Learn more about the work of CMS Community Advisory Board member, Yusra Qadir.
Yusra Qadir is the Chief Programs and Advocacy Officer at Mothers Matter Canada, where she leads national programs, partnerships, and social innovation initiatives that support newcomer, refugee, Indigenous, and marginalized families. An Erasmus Mundus Fellow with master’s degrees in Human Rights Practice and Sociology, she holds PfMP and PMP certifications and brings 20 years of experience in gender equality, human rights, migration, and socio-economic inclusion. Before immigrating to Canada, she held senior roles with UNDP and international civil society organizations across Asia, Africa, and South America, focusing on forcibly displaced populations, inclusive governance, and women’s rights. She has represented Canada at the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the High-Level Political Forum.
Can you tell us a bit about your professional background and what brought you to serve newcomer families in Canada?
I have spent almost 20 years working at the intersection of human rights, gender equality, migration, and social inclusion across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and now Canada. My career has included leadership roles with United Nations and international NGOs focusing on strengthening systems and expanding opportunities for marginalized communities, especially women, youth, and children. Since immigrating to Canada in 2019, I have worked extensively in the immigration, settlement, and resettlement sector and currently serve as Chief Programs and Advocacy Officer at Mothers Matter Canada. What drew me to this work is both professional and personal. As an immigrant and mother, I understand how profoundly settlement experiences shape families’ futures, how settlement is a gendered experience with even greater barriers for mothers, and how the right support at the right time can radically change immigrants’ settlement trajectories and meaningful integration. Supporting newcomer families means helping build belonging, dignity, and opportunity; not just for individuals, but for entire communities.
Drawing on your global experience with forcibly displaced communities, what lessons shape your work in Canada today, especially as the sector navigates ongoing challenges?
Across different countries and contexts, I have learned that displaced and newcomer communities are remarkably resilient, but resilience should never be used as a substitute for strong systems. The most effective responses combine immediate support with long-term investments in inclusion, participation, and opportunity. Another lesson is that people closest to challenges are often closest to solutions. Policies and programs are stronger when communities help shape them. In Canada, as the sector navigates growing demand, resource pressures, and evolving immigration patterns, these lessons remain highly relevant. We need coordinated systems, sustainable funding, and meaningful community engagement. Success should not be measured only by how many people we serve, but by whether people feel they belong, can participate fully, and have opportunities to thrive.
You focus on data-driven approaches to inform and improve programs. What do you particularly value about evidence-based approaches in community-led program delivery? Where do you see their limits?
Evidence-based approaches help us move beyond assumptions and understand what is working, for whom, and under what conditions. Good data can strengthen accountability, improve program quality, support advocacy, and help organizations make better decisions about limited resources. In community-led work, evidence is particularly powerful when it combines quantitative outcomes with lived experience and community voice. At the same time, data has limits. Not everything that matters is easily measurable. Belonging, trust, confidence, and social connection often emerge gradually and can be difficult to capture through traditional indicators. Evidence should inform decisions, not replace judgment or relationships. The strongest approach is to balance rigorous data with community knowledge, ensuring that people remain at the centre of program design and evaluation.
As a member of the CMS Community Advisory Board, how can research institutions like CMS better support the work of settlement and community-based organizations?
Research institutions play an important role as trusted partners, translators, and conveners. Community organizations bring community trust and deep insight into emerging issues, but may have limited capacity to conduct research, analyze data, or mobilize evidence. Spaces like CMS can help bridge that gap by co-designing research agendas with communities, producing accessible and timely knowledge products, and creating opportunities for meaningful exchange between researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and newcomers themselves. Equally important is recognizing community organizations as knowledge holders, not simply research participants. When research is collaborative, practical, and responsive to community priorities, it becomes a tool for improving programs, informing policy, and strengthening outcomes for newcomers and the communities that welcome them.
What advice would you have for students and emerging researchers who want to engage meaningfully with community priorities in their work?
Start by listening. Spend time with communities before defining research questions, and approach engagement with humility and curiosity. Community organizations often balance urgent service-delivery demands, so meaningful partnerships require respect for their time, expertise, and constraints. Be prepared to share power, adapt your assumptions, and think beyond academic outputs. Ask yourself who will benefit from the research and how findings will be returned to the community in useful ways. Some of the most impactful research emerges when scholars see themselves not only as producers of knowledge, but as partners in solving real-world challenges. Strong relationships, trust, and reciprocity are often just as important as methodological rigor.
What has been the most rewarding part of your work in this field?
The most rewarding part has been witnessing people move from uncertainty and isolation to confidence, connection, and leadership – and when a mother moves through these transitions, she does not move alone. Families and communities move with her. Through my work at Mothers Matter Canada, I have worked with mothers and families navigating displacement, migration, and significant life transitions. Seeing someone who once felt excluded become a community leader, advocate, professional, or mentor is incredibly powerful. I am particularly inspired by newcomer mothers, who often carry enormous responsibilities while rebuilding their lives without the proverbial village, and supporting their families. Their strength, perseverance, and generosity continues to shape my work. At the end of the day, what is most humbling and fulfilling for me is knowing, through hard data, that our work is creating possibilities for real people; mothers, children, and families; to move from uncertainty to stability, from isolation to belonging, and from simply getting by to truly thriving.
