Bridging the Gap:
By Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative (SBCCI) Grant
We received this grant through Tropicana Community Services Organization funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program – Children and Families Component. This grant is allowing us to continue with increasing our capacity as an organization. Specifically, we will be engaging a project to empower women in the workplace and prepare women for work and help them keep their jobs.
We also will be working to put more facilities in place to properly receive, accommodate and integrate the people in our sponsorship program. We have planned for office rental expenses, training expenses for community outreach and workshops, additional office equipment to be used for these training events and workshops, as well as expenses for employing 2 community outreach organizers, publications and documents. Everything has already put in place and the project is moving well.
In April, we recruited the community outreach/engagement persons and conducted an initial meeting to discuss the project expectation and components. The Project team also met to discuss the first steps and to plan how to contact women leaders to establish an advisory group and plan milestones. Terms of reference were also developed.
In May, our Project team worked on developing a project activity plan and communicating with women for an advisory committee. Seven women were recruited to sit on the committee to advise the project team. Two meetings were held with this group, an initial meeting and a group discussion on potential topics for workshops both for newcomer and leadership groups. The second meeting continued the discussion for preparation to develop workshops. We also acquired an additional computer/workstation for our office and software to be able to hold meetings and communicate effectively online.
June saw additional purchases for the office. We now have an overhead projector for workshops, art clubs, tutoring program etc. Other purchases include a printer (capable of color printing), a small laminator and a paper cutter. We find that these items are already valuable for some of the other projects we are running such as our Canada Summer Job program and everyday tasks.
Our expenses are kept to our planned budget and more details may be provided upon request.
The first meeting of the Community of Practice held by Tropicana Community Services was attended online and the focus group discussions were analyzed and a list of potential workshops was made for both of our priority groups.
More to come as the project is scheduled to close in March of next year.
Women's Leadership workshop
Newcomers Orientation Workshop
