Through the Barriers to Employment and Anti-Black Racism toolkits, the Federation of Black Canadians advocates for and creates opportunities for Black Canadians in the financial sector.
The Federation of Black Canadians’ (FBC) mission is to advance the social, economic and political interests of Canadians of African descent. FBC is a national not-for-profit organization that operates through multiple community platforms, including their Provincial Hubs in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Since 2017, Hubs have supported over 5000 members by fostering a stable community for Black Canadians to connect, share opportunities, and engage with FBC’s national projects.
The establishment of networks and coalitions through Hubs opened up opportunities to build partnerships with corporate and institutional organizations. These partnerships create more entry points for Black Canadians to not only pursue post-secondary education and secure employment but widen the range of options available.
FBC’s national network in action
Partners in Principle (PIP) is FBC’s national network of over 200 Black-led businesses and not-for-profits. This community allows FBC to pinpoint business needs, provide capacity-building support, increase awareness of its products and services, and collect valuable input for national projects. Anti-Black racism is still prevalent throughout industries and reinforces systemic barriers that restrict Black Canadians from fully participating in society. PIP strengthens the visibility of Black Canadians and their contributions across sectors in Canada by cultivating a place to share ideas, enable change, achieve goals, and support each other in collective growth.
FBC actively identifies ways to tackle systemic barriers by holding discussions with PIPs. FBC’s projects also allow them to partner with corporate and institutional partners through strategic alliances that output real solutions.
Toolkits for Black Canadians and corporate and institutional partners
Tangible results of FBC’s mission include the Barriers to Employment Toolkit and the Anti-Black Racism Toolkit launching in March 2022. These are possible through the Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity grants and partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and the University of Toronto (UofT).
Both toolkits are educational resources that tackle barriers to employment within the Black community by sharing their lived insights on the challenges to gain employment.
In addition to expressing the barriers Black Canadians currently face, the Barriers to Employment Toolkit showcases current and future employment opportunities for Black Canadians. The Anti-Black Racism Toolkit also includes resources such as best practice policies, testimonials, and statistics about workplace diversity.
Partnerships with RBC and UofT provide a landscape to conduct further research with employers and academia to continue to advance solutions relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Get involved with FBC
FBC’s launch of the toolkits to dismantle anti-Black racism and advance opportunities for Black Canadians is only the beginning. Currently, FBC is working to identify barriers that Black Canadians face in the financial sector, but are aiming to expand this work into other sectors, beginning with the legal, communications and air transportation sectors. FBC hopes to actively work with companies within each industry to support change in HR, DEI, and workplace culture for Black Canadians. There is still much work to be done and FBC is committed to continuously expanding the interest of Black Canadians through strategic alliances across industries.
