Issues

Like many immigrants, literacy and languages can be challenging for many Africans entering the Canadian market.

• We intend to improve literacy and language barriers by advocating for more resources, tools and new focused welcome programs for newcomers across Canada.

Work with African Canadian youth to design and participate in team debates, community town halls, table discussions etc., where ideas, information and knowledge are challenged for better understanding.

• Establish academic clubs and competitions – including think tanks, debate teams, science/ tech clubs, etc.
• Provide an opportunity for youth to practice and display program-based learning through ongoing training and assignments given by experts from leading Canadian organisations.
• Implement newly learned skills through individual learnings guided by mentors and encourage verbal and written story sharing through African Canadian Media Platforms and speaking programs.
• Cultivate youth leadership and mentorship skills by partnering with leading experts and connecting participants with ongoing mentors to help them understand the art of mentoring. 
• Feature supplementary and written contributed content by African Canadians to raise awareness of issues, challenges, and successful works through blogs, research, studies, arts, films, music, and more.
• Incorporate youth in program definition by inviting youth to select tools such as books for the vision crafting curriculum and encouraging ideas to generate activities to engage individual talents, skills and gifts in carrying out individual objectives and solving African Canadian issues.

Enable positive social and interpersonal growth through well-being curriculum, workshops, and boot camps where youth will receive strategies to communicate with love, to offer peace to all, and to always be present and grateful in social interactions.

• And by encouraging community roundtable discussions/debates, research and think tank groups, working to identify and develop cultural narratives to challenge modern understanding.

Cultivate positive self-image by introducing identity-focused personal development programs to help youth develop a clear and positive identity - including activities around having a positive attitude, positive body image, positive self-concept/sense of self, positive self-efficacy/self-confidence, etc. ​

• Encourage the pursuit of individual purpose to help solve community challenges.

• Cultivate positive self-image and self-concept by consulting African Canadian youths to rediscover their identity, passion, gifts, and talents and to utilise learned lessons to craft individual visions aligned with community values.
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• Raise awareness of youth impact and purpose through the vision crafting program - focusing on individual and community heritage understanding, journaling life experiences, and envisioning legacies left for the society. Thus encouraging individual life-maps and the development of live books as individuals walk their paths in life.

• Promote cross-sector collaboration through Leadership training, where African Canadian youth get matched with mentors, given resources, encouraged to build long-term relationships with other African Canadian individuals/organisations, and to work with all Canadians to improve the multicultural Canadian experience for all.

Promoting positive behaviour and Mental health Healing programs – one-on-one counselling, consulting and mentorship to members, where participants receive opportunities to air out challenges and struggles, share daily successes, and receive constructive advice for future goals.

Provide emotional state training for youth to manage feelings and behaviours – including Healing, Learning and Rebuilding personal, interpersonal and community well-being.

• Promote self-discipline and positive daily rituals for emotional well-being.

• By offering communication training, youth will learn to communicate effectively to self and others and how to positively interpret incoming messages from thoughts and social settings in order to maintain well-rounded inner and interpersonal relationships.
• And by teaching youth to identify and evaluate their feelings - including instructions on the four core emotions of anger, sadness, fear, and happiness, mindfulness – meditation, verbally labelling their feelings, etc.

Offers easy access to socio-emotional and self-awareness training through ongoing learning, healing, and group-sharing activities, including outreach and referral services for members who require more professional counselling.

• Partnering with local holistic healthcare provides easy access to health resources and healthcare systems.
• Promoting responsible sexual behaviour: youth are encouraged through ongoing activities to find and mirror life lessons, learn the importance of waiting until they are ready, and find mentors for sexual responsibility and decision-making, to understand the risks and consequences associated with sex and life in general.

Promote gender-based issues and raise awareness of the perceptions of gender issues – including combating gender bias in the media, workplace and the double standards for Afro-beauty among blacks in Canada and globally.

• Raise awareness of domestic violence issues by giving voice to African Canadian victims of violence and advocate for policies to support newcomers to Canada as they work to integrate and join in building a more cohesive society.

Promote awareness of Continental African Canadian Stories by addressing issues, demonstrating journeys, and highlighting works completed by African Canadians.

• Encourage CAC youth to connect with different ethnic youth groups across Canada.
• Provide culture-based programming, such as group retreats (in English, French, and languages of all communities represented), to allow youth to learn and adapt in a multicultural society.

Connecting elders in elderly homes with no one to talk to, some who don’t even speak the language, to youths seeking wisdom and life advice.

• Promote innovative mentoring networks between elders, adults and aspiring youths to advance each other’s quality of life.
• Promote wellness and health of elders – especially their mental, physical and emotional support.
• Work to solve poverty, discrimination, and poor health among African Canadian elders.

Incorporate community members in defining socio-economic programs via community town halls, table discussions, think tanks groups, debates, etc., to address current and future socio-economic issues and work on finding long-term solutions in the following areas; 

• Access to quality employment, with work-life balance, insurance and other benefits.
• Involve African Canadian communities in designing youth programs - including strategic relationships, projects, and resources. ​
• Offer career counselling and advice - including guidance for career selection, career planning, etc.
• Offer career-based opportunities or training for job readiness - work experiences for specific vocational skills, internships, job shadowing, paid work experiences, etc. ​

• Advocate for affordable housing for members of the African Canadian community in various municipalities across the country.
  • Encourage African Canadian organisations across the country to establish office-based spaces, working hubs, centres, and long-term institutions that will; cater to African Canadian values, preserve the African Canadian Heritage, and help to build a Canadian society that includes African landmarks, stories, products, and services.

• Encourage African Canadians to engage in the real estate market, and land ownership for Africans by offering ongoing entrepreneurship and purpose-focused courses, mentoring and consulting programs.

  • Inspire a new generation of engineers and community developers in major Canadian cities.

Provide guidance for youth to strengthen their ability and navigate social media - including instruction on cyberbullying, reducing one's reliance on social media/technology, formulating a positive sense of self away from virtual profiles and identities, etc. ​

• Provides e-Capacity support and offers a resource to help build strong individual and community brands (stories) instead of maintaining or developing social media decency.

Establish robust adult mentoring offerings to help guide youths in their personal and professional life.

• Establish a peer to peer mentoring program where more experienced youth get paired with aspiring ones; those with initiatives with those with ideas, and those with ideas with those still learning the basics of who they are in life and society while creating a space for bonding and building on shared values and experiences.
• Host retreats to promote mentor-mentee bonding and mentee-mentee bonding and host activities throughout the year, including; debates, table discussions, think-tank etc., to build adult youth mentor relationships.

The biggest challenge for most Continental African Canadian organisations – especially community-based organisations, is the lack of capacity and operating spaces for many across the country:

• In addition to encouraging organisations to operate accessible and equipped workspaces, our acceleration program will advocate for and raise funds and other resources to help achieve operating space and accelerate works for Continental African Canadians.

Encourage youth involvement in local community services and projects, where they will earn needed community organising experiences through volunteering, and engage in a long-term project for building good leadership, capacity, and workspaces for African Canadian organisations.

Encourage Continental African Canadian youth to get involved in local issues by championing issues raised within their communities through collaboration and participating in organised leadership development training and vision crafting programs.

• • Encourage youth participation in local, regional and federal political presentations.

Encourage youth to engage in global issues – including international travel education - where youth gain the opportunity to learn of other cultures, analyse news stories on global and current events, etc.

Work across sectors to establish a long-term strategy to influence public policy towards developing Continental African Canadian communities across the country.

Encourage community service and extracurricular activities to highlight and bring about social change, raise awareness, or provide an understanding of community issues and civic responsibility.

• Cultivate collaboration and teamwork through Leadership Development programs.

• Cultivate reflection and communication skills through journal entries – where African Canadian youth will embrace mindfulness meditation and self-evaluation contemplations.
• Build internal and interpersonal presentation skills through story sharing, where youth will work together to generate ongoing journals, and presentations of visual progression and speak their truths.

• Provide arts-based instruction and activities through podcasts, blogs, speaking, comic series, vlogs, and other arts (crafts, drama, traditional dance and music, film, fine arts and more), giving participants the opportunity to share their stories, journey, and vision with the world.

Promote a sense of ethnic identity and connectedness by building a Continental African Canadian Resource Centre, a platform for the preservation of Continental African Canadian Stories, Heritage, and Cultural Learnings through community engagement.