ACHA Parenting forum Saturday 29 February 2020
Centennial College, Progress Campus, Room A2-93 1.30 pm 3.30 pm
Why is African heritage programming still relevant for the positive socialization of Black children today?
The ACHA was founded in 1969 in response to a lack of positive identity programming for children and parents of African descent.
There was a deliberate, intentional effort to include parents in the program to encourage parents to learn about African heritage alongside their children since this information was not readily available or taught in.mainstream educational institutions.
The ACHA was founded to ensure children of African descent saw themselves positively reflected in the curriculum they learned and in the media and texts they interacted with. There is a direct correlation between positive racial identity and academic achievement. When children have a positive sense of self, confidence and the esteem in a world where they have been bombarded with negative images about African people, it will reflect in their output. The curriculum is founded upon the Kwanzaa principles and Maat.
The ACHA has essentially provided a parallel curriculum for children of African heritage because of the exclusion of culturally relevant sensitive and appropriate programming for students.
Given that mainstream educational institutions are still attempting to incorporate culturally relevant and responsive programming for African children, ACHA still stands as a beacon of learning for children whose history, culture, values have been systemically omitted from mainstream society.
The panel will address two question that are relevant to this topic:
What do Black children and youth need to know and learn that will equip them with resiliency in the face of anti-Black racism?
What are the relevant parenting strategies that parents of Black children should be aware of for day day to coping?
Panelist:
Quammie Williams
Donna Thomas
Ginelle Skerritt
Micheal Karanja - Karanja is passionate about positive individual/social change, accountability, integrity, self determination, individual/collective responsibility and fairness. When people (especially children) experience trauma or severe chronic life stressors, it is not uncommon for their lives to take a gradual or sudden hit resulting into ‘fight, flight’ or state of learned helplessness mode of survival. Karanja has a great passion in supporting individuals, children and families that are going through personal , institutional and systemic challenges and barriers, to find solutions, healthy perceptions of themselves, their relationships and strengthen their resolve to thrive insurmountable challenges.
Karanja has interest in areas of social research, social policy, politics and mass media. He is a social justice activist, cultural critic, social change pundit, avid reader and upcoming writer. He has over ten years experience working in social service sector both in Canada and abroad, ranging from program management in HIV/AIDS orphanage , refugee litigation work, conflict resolutions, instruction therapy and currently as a school CYW and a CBT SNAP facilitator.
He has a degree in social work and advance diploma certification in child and Youth work from Humber College. Michael was a recipient of 2017 ‘Outstanding Academic Achievement Award from School of Social & Community Services Scholarship Humber College. He is currently enrolled in masters of social work at University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario - Canada.
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela
Kwabena Yafeu - Kwabena has been an activist, organiser and educator in the African Canadian Community for over 35 years. He was one of the ROM 11 who fought against the racist exhibition by the Royal Ontario Museum called “Into the Heart of Africa” 29 years ago. (Incidentally, the ROM just issued a formal apology to the African Canadian Community for mounting this racist and offensive exhibit back in 1989) He fought against police brutality and police misconduct alongside the late Dudley Laws, through his work as a member of the Black Action Defence Committee for more than two decades. Kwabena is a public school educator where his focus lies in increasing access to better quality education for young people of disadvantage communities and promoting social justice in the education system. He currently serves as a school principal in the Scarborough community. Kwabena enjoys African drumming and believes the drum is as significant to our people today as it was in the past.
Dave Doyen - Dave was the Community Outreach and Consultation Advisor for the Independent Street Checks Review, which examined Ontario’s regulation on police street checks or “carding” as it is sometimes called.
Dave recently joined the De-escalation Community of Practice at Ontario Police College that will inform how police officers respond to an armed individual in a crisis. He is a member of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto’s Community Advisory Committee, addressing the overrepresentation of Black children and youth in care and the disparity in treatment towards Black families, and a member of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine’s MD Admissions Patient Engagement Committee.