Our 2021 Black Futures Month was a huge success! View the archived seminars here.
Please join us in our inaugural event for Black Futures Month at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. This month-long event is co-created and led by the Nursing Undergraduate Society and the Graduate Nurses’ Student Society in an effort to highlight the voices of Black nurses and scholars using strength-based approaches to address the specific health and wellness needs as well as the inequities experienced by Black communities across Canada. Through this, we hope to expand the knowledge base of students, faculty and alumni and ensure that healthcare provision and health systems will continue to evolve to reflect the needs of Black communities.
It is our collective responsibility as healthcare providers, researchers and scholars to recognize our role in upholding systems that remain inequitable and inaccessible to Black, Indigenous and People of Color across the country. Black Futures Month is one of several student-led initiatives that the student body has committed to, to address anti-Black racism and a lack of representation in healthcare leadership. We hope that this is one of many efforts that will encourage a sustainable shift in culture and practice to create safer healthcare environments for Black communities.
REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/black-futures-month-healthcare-webinar-series-tickets-136967709105
About the Speakers:
Week 1 – February 3rd from 1PM-2:30PM EST
Dr. Bukola Salami – Black Youth Mental Health
Dr. Salami will be speaking to the impact of COVID-19 on Black communities in Canada, and its ties to anti-Black racism in healthcare. She will also be co-presenting alongside a panel of youth leaders – Nife Ajayi, Yawa Idi, Yar Anyieth, Robyn Taylor, and Lisa Cyuzuzo who have co-created and co-led the Black Youth Mental Health Project that determined the needs to access culturally appropriate and relevant mental health supports within the community after interviewing more than 120 youths. The team will present their findings and share recommendations for healthcare providers when supporting Black youth. Dr Salami’s presentation will also showcase the vital process of conducting participatory research within community settings and demonstrate how to safely engage Black communities from a strengths-based and capacity building perspective.
Dr Bukola Salami is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta. Her research program focuses on policies and practices shaping migrants’ health. She has been involved in around 50 funded research projects. She is the lead on 20 of these projects with funding from national and international agencies. She has lead research projects on African immigrant child health, immigrant mental health, access to healthcare for immigrant children, African immigrant youth mental health, migration of nurses as live-in caregivers, experience of temporary foreign workers in Alberta, downward occupational mobility of immigrant nurses and parenting practices of African immigrants.
Week 2 – February 11th from 1PM – 2PM EST
Keisha Jefferies – Black Feminist Nurse Advocate: Research & Activism in Nursing
Keisha Jefferies is a Toronto-based African Nova Scotian woman, born and raised in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. She is a registered nurse and PhD candidate in the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University. Her research examines the leadership experiences of African Nova Scotian nurses and the implications for nursing practice and education. Her scholarly and advocacy work focus on addressing anti-Black racism in nursing, equitable admissions in post-secondary institutions and social justice at large.
Keisha has clinical and policy experience in the areas of neonatal intensive care and breastfeeding. She is a Junior Fellow with the MacEachen Institute of Public Policy and Governance at Dalhousie. Lastly, her research is funded and supported by Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier-CGS), Killam Trust, Research Nova Scotia, Johnson Scholarship Foundation, BRIC NS and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and School of Nursing at Dalhousie.
Week 3 – February 18th from 1PM – 2PM
Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite – Lived Experience: Racism in Academic & Workplace Settings
Dr. Angela Cooper Brathwaite is the Immediate Past President of RNAO, Co-Chair or RNAO’s Anti-Black Racism Task Force and Adjunct Professor at Ontario Technology University (OUT). She holds a PhD in Nursing from the University of Toronto and a Master of Nursing from the University of Manitoba. She has extensive experience in leadership, nursing administration, nursing education, policy advocacy, health care systems and cultural competence. She has held Executive leadership positions in primary care, acute care and public health settings, taught undergraduate and graduate nursing students at OTU and the University of Toronto.
Week 4 – February 25th from 1PM – 2PM
Dionne Sinclair – Being a Culturally Competent Leader in Healthcare
Dionne Sinclair is currently the Multi-Site Director of Diversity and Cultural Advancement with Southlake Regional Health Centre and Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital. In this new role, Dionne focuses on identifying gaps and developing strategies to create more just and equitable workplaces. She has a passion for change in the areas of culturally competent leadership and focused on diversity in health care leadership during d her PHD studies. Dionne is a member of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) Black Nurses task force and is a founding member of the Canadian Black Nurses Network. Reporting directly to the CEOs of both hospitals, Dionne is working with all levels of leadership to develop an enterprise-wide framework, with recommendations tailored to each organization. As a Certified Healthcare Executive, Dionne’s previous leadership roles include; Clinical Director of the Medicine Program at Southlake Regional Hospital, Director of Home and Community Care Planning and Strategy for the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), and the Manager of Mental Health and Addictions at Humber River Hospital. Dionne is also a mother of 3 beautiful girls and an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and an award-winning fitness professional.
REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/black-futures-month-healthcare-webinar-series-tickets-136967709105