Improving K-12 curriculum, training and socialization

Improve cultural sensitivity programs and anti-Black racism training

Recommendation 49: The Ministry of Education must fund and support anti-Black racism education and training programs in schools for all students, educators and other staff across BC. These programs must be designed by persons with lived experiences and aim to re-socialize non-People of African Descent while providing People of African Descent with resources to navigate concerns with expected and real incidents of anti-Black racism.

Deepening PAD representation in post-secondary education

Implement policy and legislative safeguards for PADs

Recommendation 55: It is important that any dedicated anti-racism action plan emphasizes the need for evaluation and assessment systems that consider and account for conscious and unconscious biases. Such biases on the part of students and members of review committees tend to work against the career advancement of academics and administrators of African Descent, and of other racialized groups.

Deepening PAD representation in post-secondary education

Implement policy and legislative safeguards for PADs

Recommendation 56: The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training must collect data on the number of academics, counselors and administrators of African Descent in BC’s post-secondary education sector. This mandate can be backed by the Anti-racism data legislation.

Improving post-secondary curriculum, training and socialization

Improve cultural sensitivity programs and anti-Black racism training

Recommendation 62: The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training must fund and support anti-Black racism education and training programmes in post-secondary schools for all students, educators and non-teaching staff across BC. For example, UBC and UVic have put in place relevant anti-racism training programmes that can be adapted and scaled across the province. The cost of such a program can be reduced by utilizing virtual and asynchronous learning technologies.

Improving post-secondary curriculum, training and socialization

Deepen equity in service delivery by and to PADs

Recommendation 63: The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training must commission a study to understand the challenges and inherent disadvantages experienced by People of African Descent with education credentials as they seek recognition and transition into the workforce.

Deepening PAD art presence and media representation

Increase the recruitment of PADs

Recommendation 85: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport should collaboratively develop nuanced guidance to media, arts, and cultural program agencies to promote diverse content, multi-racial decision-making teams, and reliable career paths to liberate the glut of underemployed talent residing within the People of African Descent community.

Deepening PAD art presence and media representation

Support PAD-led models and community collaboration

Recommendation 86: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport and the Gaming Commission should consult with the Canadian Association of Black Journalists alongside other bona-fide actors in this context, to design and provide incentives, targeted grants, and dedicated strategic support, including merit-based grants to Black journalists, content creators and media entrepreneurs to support their critical work of accurately telling People of African Descent stories and creatively highlighting Black issues.

Improving promotion and support of PAD art, craft and media

Reform and promote accurate representation of PADs

Recommendation 87: The Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Division at the Ministry of Attorney General should undertake a collaborative study on the status of Black community representation in mainstream/traditional media within BC to enable evidence-based home-grown solutions.

Improving anti-racism accountability systems in migration and inclusion

Enable data collection to measure and report progress in equity and diversity

Recommendation 91: The Minister of Municipal Affairs should ensure that the “Race-based” data legislation provides resettlement service providers with sufficient room to collect and use contextual data to understand the number of People of African Descent that come to settle in the province, versus the number that eventually leave because they are not able to find the community or support systems they require to thrive. It is also recommended that the Province commission a study to understand the settlement patterns of People of African Descent in BC to establish clear baselines for assessment of its performance during the last 3 years of the Decade.