Francis Garwe: The Community is a Library of Assets

Francis opens up about how his experiences as a newcomer to Canada and a trained mediator shaped his leadership philosophy, emphasizing that listening is a foundational skill all leaders must intentionally practice. 

Creating a culture of trust means creating a space for staff, partners, and community members to share their perspectives, and through this, his organization has been able to design services that truly reflect the needs of the community they serve.

From launching programs that address inequities to building a vibrant Learning Hub that fosters intergenerational knowledge exchange and ideation, Francis illustrates how empowering communities can unlock innovation and lasting change that include perspectives from all walks of life. 

He also offers several great lessons for leaders:

• How the community can be considered a library of assets, and organizations should open their doors to invite those assets in
• Resist the temptation to do everything alone, as many successful programs can originate from community ideas and collaborations with partners
• How trust, integrity, and respect are non-negotiable values

Our conversation also explores how Durham Community Health Centre approaches care through a person-centered lens, addressing not only clinical needs but also social determinants of health such as food security, connection, and access to services. 

Francis also highlights the importance of partnerships and a shared purpose, including collaborations with organizations like Lakeridge Health and Queen’s University, to strengthen community-based healthcare.

Quotables:

“Listening is a muscle that you have to exercise. The power of listening is more effective than the ability to open my mouth and speak.” – FG

“Everything anchors on trust. Whether it’s integrity or respect, one has to trust you. To me, my word is my contract.” – FG

“The saying ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ is the ability to be able to say I might need to unlearn and relearn, so that I’m able to appreciate where these services we are developing or going to land, and which voices are missing in that.” – FG

“The community is a library of assets. Learn to open your doors for those community members to come and pour into that cup. Once you do that, you continuously become a hub of innovation. To leaders who might be listening: Resist the temptation to do it all.” – FG

“It is a moment of pride when you see the power of engaging and the power of partnership, as well as the power of listening. And again, I will say intentional listening, not listening because we had a solution, but wanting to know that which we didn't know, so that we can know what we don't know.” – FG 

“That means engaging our teams, that are working day-to-day on the front lines, to make sure the culture of listening and design, or co-designing with those who receive your services, is crucial. By doing that, we are perpetuating a culture that allows the community to buy in, but also owning the design and implementation.” – FG 

“When you walk around our organization, you hear my team talk about ‘How do we empower the community? How do we build capacity in the community?’ When we do it right, that individual becomes a magnet of support to the next person, and continuously in that way.” – FG

“What does the real person want from here day-to-day to be able to sustain themselves? And how do we make sure that those needs are not one size fits all? That element of understanding that the community comes in different shapes. But when we look at the person, we need to look from top to bottom, and totally appreciate of them as a human being with different needs is crucial to this part.” – FG 

“Our Learning Hub has seniors that come in to knit and crochet, and also a group of youths from high schools that will share their digital and technical know-how. So, there’s an intergenerational information exchange, skills that are being exchanges across these two different segments of the population, which actually happens to really bring the old traditional ways that knowledge used to be passed.” – FG 

 

Mentioned this Episode:

• Durham Community Health Centre
• Peter Drucker
• Obliquity by John Kay
• Lakeridge Health
• Queen’s University
• Durham College
• Durham District School Board
• Hon. Sylvia Jones
• Walk with a Doc, Dr. David Sabgir
• Telus Health

 

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