Held on November 26, 2020 on Zoom.

​

Event Purpose: We listened, learned and amplified the voices of Black young people from Halton Region. Our event aimed to have panelists answer questions and share their experiences, while discussing calls to action for youth, adults and the community-at-large to ensure Halton Region is an equitable safe place for Black people to thrive.

​

Speakers: Audny Stewart, Audrey Rosa, Rosario Tomlinson, Solene Ochu, Suhaila Osman, and Edith Esemé

Volunteers: Amber Siddiqui, Kacy Bao, Mira Kikhia, Iman Ahsan, Iman Ayyaz, Arshiya Alam, Saad Ahmed and Farrah Laufer

​

Why we choose this panel idea: Volunteers on the Connection Series team were committed to connecting with others in Halton Region. In the summer of 2020, the whole world watched in horror as another unarmed Black man died at the hands of police. His name was George Flloyd. Angered and driven to do something our team thought at length about what we could do. We decided that the first critical action was to listen to Black youth in Halton Region to understand the experiences of those who chatted with us and to hear local gaps and challenges facing Black people.  We extended gratitude to Donna Miles and Hysum Osman for helping our team build the panel idea in a safer, more respectful way. 

​

Considerations and Actions for Planning the Event:

• Sought adult advice on how to build our idea and how to find speakers from around Halton Region with diverse experiences

• The volunteers and speakers met prior to the event to go over the panel, review questions and most importantly get to know one another

• All speakers were paid an honoraria for their time and emotional labour 

• The written format of the questions and reflections as well as the event clips were sent to community partners, HCAS, as well as many faculty and admin within our school board system