October 2022 Newsletter
Culture, Unity & Resilience: FBC Got Talent 2022
On October 12th FBC held a national online talent show as a final component to its National Black Pulse Anti – Racism Campaign. The event featured 12 Black artists who performed for over 100 attendees in a virtual format. Performers showcased their culture, their languages, messages of motivation, unity, and resilience. The event was also used as an opportunity to showcase and educate the attendees on our free online toolkit produced by FBC and Funded by the Government of Canada Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth. The purpose of the toolkit is to fight racism and provides educational tools to promote Black Canadian history and combat online hate in partnership with other community organizations. Our goal is to improve the understanding of anti-Black racism among Canadians of all backgrounds.
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- 1st Place: Joy Pius
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- 2nd Place: Tobias
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- 3rd Place: Abiola Adesu
Breaking Down Barriers to Employment
FBC also wrapped up its Barriers to Employment (WORBE) project in March 2022. This project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Labour Funding Program – Workplace Opportunities. Through this project, we were able to host 3 national digital events engaging over 300 individuals, and have a social media reach of over 50, 000 through various platforms, and also created a digital toolkit with information, stats, best practices, and recommendations to employers. Our WORBE project brought together FBC, U of T, the Bridge, RBC Canada, and Wealth Simple. This project was able to bring employers together with the community to discuss issues, create recommendations for change, and connect people with recruiters, and potential mentors.
Representation in Education Needed: Black Teacher’s Summit 2022
On October 1st, 2022 the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario hosted Generation Black: You’re Next – a symposium held to discuss the lack of representation of Black educators in classrooms across Ontario. FBC helped in the planning and execution of this event which was a huge achievement for the ETFO. ETFO hopes to continue these necessary conversations beyond the symposium.
As part of their call to action, they are asking individuals to fill out the Building Better Schools link and the Why We Need More Black Teachers link to share in their own words why we need more Black teachers. You can view footage from the event below.
Anti-Black Racism: National Black Canadians Summit 2022
On June 30th, FBC presented the Anti-Black racism toolkit at the National Black Canadians Summit in Halifax. This summit was a 3-day event held July 29th – 31st at the Halifax Convention Centre. The Summit’s workshops, roundtables, plenaries, discussions, information booths, and proceedings were aligned with the principal values of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024): Recognition, Justice, and Development. The event had over 1000 attendees which makes it one of the largest gatherings for Black Canadians. Through the national summit FBC was able to promote, showcase, and educate people from all over Canada on how to access and use the tool. FBC also welcomed feedback and invited people to share additional resources that FBC should consider adding to the web based tool. Walk through of the toolkit.
Resiliency Through Covid-19: The impact on the Black community
The RTC Project was a 3-tier initiative covering a systematic review, qualitative study, and quantitative study. The overall goal was to examine the impact of covid-19 on the Black community by participatory research, answering a set of questions via survey, focus group sessions, and semi-structured interviews. Over 400 stakeholders were engaged in the project and over 100 participated in the survey and funding was provided by the Federal Government, Department of Public Health. The project used Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) method to invert traditional data collection methods. This is rooted in the notion that individuals and experts from Black communities are the best equipped to identify the needs and experiences of Black communities, and that their survival in the colonial state is inextricably tied together.
Black Class Action’s Complaint Within Canada’s Federal Public Service
The Canadian public service has been under scrutiny for its systemic racism against Black people. This is evidenced by the lack of representation of Black people in government positions, including hiring and promotion within the Federal Public Service (FPS). The Black Class Action Secretariat (the Secretariat), a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing systemic anti-Black racism in Canada, has submitted a complaint to the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. This complaint details the historical human rights violations Black employees face in Canada’s federal public service, contrary to the right to non-discrimination found in international conventions. The complaint highlights key recommendations and calls on the Canadian government to take responsibility for failing to address this issue, which dates back at least 50 years. The underrepresentation of Black people in the federal government workforce is a systemic issue. The hiring process needs to be reformed, and more support needs to be given to new hires from marginalized communities.
We need your help! Black Entrepreneurship Project
FBC is launching an entrepreneurship project and we need your help! The project will enhance FBC’s services and help to build its capacity to support Black youth and young adult entrepreneurs (ages 16 – 29) to start and grow their businesses. We have created a survey to get feedback from our community to help share the direction of the project. You can complete the survey by clicking this link: https://forms.gle/Dtazx3wtpMvwZYKV6
