A day of Black representation, community, influence, and self-worth!
On June 7, over 400 students from across the city came together at the University of Ottawa for a day of celebrating, sharing and teaching about what it means to be Black.
The Black Youth Forum (BYF) is an annual event led by Black students in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) as a way to discuss various topics and to share as a community, with this year’s theme being about Black Joy.
The morning saw a busy registration at the Learning Crossroads building (CRX), with over 100 last-minute signups. Students got a chance to meet and network with other students from Grade 7 to 12 before joining the student organizers on discussions about Black representation, community, influence and self worth.
The day was about sharing experience. Jacqueline Lawrence, the diversity coordinator of the OCDSB and one of the amazing organizers behind this event (along with Patsy Egard and Adrian Cadet, and other members of the team) spoke about the significance of the BYF.
“[It is a] space to share their lived experiences and to share their journey personally… for them as Black students to show up in spaces and to be able to be in a space of well-being as well as to explore and to identify what their fullest potential is.”
This year was special in that this was the highest involvement the BYF has had in its six years of running, with organizers frantically working non-stop with the influx of registrations from May 31 up until moments before students arrived.
The lunch break in between, provided from the Diversity Lunch and Learn company Afrodeez, saw students chatting with members and newfound peers from their workshops.
“It’s the space that I would have loved to have had when I was a student, to be able to know that I could get together with other students, be affirmed in my identity, and also be able to be exposed to different ways of being, different ways of seeing my future, in particular to explore different opportunities in terms of job opportunities or passions or just being able to be fully, fully self expressed and comfortable within my own skin,” she said.
“This has been a really amazing vision come to life and being able to see our students take their own, get to know their own voice and be comfortable in their own skin. And so that for me, when you [are] able to anchor that, you can take on the world.”
Lawrence also mentioned how many of the students that have met at the BYF and gone on to universities across Canada still keep in touch with one another, with many returning to help support this event.
The BYF is about building a communal legacy of support for Black students. To push conversations forward on what Black means, that is something to be celebrated with pride and joy. Congratulations to the 2023 OCDSB BYF organizers.
#byf23ocdsb
