Leading In Colour

Leading In Colour - $1,000

Who

Serisha Iyar (24)
Deborah Mebude (24)
Jean-Paul St. Rose (23)
Sukh Thind (27)
Devon Aransevia (23)

What

"Leading in Colour" was founded in 2019 after a growing frustration with the rejection of racialized experiences in advocacy spaces. We aim to provide young racialized leaders and activists with the necessary tools needed to conduct their advocacy efforts. We offer FREE training in the form of webinars, workshops, and events for young racialized leaders to develop their advocacy skill set. Additionally, we run a podcast featuring young racialized leaders who are creating opportunities for youth in their communities. This grant will specifically fund a panel event in Ottawa with speakers from the Ottawa-Gatineau activist circuit who can share their experiences, challenges, successes, and best practices in organizing and mobilizing as a racialized activist.

In their words: “This initiative is important because racialized activists are on the frontlines of advocacy work at the grassroots level and yet have no real opportunities to share their experiences with others nor do young racialized folks have the ability to see the organizing behind efforts of BIPOC activists, instead racialized activists are criminalized and their work undervalued. There is no real effort to train young activists in Canada, especially BIPOC activists, we want to fill that gap.”