Project Overview
Transforming the Lives of Black Children and Youths in Canada
Canada’s Black population is growing, reaching 1.5 million in 2020 with 26.6% being children <15 years old. Black children and youths more often live in poverty, are disproportionately affected by gun violence, experience poor health, and have low educational outcomes compared to their non-Black peers. Further, they are overrepresented in the criminal justice and child welfare systems. We comprehensively accept the critical challenge called for by a United Nations (UN) report for data and participatory approaches with Black communities to improve their outcomes across these domains. We will help a national research network, informed by critical race theory and intersectionality theory, to meet three broad aims addressing the needs and issues of Black children and youths (0 to 24 years) in Canada:
– Co-create knowledge and diverse solutions/interventions to address this group’s overrepresentation in the criminal justice and child welfare systems, poor educational outcomes, poor health outcomes, and settlement issues–via participatory action research (PAR).
– Create an interdisciplinary, intersectoral and bilingual network, centre, and knowledge hub to mobilize evidence to improve this group’s well-being and build ability–by engaging researchers, trainees, policymakers, Black communities, and service providers across Canada.
– Train students and postdoctoral researchers, including Black youths–easing their transition to academic and non-academic workplace settings.
Our mixed methods PAR methodology includes a national survey of 2,000 Black parents and 2,000 youths; 480 interviews with parents, children, and youths; 60 stakeholder interviews; and 26 stakeholder focus groups. The actions and research outputs are multi-dimensional: (a) integrated social and technological innovations including arts, drama, music, and multi-media; (b) a national online and media-enhanced Speak Up series; (c) a national mentorship program for Black youths; (d) arts-informed projects with Black children; and (e) capacity-building of community leaders, Black-led organizations, and emerging academics.
Our diverse community of practice will co-create and deliver policy briefs, practice guidelines, videos, e-books, social media, and workshops. Our policy forum, stakeholder engagement days, conferences, and knowledge hub will also mobilize knowledge. We will also train ~250 emerging Black academics (from high schoolers to post doctoral fellows) in research practices via individual mentorships and yearly seminars and research institutes for graduate students and early career researchers.
Transforming Black Lives was founded with the mission to transform the lives of Black children and youths in Canada. With a history rooted in advocacy and community engagement, we have continuously worked to address systemic issues affecting Black communities.
