Healthy Communities • YMCA Youth Programs
Learning from experience: The Black Experience Project
13 February 2015 - by ymcablog
[mks_dropcap style="rounded" size="52" bg_color="#dd3333" txt_color="#ffffff"]G[/mks_dropcap]et into a conversation with a Torontonian and they’re likely to passionately share three things with you: 1) how much they love the city; 2) the various issues in their community that affect them, their families and their community as a whole; 3) the way that our multicultural society makes Toronto feel like a global village.
If that Torontonian happens to be Black, they may also tell you how their experience is different from that of their fellow city dwellers.
At the Y, as part of our commitment to improving the lives of Torontonians, we partnered with the Environics Institute (along with many other community organizations), to find ways to improve the lives of Toronto’s Black community. What is the Black experience in Toronto? How do these experiences affect everyone in the community, regardless of race? Most of all—how can we improve the situation not only for the Black community, but for all Torontonians?
The Black Experience Project (BEP), which began just over three years ago and currently in its second phase, hopes to reveal the answer to all of these questions and more. Its main aim is to explore the concept of being Black in the Greater Toronto Area, through interviewing people who identify as part of the Black community—which is estimated to be about 400,000 people. The study’s intent is “to find out to what extent members of the community face various aspects of socio-economic disparities . . . and to identify the untapped strengths and capacities of said community.”
For our part, the Y is a Founding Partner, and has emphatically encouraged staff to get involved, whether as an interviewee or as part of our Staff Committee, who have helped develop various parts of the current research questionnaire.
We hope to use the results and experiences gathered to gain valuable knowledge about the Black community, create and implement health questions that relate to community health approaches, and improve the impact of our own programs and practices. In essence, we’re exploring past and present life experiences to teach us about how to improve said lives for the future, for all Torontonians.
If you’d like to get involved in the Black Experience Project, visit http://www.environicsinstitute.org/institute-projects/current-projects/black-experience-greater-toronto
If that Torontonian happens to be Black, they may also tell you how their experience is different from that of their fellow city dwellers.
At the Y, as part of our commitment to improving the lives of Torontonians, we partnered with the Environics Institute (along with many other community organizations), to find ways to improve the lives of Toronto’s Black community. What is the Black experience in Toronto? How do these experiences affect everyone in the community, regardless of race? Most of all—how can we improve the situation not only for the Black community, but for all Torontonians?
The Black Experience Project (BEP), which began just over three years ago and currently in its second phase, hopes to reveal the answer to all of these questions and more. Its main aim is to explore the concept of being Black in the Greater Toronto Area, through interviewing people who identify as part of the Black community—which is estimated to be about 400,000 people. The study’s intent is “to find out to what extent members of the community face various aspects of socio-economic disparities . . . and to identify the untapped strengths and capacities of said community.”
For our part, the Y is a Founding Partner, and has emphatically encouraged staff to get involved, whether as an interviewee or as part of our Staff Committee, who have helped develop various parts of the current research questionnaire.
“This project is important, as it explores asset-based needs—that is, getting the experience from the people and engaging them throughout the process—rather than the traditional way of doing research,”
said YMCA BEP Committee Chair (and General Manager of the YMCA Etobicoke Employment Services Centre) Erica Taylor.
We hope to use the results and experiences gathered to gain valuable knowledge about the Black community, create and implement health questions that relate to community health approaches, and improve the impact of our own programs and practices. In essence, we’re exploring past and present life experiences to teach us about how to improve said lives for the future, for all Torontonians.
If you’d like to get involved in the Black Experience Project, visit http://www.environicsinstitute.org/institute-projects/current-projects/black-experience-greater-toronto
