Two final events are planned for the month of June as part of the “B United: Advancing Inclusion and Empowerment in Brantford” project.
Last year, the City of Brantford teamed up with WAKING THE unCONSCIOUS (WtC) to connect with community organizations that engage with youth anywhere from the ages of zero to 14.
WtC is a Toronto-based equity and social impact consulting firm that collaborates with its clients to customize solutions that respond to unique organizational needs and helps to tackle critical issues. By using data-driven insights and extensive community engagement, the firm works to create effective and inclusive solutions to address various challenges and to drive meaningful social impact.
The B United initiative was designed to train and support Brantford’s child and youth serving organizations in addressing systemic racism more effectively.
“This contract was focused around Equity, Diversity and Inclusion [EDI ]and the challenges around diversity and the growth of the city, the influx of new immigrants coming to the city, the historical history of those such as the African Canadians that have lived in the city, and the lack of unification of all those groups working together as our world changes,” said Nicole McKinney, Founder of WtC. “We are in a global reckoning of change and so the ways of the old world are not the same as our world today.”
With the support of the City’s Health Kids, All Kids program, WtC worked with the Corporation of the City of Brantford to do two things; one being to offer free, introductory EDI training to those child serving organizations, and two, to create seven non-traditional activity-based events for children.
Activities started back in October of 2024, kicking off with a free robotics event at the Brantford Public Library, followed by a Brantford Newcomers event; a Healthy Kids, Happy Families event; and a B United Learn About Yourselves Kahoot event.
“We’ve really tried to focus on a range of things that kids and people can get involved with within the city and be exposed to,” said McKinney.
She said that in order to put all of this together, she was proud to have teamed up with equity-deserving communities within the city to create an advisory committee and gain input on what they wanted to see.”
“That advisory group was selected to make sure that we heard the voices of leaders from these equity-deserving communities in the city, and to help understand the concerns they had, the kinds of activities they felt were most important for children to engage in; activities that were psychologically safe, and that were representative of who they were and also representative of how they want to see their kids engage with other kids,” she said. “There’s been some amazing people within the city that have been so supportive, and those advisory group members need all the credit because they have really stepped up so much.”
As far as what community members can expect from the B United initiative during the month of June, there will be free inclusion and empowerment training sessions, intended for
child-serving organizations throughout the city, taking place throughout the month.
“If anybody’s interested or has questions, they can reach out to us and sign up for training by emailing nicole@wakingtheunconscious.com”
As well, there will be a free B United Ball Hockey event on Sunday, June 1, at Ball Hockey International – Brantford. Children ages three to five will be able to attend from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., and children from ages six to eight from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
“With ball hockey, the barrier to entry is so much lower than regular ice hockey and so it really makes it more inclusive for a lot of kids,” said McKinney. “I think this is going to be a great event because it gives every child the opportunity to go and play some hockey, to learn how to play hockey, or to have an opportunity to try and see if they even like it before an investment is made to play on the ice.”
The initiative’s last event, the B United Sports Clinic, will take place on Friday, June 6, at Waterworks Park from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
While there, children ages six to 14 will have a chance to learn soccer, cricket and lacrosse with accredited coaches. Pre-registration is required, and the link can be found here: https://forms.monday.com/forms/1ebfdfe566a1188225d6df969faf79c4?r=use1
“The idea is to give the kids who are participating some exposure to those activities and to learn from people that maybe don’t look like them or that they haven’t been exposed to; of course, soccer is more of a universal sport but with lacrosse being a historically Indigenous sport, and cricket being a Southeast Asian sport, it gives them the chance to explore some activities and get to know other kids that they may not have been exposed to before,” said McKinney. “If the children have a nice time, if they learn something new, and if they sign up to cricket or lacrosse after that, then that is the benefit of doing something like this.”
Overall McKinney said that B United has been a good initiative and an overall good starting place, but that naturally, there is still a lot of work to be done.
“I think it’s going to take a lot of time to get everybody on board, but I think that we definitely made a start in getting people engaged with the people that make up their community,” she said.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
