Toronto, August 30, 2022 – Skills for Change (SfC) is thrilled to announce a new leadership training project called The Black Leadership Institute (BLI). The BLI is a training program created through our existing Black Leadership Institute on Social Action for Change (BLISC). As part of the  Canadian Women’s Foundation Investment Readiness Program funded by the Government of Canada’s Social Innovation/Social Finance Strategy, the BLI will provide Black Women and Black-identified groups interested in leadership development, to gain transferable skills required to drive change in the local community. The program will have two streams; one for corporate clients looking to facilitate training for Black employees and create impactful internal programming and an individual stream that will offer subsidized training to interested professionals within the community. 

Building off of a successful pilot program, the BLI will be a scaled version of the BLISC program offered to individuals and corporate clients looking to address Anti-Black Racism at individual and organizational levels. The BLI is built on the concepts of educating participants on the intersectionality of gender, race, socioeconomic status, among other factors; and their impacts on Anti-Black Racism at work. The goal of this program is to empower Black Women and Black identified professionals to develop leadership skills within the context of Anti-Black Racism. Participants will learn to develop programs and policies to make change in the community and identify methods to evaluate gender analysis, intersectionality, equity, diversity, and/or inclusivity within their professional environments. 

The corporate stream will provide an opportunity for companies to learn how to develop more inclusive leadership teams and design specific opportunities for Black Women to advance in the workplace. With a sliding scale pricing model, SfC will offer specialized support to corporate clients as part of the social enterprise arm of our Agency, allowing these corporate clients to invest in the growth and expansion of the program. SfC has a track record for success in offering tailored services to employers, and as there is an increased demand for equity, diversity and inclusion training in the workplace, we hope that this program will be a financially viable training for companies and will continue to grow with the demand of the content.

Surranna Sandy, CEO of Skills for Change said “I’m grateful to the funders of BLI. This is greatly required for Black Women and I’m excited about the positive impact BLI will play on the lives of Black professionals.” The BLI will evaluate and revise existing company training modules on leadership  and re-design the curriculum for corporate employees and individual participants. We are happy to partner with Dr. Wesley Crichlow, a professor from Ontario Tech University who specializes in Anti- Black Racism and Critical Race Theory as a lead curriculum developer and trainer. For our corporate clients, SfC will create content that covers Anti-Black Racism modules in addition to offering specialized support to address the unique needs of the corporate client, with the goal of supporting the organization in launching programming for Black Women and Black identified groups in their workplaces.

SfC would like to thank the  Canadian Women’s Foundation Investment Readiness Program funded by the Government of Canada’s Social Innovation/Social Finance Strategy for their support of this program. We are seeking participants to partake in our first cohort, for both the leadership program as well as the corporate training program. For more information about the program, please visit our website here or contact Black Community Access Program and Strategic Initiatives Acting  Manager,  Selah Getahun at sgetahun@skillsforchange.org.  

Surranna Sandy, CEO

Skills for Change

For more information or media related inquiries, please contact Sampada Kukade at skukade@skillsforchange.org.