer breakfast group that organizes prayer breakfasts to pray for Canada’s leaders and for the nation; husband to his wife Barbara – they have been married for more than a quarter century.
GENTLE
A tall man who wears a beard but prefers to shave his head for the bald look, Sylvan looks like a tough ex-football player – big and commanding in his presence. Yet, when he talks his voice distinguishes him as a gentle giant – a man with a soft, gentle heart who keeps his voice just above a hoarse whisper, and to whom anyone can turn for a helping hand.
Jerome Sylvan, in fact, believes in brotherly kindness, community service, and empowering others.
In the 17 years that he has dedicated his life to community service, Sylvan traveled to far flung places such as Brazil, Senegal and Guatemala to build water wells for poor communities. He is planning to go on a trip in September, 2009 to Cambodia to help poverty relief efforts there.
This international work flows through his role at Agincourt Pentecostal church. This newspaper was present one day when Sylvan met with a group at the church to detail plans for a comfort and teaching ministry to prisoners at Toronto’s East Detention Centre.
His heart for service creates astonishing breakthroughs in various communities across Toronto and the poorer places of the planet.
Such people as Sylvan bring an energy, a zeal to life that inspires others to live nobler, to believe in a richer cause, to reach out in kindness and love. They bring to life the essence of human kindness.
At the Agincourt Pentecostal church, Sylvan has served faithfully for 22 years, rising to a leadership role. Every Sunday morning, with his wife Barbara and his two sons, he gathers with the congregation to sing, pray and exhort a life of righteousness, holiness and graceful giving.
He even serves on the Fellowship for Men, an outreach service that seeks to bring love and kindness to men in need. He serves on the prayer team, and as a communion server.
This man walks the streets of Toronto as an ordinary soul. He is unassuming and easy-going, with a ready smile and a pleasant demeanor. Beneath what one sees, however, is a powerful extraordinary spirit – a man for the times who reaches out his hands offering compassion and care, leadership and service, dedication and heart. This newspaper tells his story because he inspires so much: what would the communities be without such men?
Sylvan’s heart is focused now at the Malvern Rouge Valley Youth Services, a new community work that is struggling to establish itself as a portal for youth empowerment and transformation of the Malvern-Rouge Valley community.
“Malvern has picked up a bad reputation in the national press – as a place of violence and at-risk youth. The goal and mandate of Malvern Rouge Valley Youth Services is to rejuvenate the community, to offer a way out for the people there. We want to see literacy rates rise. We want to see a violence-free community. We offer a range of services through the organization to bring the community to a place of respect, economic growth and sustained social cohesion,” Sylvan said.
He first started leading community grassroots efforts to revitalize social services when he cofounded the Positive Impact Foundation, a charity in the Greater Toronto Area. This was “years and years ago”. Then, with the founder, the late Robert Brown, he launched out in the work of Malvern Youth Club. That club has evolved into the Malvern rouge Valley Youth Services, a full-fledged government-registered charity that is designing a range of social programs – from a reading club and guitar classes to computer literacy training and youth entrepreneurial training.
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