Rachel Marcuse – ED COPE.

Who are you?

My name’s Rachel. I’m the Executive Director of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE). I co-managed COPE’s 2008 campaign and managed Jenny Kwan’s NDP campaign in April. I also work as a facilitator around youth engagement, group dynamics, facilitation skills and more. My background is non-profit heavy. I’ve managed training programs, worked at the Fringe Fest and coordinated a series of youth health fairs.

What do you do for fun?

I love films, music, dance and eating good food with good people. I seem to have the travel bug again — maybe it’s the impending rain! — but when I’m in the city (my home town) I try and cycle almost everywhere. Yesterday, though, I think I became the poster child for wearing a helmet….

What is your favorite community and why?

I live on Fraser now which is pretty awesome. It’s right between Main and Commercial Drive, so you get easy access to both communities. There are plenty of groceries in walking distance and lots of good sushi.

I’ve also lived in Montreal which has some pretty amazing, very walkable communities and in Buenos Aires where distinctive “barrio” neighbourhoods almost feel like separate cities — all with excellent public transportation!

What is your superpower?

I like navigating between different groups of people with different priorities but who are all working for a better world.

How do you use it to build community?

I was heavily involved in the COPE-Vision coalition building process before the last election and always like to find similarities between progressive folks. I find the interaction between “in the system” and “outside the system” activism a really interesting one and try not to rank different kinds of activism. I like walking that line and engaging people, using inclusive processes as much as possible.

My three favourite things about Rachel are…

1. Her commitment to community. Like many politically motivated people, Rachel is constantly in motion and spends hours and hours working to organize, engage and connect with thousands of people from all over the city. That commitment is radical.

2. She’s a committed progressive. Rachel’s mom is a progressive. Her friends are progressives. She is a strong champion of the underdog and pushes for positive change in communities across the city. For many young people, the older they get, the more conservative they become. Not the case with Rachel. At least I don’t think so…

3. She was involved in the making of a hilarious video. COPE and Rachel have made a point of working towards engaging youth. To do this, they moved away from the old school flyer drops and into the realm of social media. The result was this video, broadcast widely during the 2008 election. Take a look-see and watch humor and politics unite in a terrific way.

As told by Kurt Heinrich…