PROGRAMS
Support Through the Generations
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sounds like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest.
Adults with Dementia
Reduce Isolation
Engage Youth
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Youth Programs
Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.
—Dr. Mae Jemison, first African-American female astronaut
Mini Me-to-We
Mini Me-to-We is a ten-week program for 11-13-year-old girls that helps them recognize their strengths to increase their resiliency.
Reduce Isolation
Our youth recreation program involves youth ages 16-22. We hold the program in The Family Centre gym every week.
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Cultural Enrichment Program
Children and youth who have immigrated to Canada often feel torn between the culture of their new country and that of their family. We work with a number of youth who feel that they cannot fit into Canadian culture, and yet cannot understand the culture of their parents. Without a sense of belonging in either community, these young people feel isolated and can engage in problematic behavior that puts themselves at risk.
AFRO’s objective is to increase the resilience of these young people by strengthening their ties to their cultures and communities. By feeling connected to their families and their heritage, these young people can feel more emotionally prepared to deal with the struggles they may face while integrating into the wider Canadian community. Learning about their own cultures will help these young people better understand how they relate to their parents, their community, and to Canada, and can help them build the confidence they need to overcome the isolation and cultural challenges they face.
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Black Mental Health Campaign
AFRO is honoured to have been selected by Lyle Halman's Foundation for a three years Mental Health Campaign project.
The Black Mental Health Campaign (BMHC) is an afterschool program that strives to promote the mental health and well-being of Black & African children and teenagers in Kitchener-Waterloo. The BMHC seeks to shatter the stigmas surrounding mental health in the Black community by redefining the narrative, normalizing help-seeking behaviours and instilling confidence in youth to seek community resources for their well-being.
AFRO’s BMHC is about initiating conversations about mental health with children and youth who will, in turn, be encouraged to share these conversations with their parents and caregivers. The goal is to increase the frequency at which families talk about what they are feeling and how they can be supported by each other. This is an excellent opportunity to build community and friendships and engage in shaping culturally responsive programming. For this very reason, the BMHC is innovating and one of a kind!
The key areas we anticipate addressing through this campaign are:
Increasing mental health awareness about 'big emotions' among Black children & youth
Normalizing conversations about emotions, mental health, and well-being for children & youth
Engaging families to have broader conversations about mental health in their own homes & communities
To improve help-seeking behaviour (recognize what is happening and empowered to ask for help)
To improve agency and navigation skills of mental health services
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Empowering Girls Program
Unlike the Mini-Me to We program, the AFRO Empowering Girls Program is a two-year program for 11+ year-old black girls that helps them recognize their strengths to increase their resiliency.
Each activity is designed to help individuals discover their strengths while building self-help, entrepreneurial, and social skills and enriching their self-esteem.
Our goal is to help the girls recognize the positive impact they can have in their lives, families, and communities.
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Parents School Knowledge Initiative Program
Many parents who have come to Canada as newcomers (immigrants, Government-Assisted Refugees, sponsored refugees or asylum seekers) have children in school. However, as the parents/guardians may not have attended school in Canada, there is often a knowledge gap (i.e., How to read report cards, the benefits of parent-teacher interviews, how to advocate for their child(ren), etc.), which puts them at a disadvantage in terms of being able to participate and navigate the school system with and for their children.
This initiative hosts Parent Knowledge Sessions for parents who fit this criterion and are geographically located in a high-needs area. Each session runs for two hours and provides information to as many parents as possible. Parents/guardians have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with teachers. The goal is to maximize their involvement in their children’s education journey.
As so many parents are not knowledgeable and often do now know where to go to get answers about their children, their schooling and any resources they may need, this program serves Black & racialized communities to become more engaged in this process. While this program does not directly impact affordable housing, most of our clientele struggle with housing insecurity and unaffordability; this builds connections with us and may lead to a referral for housing services and may alleviate one area of stress these families and individuals goes through.
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.
Mother Daughter Program
This program aims to connect mothers and daughters from immigrant families amidst the "Canadianization" they are getting used to.
As these young women continue to grow and develop in Canada while their mothers had a different upbringing back in their origin country, there has been some cultural divide that we seek to eradicate. We hope to do this by bringing these two generations together so they can learn from one another through different forms of healing art and pedagogies.
Some of the activities we hope to incorporate are storytelling, dancing/drumming, baking, and experiential learning. Through this program, open communication between mothers and their daughters will be a priority in hopes of breaking the divide.
To learn more about this program, or to register, contact us using this form.