The CODE Mentoring program – Interview with Rev Joseph Kiirya
by Dave Tulloch
The CODE mentoring organization is the brainchild of Pastor Joseph Kiirya who immigrated from Uganda 20 years ago and is a graduate of St. Paul University. The CODE focuses on matching black youths of high school through college or university age who are of single-parent families, with Christian men as mentors. Shortly after arriving in Canada, Pastor Kiirya joined a church led by Pastor Afolabi (now Bishop Afolabi) a Nigerian immigrant. Bishop Afolabi was particularly “concerned about the high rate of black youths who were in the criminal justice system”. Many of these young men ultimately became incarcerated, and this prompted him to initiate the formation of the “Black Pastor’s Forum” now called the “International Pastor’s Leaders Forum (IPLF)” to focus on how this issue could be addressed.
Several years later Pastor Joseph became the Pastor of River Jordan ministries. He adopted Bishop Afolabi’s Vision and implemented it at River Jordan ministries. Pastor Kiirya established a youth mentoring program at his Church, with himself as one of the first Mentors. Many of the young mentees are from immigrant single-parents, primarily mothers, who live in low-income neighborhoods and have very limited resources. His first mentee, a nineteen-year-old Ugandan immigrant, is now an RCMP officer in Digby Nova Scotia and many other mentees are now productive members of the Ottawa community.
In 2015 Pastor Kiirya became a member of the Love Ottawa executive board. “Love Ottawa provides support, training, and connection opportunities to bring together key congregational, ministry, and community leaders. We exist to ensure missional teams are equipped as they bring lasting transformation in every sphere and neighborhood of our city.” He informed the board members about his passion for mentoring black youth and arranged for them to meet with a group of single mothers whose sons were candidates for mentoring. The Love Ottawa team listened intently to the stories of twenty single mothers. “Most of them had their children incarcerated, but three of them had in the past three years actually buried their sons” due to gun-related violence. These stories immediately garnered the support of the Love Ottawa executive team, and they demonstrated this support by providing resources to facilitate the development of the appropriate structures to make this effort successful. Pastor Kiirya indicated that one of their members took a keen interest in his initiative and ultimately assumed a critical role in the CODE’s success. Gerry Organ, a member of the Ottawa Rough Riders Grey Cup-winning team and an ordained minister, immersed himself into the CODE, providing organizational support and taking on the task of mentoring as well.
The CODE mentoring organization was then established and has been executing its mission for about 6 years. Its mission is “to provide godly mentors in the challenging lives of our youth who are entitled to achieve a safe, successful and meaningful future.” Pastor Kiirya explained that “our goal is to see that all our boys in the city are thriving regardless of their social status, (and) regardless of their background. At The Code, we bring together men from across the city, from the various churches, these men must be Christian men, and (we) challenge them to take up a role, mentoring. The young men don’t have to be Christians (and) the young men don’t have to have any faith affiliation”. So far, the CODE has been very successful in its efforts.
One highlighted case relates to an orphaned young man that was mentored by Gerry Organ. At the outset, he was involved with a few other young men who were heading down the wrong path and he was the apparent leader of the group. But after a successful mentoring relationship he is now a very valuable and productive citizen. On the other hand, his two friends who had appeared to be less likely to get into trouble did not enter the mentorship program. Sadly, both are now deceased because of gun-related violence. There are many other success stories, including that of Pastor Joseph’s own son who was mentored by another minister and is now an integral part of the River Jordan Ministries.
Pastor Kiirya says that there are no shortages of prospective mentees, he encounters them just about every day while carrying out his ministerial duties. Many of these prospective mentees are facing challenges relating to their home environment. Issues relating to parenting approaches inherent in single-family homes, and even in some cases where both parents are present, and other issues relating to cultural differences between the parents’ home country upbringing and their children’s Canadian environment. But the major challenge for the CODE is to find mentors for these young men. So, if anyone is interested in fulfilling this role they can submit an application at: http://www.thecodeottawa.ca/
Dave Tulloch was born in Jamaica. He immigrated to Canada in 1970 to pursue post-secondary education. He earned a diploma in electronics engineering technology from Algonquin College, Bachelor of Admin and Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University. He has an extensive career in information technology and in IT consulting with Systemhouse, KPMG, and Oracle Corporation where he retired as a director. Dave taught IT and business courses at CEGEP (Hull) and tutored at the Wake Tech College in North Carolina. He wrote articles for the Ottawa Spectrum publication that focused on Ottawa’s Visible Minorities community and has written a book documenting the life stories of early Caribbean Immigrants to Ottawa, scheduled for publication later this year. He can be contacted via email: [email protected]