The African Canadian Social Development Council emerged out of a Continental African Canadian community-wide engagement process in 2001, in which over 100 community organizations met to discuss the establishment of a community vehicle that would:
Enable the community to achieve a unified voice and presence in the Canadian public arena;
Ensure that the needs of Continental African Canadians would be more specifically identified and addressed through proactive and collaborative action; and
Support the capacity development of the community’s organizations and service-providing agencies, so that more and better services could be developed and delivered to improve the life circumstances of the community’s members.
Following intensive year-long deliberations, including the review of various operational models, the community decided a membership-based social development body would be created to spearhead the pursuit of the community’s goals and interests.
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Thus, in October 2002, the Council was created to facilitate the social development of the Continental African Canadian community – to enhance the capacity of the community to devise strategies and take actions to address its needs, working with sectoral partners, policy and decision-makers at all levels, and partners within the Diasporic African Canadian and wider communities.
Why the Council was formed
The Continental African Canadian community is now one of the largest groups in Canada. The latest data shows that in 2001, there were close to 120,000 Continental African Canadians in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area alone.
However, it is one of the youngest communities in Canada and Ontario, in terms of history of significant immigration: most of the community’s members arrived here mainly after the late 1980’s.
This is a result of a dramatic shift in the make-up of the African Canadian community as a whole, brought on by immigration:
For example, only 1% of all foreign-born African Canadians in Canada before 1961 had been born in Africa, compared with 72% who had been born in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
However, by 2001 virtually the same proportion of African Canadian immigrants came from Africa as from the Caribbean, Central and South America combined: 48% and 47%, respectively.
The most recent, comprehensive social-economic study shows that Continental African Canadians are the most impoverished community, when compared to all other communities.
For example:
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“The (2001) census reveals that 40 per cent of African ethno-racial group members lived below the poverty line in 2001, compared to about 30 per cent of the members of the Arab and East Asian groups, and 20 per cent of the Aboriginal, South Asian, East Asian, Caribbean, and South and Central American groups. By comparison, only 10 per cent of European group members were below the poverty line, and for some European groups the figure was only about five per cent.” (Emphasis added).
(Ornstein Report, Institute of Social Research/York Univ. Media Release, March 9, 2006).
Despite the available settlement and integration programs, then, the Continental African Canadian community is continuing to suffer serious settlement and adjustment challenges.
Worse, the Continental African Canadian community is hardly noticed in the public realm, including the government and public sector Appointment decision-making processes.
It was to help address these challenges that in 2001-2002 the community got together to establish the Council to begin the arduous task of working with all stakeholders to improve the life circumstances of the community here in Canada – including the member organizations of the Council, governments, foundations, and the private sector.