Board member profile: Meet Charrissa Klander
Nellie’s Board of Directors is comprised of incredible women in our community who are passionate about ending violence against women and children. At our AGM in September, Charrissa Klander, our newest Board Member at Large, joined our efforts.
“I think that every woman and child deserve to feel safe and live a life free of violence and be treated with dignity and kindness,” says Charrissa, who lives in Riverdale. “Nellie’s is an organization that is committed to achieving social justice for women and children and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Charrissa, who is married with three kids between the ages of 12 and 20, first reached out to Nellie’s about volunteering opportunities about a year ago. She toured the shelter, helped out where she could and then offered her expertise as a government relations consultant in guiding Nellie’s towards securing additional funding. That’s when she started to think about the possibility of joining the board as a way to further share her expertise.
“The more I thought about what I could bring to the table in order to help Nellie’s achieve their mandate, the more I decided that joining the board would be a good fit for me,” says Charrissa, who, prior to becoming a consultant, worked as a senior policy advisor to the Minister of Finance where she advised the Government on policy and funding pertaining to social services, children and youth, and poverty reduction. “And, there’s so much I can gain from Nellie’s as well. The women who sit on the board are fantastic and I’m going to learn so much from them.”
Working with Nellie’s, where she will also join the Fund Development Committee, almost brings her full circle in her career as early on she worked as a Child and Youth Worker in a number of treatment settings in Toronto and Eastern Ontario.
“We all go through different phases in our life. I started my career in child and youth work and then took a different path, which I enjoyed. But now I’m at a point where I want to get back into social justice work and I’m at a point in my life where I have more time to give to take on a role like this.”
Welcome Charrissa! We’re so happy you’re here.
