This year GNN is thrilled to celebrate Krissan Veerasingam, a lifelong Scarborough resident, community activist, Director & Co-founder of Scarborough Environmental Association (SEA), and Board Member of TTC riders.
Krissan started his journey in community activism as a volunteer with the housing-based group Progress Toronto, going all around the city to canvas and conduct door-to-door outreach. “It’s very, very important and it gave me certain skills and an understanding of how different communities are different”, he explained when we recently interviewed him.
He realized however that visiting neighbourhoods across Toronto was one thing, but he wanted to contribute to his own immigrant-rich community in Scarborough which he found to derive the most value from. This inspired Krissan to explore a bike repair project with the help of Repair Cafe Toronto. “That comes from a background of my dad being, like many low income immigrant families, you can’t always buy new things, you have to repair them” he shared.
GNN’s first contact with Krissan was in the “tell us more” box when he signed up to join in 2022. He said he and 5 others wanted to start a new Scarborough based group to push Scarborough councillors to prioritize equitable environmental policy. And so, his journey as the co-founder of SEA began.
Scarborough Environmental Association is a grassroots organization of local residents that engage in neighbourhood advocacy through community service. From bike repair initiatives aimed at building support for active transportation infrastructure to free pollinator plant giveaways for conservation education, they organize a diverse range of events and advocate for a wide range of issues.
I tell people we call ourselves Scarborough Environmental Association, but [the] environment isn’t just the green spaces around us, it’s the environment we grow up in. Our environment shapes us. And I wanted to shape my environment to be more equitable for other members of my community
– Krissan Verasingam.
We are honoured to present Krissan with the 2025 Green Hearts Award for the incredible impact he and his equally dedicated team have made in their community and for the environment in just 3 years! We encourage readers to follow them on their social media as they continue to document their powerful journey in the most creative and exciting ways.
Listen to GNN’s 20 min podcast episode
In conversation with Krissan Verasingham.
