Black History Month at CHIRS

Naneesh P.

Thakshani M.

Brent T.

Sam A.

As many of us know, February is widely known as Black History Month in Canada. A small committee of staff and clients got together to educate themselves in the subject of Black Heritage and put together presentations and games to capture the essence of Black History Month (BHM). Every Friday during the month of February, the BHM group presented a topic representing icons and figures in black history. Thakshani M. brought us How to Tie the Past and Present Together. Naneesh P. presented Maya Angelou and her movement. Brent T. presented Donovan Bailey, Rosa Parks & Nelson Mandela. Sam A. presented a hidden icon, Ms. Ruby Bridges. The BHM group also incorporated Black History into other virtual programs such as the What Would You Do program and the MindBusters group by utilizing quotes from Black History legends such as Martin Luther King who said "The time is always right to do right!”

Thakshani M. begins Black History Month with an introduction to ‘Why Black History Month was created’.

Neil D. is illustrating to Residential Facilitator (Ali A.) how our Virtual Club works. The program runs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Neil has the zoom program down pat.

Waaaay Back Sammi Visits The Voices & Vibes Group

She is a blast from the past and she spoke about some historical legends like Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. The group learned about some of the historical songs and the reasoning behind some of those songs. The Voices and Vibes team would like to thank Way Back Sammi for the great presentation!

To wrap up the month of commemoration, the grand finale was held on Friday, February 25th, where the Historic movie, “Hidden Figures” was played for all to watch. This movie was both riveting and touching; the finale demonstrated the ability of people of colour and non being able to break down barriers and work together. It exemplified how people work better together. The entire Black History presentations were received well by all and generated positive conversations.

The month concluded with a raffle for clients and a raffle for staff who wore the colours red, green, and/or black, which are the official colours of Black History Month.

Our client winner is.... Shannon Y!

Our staff winners are.... (a huge turn out with 42 submissions): Marisa C., Charlotte B., & Roby M. Congratulations!

The BHM team would like to send a huge shout out to Rowen K; your work on this was impeccable, we wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/FMocnqy9iGE

I personally want to thank the BHM team for all their hard work, their time, effort and never giving up. This project seemed challenging at times but I knew we would, not only be able to pull it off, but I knew we would do a phenomenal job. Very well done!

Thanks to all involved.

Sam A