Peel CAS and BCAN have formed an alliance to lead the development of an anti-racism, community capacity-building and systems change initiative with African-Canadian families, the organizations that serve them, and community leaders. The goal of this partnership is to build regional capacity in Peel so that African-Canadian families receive relevant, meaningful and appropriate services and supports, while promoting greater systemic equity. This partnership and project will launch on January 25, 2018.

This partnership came about formally out of a BCAN position paper that examined the impacts of systemic racism on African-Canadian families involved with the child welfare system. Racial disproportionalities in child welfare are caused by a variety of complex factors that lie beyond the child welfare system and include various mainstream organizations, policies and practices that are deeply rooted in Canadian history, culture, politics and the economy. Based upon research and community conversations, BCAN identified nine key causal factors that contribute to racial disproportionalities: Anti-black racism, racialized poverty, family structure, immigration stress, biased decision making, agency-system factors, placement dynamics, policy impacts and lack of culturally relevant services. The goal of this partnership is to build regional capacity in Peel so that African-Canadian families receive relevant, meaningful and appropriate services and supports, while promoting greater systemic equity.