Forensic Identification Services
Youth In Policing Initiative 2007
Leadership on display at FIS
Student donating wages to hospital
by Travis Persaud
With a summer job and rarely any financial
responsibilities, teenagers possess
a disposable income that make companies
salivate at the earnings they represent.
Kayode Fatoba, 17, is one
of those teenagers.
After gaining a well-paid
job with the Youth in Policing Initiative (YIPI), his spending
fantasies can become a reality. But Fatoba has sidestepped
the “costly trappings” of materialism,
opting to contribute to the development and
well-being of others.
“My father is a doctor…and I’m going to
help him build a hospital in our home country,
Nigeria,” he said.
Fatoba plans to give over half of his earnings
to his family to help build the facility in a small
rural village. He described the simplicity of life
in the community, living in mud huts with basic
tin roofs and needing more attentive medical
care that they plan to provide.
With his earnest desire to improve those difficult
circumstances and acting on his convictions,
it is clear his leadership potential is enormous.
Working at Forensic Identification
Services (FIS) has only helped to tap into that
potential.
 Fatoba,
who just graduated high school, works alongside Abdiwahab Moalim, 14, who
will be entering high school in September. The
difference in age and life experience, only three
years, has turned Fatoba into more than just
Moalim’s friend and co-worker.
Kayode Fatoba, 17, leads a tour of FIS for YIPI students along with Abdiwahab
Moalim, 14.
“In a way, I’ve become his mentor in this
program,” Fatoba said. “As I’m working with
him, he’s usually asking me questions about life
in high school and what he should expect.”
They have formed a formidable bond working
together, with Moalim looking up to Fatoba,
while learning the social nuances of high school
life from him. However, their friendship was not
created overnight and Fatoba had to learn from
Moalim first, before he could lead.
Fatoba was not overjoyed when he heard he
was working with Moalim.
“When I first found out I was working with a
14-year-old, I was sceptical – I thought I knew
everything,” he said.
He resisted everything Moalim said, ignoring
his comments and always assuming he was
wrong. Fatoba figured his high-school experience
automatically granted him intellectual
superiority over his younger co-worker, which
turned out to be wrong.
“Sometimes when he said something I
wouldn’t believe him because he’s my junior,”
Fatoba said. “But he often turned out to be right.
’s been a humbling experience.”
This job has taught him that pride is a large
barrier that often gets in the way of learning. He
is now taking time to listen to others, something
that is not lost on his friends and family.
He said his parents have noticed his refined
listening skills, where he used to speak first with
a presumptuous attitude. His changing behaviour has helped create
a strong team working
within FIS.
 In fact, with their chemistry and Fatoba’s
direction, they are now leading the FIS tour for
other YIPI students.
“I was leading a tour when Fatoba took over
at one point and started to explain things to the
group,” Sgt. Alan Benton said. “So I thought, ‘Why
not?’ They can definitely lead it.”
Fatoba laughed, remembering the struggles
his quieter co-worker had at the beginning of
their first tour. Moalim had to force himself to
speak above the crowd, but quickly began to
feel more comfortable after following Fatoba’s
lead.
“He’s a bigger force than me,” Moalim said. “I have
to try hard to keep up with him, but it’s
good because that’s how it’s going to be in a
couple of months in high school.”
Learning to work with a 14-year-old was not
the only obstacle Fatoba had to hurdle. Working
with the police remained the most challenging
task.
Growing up in the Jane and Finch corridor,
Fatoba viewed every police interaction with his
community through a negative lens.
“Before I came here I despised the police,”
he said. “I thought their job was to make everyone
else’s life more miserable.”
He gained this perception hanging out with
older kids in his neighbourhood. Their activities
often led to police intervention by force, embittering
their attitudes towards cops, which trickled
down to a younger Fatoba.
Entering the police environment has transformed
his way of thinking.
“That perception about the police I learned
was skewed, because those [older kids] were
always on the wrong side,” he said. “Now that
I’m working here I see why they were portrayed
like that to me, because the police are on the
good side – unfortunately the good people aren’t
always liked by the community.”
He said the YIPI program is an invaluable
tool to give the police a voice in neighbourhoods
where they may not be readily accepted.
Fatoba believes that, by hiring students from atrisk
neighbourhoods, the police will indirectly
give the community a positive perception of
who they are.
“You really need to know both sides to truly
make a judgement, and we can tell our friends
about the police because we’ve worked with
them now.”
Fatoba hopes to gain a soccer scholarship and
begin his undergraduate degree in the United
States after the summer. He then plans to return
to Toronto to study and become a doctor.
But, for now, all he wants is to help his father
build a better life for those back in his home
country, where he hopes to retire and help in the
hospital one day.
“I just want to help the poor and unfortunate
people there.”
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