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Issue 3 of 5  - January 2021
 
Step Forward is a digital communication and podcast series that challenges anti-Black racism within Ontario’s community-based HIV response.

Throughout the podcast series, we are speaking with Black leaders from diverse professional and personal backgrounds. 

In this issue, we're continuing to share tools, conversations, and resources to help our members to embed Black liberation work in their agencies.  


Listen to the
Step Forward TRAILER and our previous episodes to learn more about the podcast. 
ISSUE 3 AT A GLANCE
IN THIS ISSUE
GETTING TO KNOW CHABAC'S PROGRAM SCIENCE MODEL

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Black African and Caribbean Network (CHABAC) Program Science Model (PSM) is an unapologetic interpretation of Program Science through an African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) lens.

The CHABAC Program Science Model (available in French and English) recognizes that the way we value different types of knowledge and evidence often reflects entrenched power dynamics in the world of HIV/AIDS intervention.

An ACB program science approach is an opportunity to disrupt and challenge these dynamics for the better. 
It presents a program science model that is shaped by the lived experience of ACB communities and the agencies charged with supporting them.

RECOGNIZED BY UNAIDS
Recently, the UNAIDS report has listed the Canadian HIV/AIDS Black, African and Caribbean (CHABAC) Network as a
good practice model to help mobilize African, Caribbean and Black communities (ACB) in other countries to consider developing a similar regional hub model for engaging ACB communities for country-level impacts. In their report, UNAIDS highlights several areas of good practice which, if implemented and scaled up, could help us reach our 2030 targets. They include:
  • the meaningful involvement of people on the move;
  • legal and/or regulatory reforms;
  • capacity building for people on the move and related service providers;
  • development of national health systems and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) that are sensitive to and inclusive of people on the move;
  • ensuring continuity of care; addressing stigma and discrimination;
  • protecting against economic exploitation;
  • and effective responses to the needs of undocumented migrants.
CHABAC is a national network of organizations, individuals and other stakeholders who are dedicated to responding to issues related to HIV in Canada’s African, Caribbean and Black communities. Formed in 2010, the network aims to complement activities related to the Federal Initiative to Address HIV/AIDS in Canada, specifically among people from countries where HIV is endemic in Africa and the Caribbean.
 STEP FORWARD PODCAST EPISODE 3
EPISODE THREE: Jefferson Darrell 
In this episode of Step Forward, Kondwani speaks with Jefferson Darrell, Founder of Breakfast Culture, in an open conservation about privilege and power and the surprising and complicated ways they intersect. Here, Jefferson discusses the Diversity Equity Inclusion Continuum as well as the 14 Global Diversity and Inclusion benchmark categories.

This series, hosted by Kondwani Mwase is a collaboration spearheaded by the Ontario AIDS Network, produced by 54Lights podcast
Listen to Episode 3
RESOURCES, EPISODE 3 
The Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks 
This guide was created by the
Centre of Global Inclusion, a non-profit, public charity directed at serving as a resource for research and education for individuals and organizations in the quest to improve diversity and inclusion practices around the world. 
It includes the Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks discussed during the podcast.
 

The Human Equity Advantage: Beyond Diversity to Talent Optimization
By Trevor Wilson 
This management model book, features case studies and practical diagnostic tools and assessments, and features tools including the
DEI Continuum discussed during the podcast. 
WHAT IS RACIAL BATTLE FATIGUE?

Racial battle fatigue is the “cumulative result of a natural race-related stress response to distressing mental and emotional conditions. These conditions emerged from constantly facing racially dismissive, demeaning, insensitive and/or hostile racial environments and individuals.”

The term, coined in 2003 by
Dr. William A. Smith, professor and chair in the Department of Education, Culture & Society and the Division of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah, describes the psychophysiological symptoms—from high blood pressure to anxiety, frustration, shock, anger and depression—people of color may experience living in and navigating historically white spaces.

LEARN MORE
Racial Battle Fatigue: What is it and What are the Symptoms?
Understanding Racial Battle Fatigue

In this video, Dr. William A. Smith discusses race and gender, particularly the history, perceptions, science, and experiences of Black men in America.

This video and session was created by the Salt Lake Community College Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs.
ARTICLES 
Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter for Nonprofits
The National Council of Nonprofits stands with others for equity and justice and in denouncing racism, intolerance, and exclusion. Yet taking a stand is not enough. We, along with many other charitable nonprofits, have been on a path of exploration to identify how to build the core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all our nonprofit’s operations, as well as model those values as we advance our mission.

12 Unconscious Bias Examples and How To Avoid Them in the Workplace
If you’re hiring based on ‘gut feeling,’ you’re likely hiring on the basis of unconscious bias. The best way to prevent yourself from succumbing to these unconscious biases is to become aware of them and take action to prevent them when recruiting, hiring and retaining employees. Doing so will help your team build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Read about 12 examples of unconscious bias that commonly affect candidates and employees in the workplace, and tips for ways to avoid them when hiring and retaining employees.

After 2020's racial reckoning, Black activists urge Canadians to keep the conversation going
Activists call for open conversations about race as pandemic threatens to stall movement for more equality. Despite the racial reckoning that made headlines in 2020, those who organized rallies throughout the late spring and summer say support for the movement isn't as visible now, highlighting the need to keep the conversation going. 
TOOLS 
A History: Engaging Communities and Supporting Action on HIV/AIDS Among African, Caribbean and Black Communities in Ontario
ACB Communities have made signficant contributions and achievements within various movements and struggles for social change and a more just world. Yet historically, these have gone undocumented, been made invidisible or been exoticized. In 2010, The African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario (ACCHO) decided to document its history and, in so doing, reclaim, name, and own that history. This document ensures its rightful place in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Ontario, in Canada and the world. It created a record, with the words of those who were there, for those to come. 

Anti-Black Racism Analysis Tool for a Radically Equitable COVID-19 Response
In developing effective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, non-profit agencies, foundations and community groups should pay particular attention to the unique and distinct histories, experiences and needs of Black communities. To support community stakeholders in this regard, the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit has prepared this resource.

The Guide To Allyship
An open source starter guide to help you become a more thoughtful and effective ally. This is a resource to help anyone considering allyship better understand the pros and cons of what being an ally entails. Allies understand their role in collaboration with people whose lives are affected daily by systemic oppression. Don’t take the responsibility of being an ally lightly.
RECOMMENDED READING

Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada
Edited by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, Syrus Marcus Ware
Until We Are Free contains some of the very best writing on the hottest issues facing the Black community in Canada. It describes the latest developments in Canadian Black activism, organizing efforts through the use of social media, Black-Indigenous alliances, and more.

"Until We Are Free busts myths of Canadian politeness and niceness, myths that prevent Canadians from properly fulfilling its dream of multiculturalism and from challenging systemic racism, including the everyday assaults on Black and brown bodies. This book needs to be read and put into practice by everyone." —  Vershawn Young, author 

Angry Queer Somali Boy
By Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali
Kidnapped by his father on the eve of Somalia's societal implosion, Ali was taken first to the Netherlands by his stepmother, and then on to Canada. With its promise of freedom, opportunity and multiculturalism, his new home seemed to offer a new lease on life. But unable to fit in, he turned to partying and drugs. 

Interwoven with world history and sociopolitical commentary on Somalia, Europe and Canada, the story of this gay Muslim immigrant is told with tenderness in a refreshing and welcome new voice.
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada From Slavery to the Present
By Robyn Maynard
Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada. 

While highlighting the ubiquity of Black resistance, Policing Black Lives traces the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple institutions, shedding light on the state’s role in perpetuating contemporary Black poverty and unemployment, racial profiling, law enforcement violence, incarceration, immigration detention, deportation, exploitative migrant labour practices, disproportionate child removal and low graduation rates. 

Emerging from a critical race feminist framework that insists that all Black lives matter, Maynard’s intersectional approach to anti-Black racism addresses the unique and understudied impacts of state violence as it is experienced by Black women, Black people with disabilities, as well as queer, trans, and undocumented Black communities. 
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The Step Forward series is delivered in service to our 40+ member organizations and to Ontario’s African, Caribbean, Black Latinx, and Black people living with and affected by HIV. This series is created by the Ontario AIDS Network in collaboration with Breakfast Culture54Lights podcast and our featured guest speakers. 

The OAN's Step Forward newsletter is released on the first monday of each month. It is intended for Members, Affiliates and friends of the Ontario AIDS Network who are interested in learning about and addressing anti-Black racism in the HIV sector.

To learn more, visit our 
resource page

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