**For Immediate Release**
September 4, 2002
From the Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health and the Canadian
Women’s Health Network:
$1.25 million study looks at impact of racism, violence on health and well
being of African Canadians
A team of African Canadian researchers is looking at the impact of
violence including the violence of racism on the health and well being
of members of Black communities in Halifax, Toronto, and Calgary. Dr. Wanda
Thomas Bernard, Director of the School of Social Work at Dalhousie
University is Team Leader for the five-year, $1.25 million project funded by
the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR). Dr. Carl James from York
University in Toronto, Dr. David Este from the University of Calgary, and
Dr. Carol Amaratunga from the Atlantic Centre for Excellence in Women’s
Health are co-investigators on the project.
The Racism, Violence, and Health Project will be launched from the North
Branch Library on Gottingen Street in Halifax on September 10, 2002, at 1:30
p.m. Bernard and community members will be available to talk about the
project and how violence, particularly the violence of individual,
collective, and systemic racism, affect both themselves and their
communities. Everyone is welcome to attend.
“One of the key issues we will be investigating,” says Bernard, “is what
happens when Black boys grow up surrounded by stereotypes that assume they
are ‘trouble’, that they will eventually find themselves in conflict with
the law. We want to know the impact of these stereotypes of Black
masculinity on Black girls, women, and elders as well as on boys and men. We
want to investigate the consequences of resisting and/or being caught in
these stereotypes.”
A well-known member of the African Nova Scotian community, Bernard’s
previous work with the survival and success of African Nova Scotian men led
to last year’s international conference on Fatherhood in the African
Diaspora held at the Dartmouth Sportsplex.
Susan Edmonds, co-chair of the Health Association of African Canadians
(HAAC), is one of many community partners involved in the research. A nurse
and community activist, Edmonds has been in the forefront of calling for the
inclusion of racism as a determinant of health. “The repeated experience of
being personally devalued coupled with a fear of speaking up takes a toll on
an individual’s sense of self and can negatively impact that individual’s
health,” Edmonds says.
“Academics in the past have come and gone from the Black community without
creating lasting ties,” Edmonds says. “The resultant research tended to be
paternalistic.” HAAC is encouraged that CIHR has supported the development
of an African Canadian research team with members who live in and contribute
to their communities on an ongoing basis.
Bernard says the project is action research - information is gathered and
analysis is developed in order to provide community members, health
professionals, and policy makers with a basis for taking action on issues of
concern to the communities involved. As much as possible, research
assistants will be hired from the Black community and services will be
purchased from Black community members.
“This kind of research can only be successful if community members
contribute their time, expertise, and resources,” Bernard says. “An ethical
approach to research requires that most of the project resources go back to
those communities.”
The African Canadian researchers and their research assistants will be
working with African Canadian community members to document experiences of
individual, community, and systemic violence. They will be meeting with
people in various communities to discuss current concerns, complete a
survey, and engage in in-depth interviews. They will also work closely with
nine families over three years, looking deeply at family members’ experience
of violence, and its effects not only on their health and well being, but
that of the their communities and of society in general. A national
conference will be held in Halifax in 2003, an Internet conference in 2004
and an international conference in 2006.
In each city, annual Community Forums will be held to discuss issues that
arise from different research activities and explore how to address these
issues in concrete ways. Four community-based projects will occur in the
final year, projects that will build on the capacity of communities to heal
from and work to prevent individual, community, and systemic violence. At
least one of the projects will develop Africentric health education
materials and workshops that focus on violence, gender, and health.
In Halifax, a Community Forum in the fall will pull together residents of
the Central Halifax community, the community of professional African Nova
Scotians working in HRM, and six semi-rural communities: North Preston, East
Preston, Cherry Brook, Hammonds Plains/ Lake Loon, Timberlea/ Beechville,
and Lucasville/ Sackville/ Cobequid Road.
General areas of investigation include the questions: How do African
Canadian boys, girls, men, women, and elders experience violence in their
lives? How does it affect their health and well-being? How does it affect
the health and well being of their families and communities? What actions do
community members already take to counteract the effects of violence in
their lives? What other actions can individuals, families, and communities
take that will increase their understanding of the root causes and
terrifying effects of violence? How can we make sure that what we learn
directly benefits members of African Canadian communities and has an impact
on policy makers, program managers, and frontline workers?
For more details and media interviews contact: Halifax Team Leader, Dr.
Wanda Thomas Bernard (902) 494-1190; [log in to unmask]
Kathleen O’Grady, Director of Communications
Canadian Women’s Health Network
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http://www.cwhn.ca
http://www.medicine.dal.ca/mcewh/
Mona Dupré-Ollinik, BSW, BA
Coordonatrice de liaison/Outreach Coordinator
Canadian Women's Health Network/Réseau canadien pour la santé des femmes
419, avenue Graham, Suite 203
Winnipeg (MB) R3C 0M3
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