Black Buildup Organisation
BBO believes that black economic empowerment means giving Canadian immigrants of African and Caribbean descent a voice and equal access to and control over economic resources, including decent employment and equal pay, in order, among other things, to lead high-quality and fulfilling lives.
Education, skills development and training
- Working with communities, public and private institutions to assess and address barriers to black’s participation or low educational attainment, particularly for the poorest in Canada’s education system.
- Working with families, non-profit organizations and other supporting groups to break down gender barriers to school attendance for reasons including teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and childcare.
- Appealing to the federal and provincial governments to create incentives for the black community to increase school attendance, to have access to safe public school transportation, to have greater curricular relevance for black students and to increase the number of black teachers in public schools.
- Working with local communities, other non-profit organizations and social support services to develop specific joint interventions for blacks within their communities, combining vocational training, life skills and career guidance.
- Working with the black community, schools, and educational institutions to design and implement policies that empower and encourage young black people to adopt science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers
Access to quality, decent paid work
- Working with the government and the public sector to improve employment opportunities and career advancement for black people in the public sector, to improve access to high quality and well-paid work for blacks in Canada.
- Working with government, the public and private sectors to design and implement tailored initiatives and interventions to improve the position of black people in the labor market such as
- Advocating the removal of legal restrictions on the employment of black people, especially immigrant women, and their ability to set up and build formal businesses
- Creating pathways for the legal recognition of informal black people workers and entrepreneurs
- Working to expand work-related health and safety measures that take into account black people in informal work
- Promoting and supporting entrepreneurship and self-employment of black people by developing entrepreneurial and financial knowledge and improving access to financial services and assets
Access to social services, Diversity and inclusion
- Working with public services to ensure that social protection programs are gender-specific and support the disproportionate unpaid care burden of black people while seeking or participating in paid employment
- Working with authorities to ensure that anti-discrimination laws and policies are adhered to by employers of black people, and to support access to justice and redress for black people when violations occur
- Collaborating with public services to improve access to social protection for informal black female workers to put in place mechanisms that ensures that informal black female workers can contribute to and access critical services
- Collaborating with public services to provide free or affordable public services to black low-income women
- Working with the political and governing stakeholders to encourage the active participation of blacks in public affairs roles in local, provincial and federal governments.
