**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 
[log in to unmask] 
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
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