By Yetunde Bada

Councillor Sharmake Dubow recently moved a motion to seek the City of Victoria’s support to train its staff on anti-Black racism and increase youth, children and leadership opportunities by providing grants to black-led organizations.

Dubow, who moved the motion, also asked council to recognize and declare the International Decade of People of African Descent (IDPAD).

"The city is committed to supporting black communities. And that's why I moved a motion to declare and recognize the International Decade of People of African Descent which has three themes: Recognition, Justice and Development," Dubow said.

"The committee will have a membership to work with the city to come with an action plan regarding anti-racism and anti-blackness and also just as to really support the anti-racism training and the anti-black racism training that City of Victoria to hire a consultant and develop anti-black racism training for all city staff," he added.

You can listen to the audio here:

Breaking down the digits, Dubow asked for council to approve the following:

• Inclusion of $18,000 in the 2021 budget to hire a consultant to develop and implement anti-Black anti-racism training for all city staff.
• Approve $25,000 to be included in the 2021 budget to support Black children and youth leadership opportunities by providing grant funding to Black-led organizations, with the grant program to be co-designed by the IDPAD advisory committee.
• Include $10,000 in the 2021 budget to engage a consultant to provide the capacity and expertise to establish and track workforce metrics in order to remove barriers to employment for underrepresented groups.
• Include $7000 in the 2021 budget to engage a consultant with the expertise required to develop an internship program.
• And that Council include address systemic racism and fulfill the calls of the International Decade of People of African Descent (IDPAD) as an action item in the Strategic Plan as a 2021 action item.

He further asked that staff provide draft terms of reference by Nov. 23; advisory committee membership be compensated for their participation; advisory committee be asked to report to the city council by May 2021 on an action plan for the City to address anti-Black racism and that the action plan be informed by community consultation.