Parents of Black Children’s United Parents Project
The United Parents (UP) Project is designed to support parents of Black children as they navigate the education system.
The project consists of three core streams.
Capacity Building Workshops
Parents of Black Children will deliver a series of workshops covering topics that disproportionately impact Black children and lead to disparities in outcomes.
Systems Navigation
When Black families contact Parents of Black Children about issues related to their child’s education, our Systems Navigator will provide support as they interact with their child’s school/board.
The Systems Navigator may attend meetings, provide advice, make connections with Teacher Liaisons at various school boards or community groups, and more.
The Systems Navigator will help eliminate barriers and act as a neutral third party, outside of the system, who can express the unique needs and challenges faced by African Canadian families engaged with the education system.
Black Parent Mentorship Program
Traditionally, Black families have relied on extended family for support, advice and informal mentorship. The process of immigration has disrupted this for many.
The Black Parent Mentorship Program will recreate ‘the village’ and the informal supports through peer mentorship.
Black parents with similar-aged children will be partnered and encouraged to support each other as they navigate their children’s education experience. Parents will be provided with a tool-kit to help guide their mentorship.
Recent events in Canada and the United States have ignited discussion and action focused on the experiences of anti-Black racism. The work needed to dismantle anti-Black racism is complicated, and differentiated depending on our own identities. It will require us to be committed to supporting each other and holding each other accountable.
With this in mind, we have curated resources to assist our Catholic Education Community as we work collaboratively to address individual and systemic racism in all its forms.
We will continue our commitments, which include ongoing collaboration with our Curriculum department, Religion Coordinator, our Human Rights and Equity advisor, the Human Rights and Equity advisory committee, along with continuously looking to cultivate and foster relationships with our Black student initiative groups, students, staff, and community. We also commit to examining and dismantling our own systemic racism.
We will continue to share our journey of allyship as accomplices in the work for Justice, with the inevitable ups and the downs, so that we can remain accountable and steadfast in our work to combat anti-Black racism.