A Celebration of Diversity and Commonality

BY: MICHAEL THOMAS

Mississauga’s diverse community was well represented by CACD aka the Citizens for the Advancement of Community Development on the evening of Feb 21^st, 2019.

There were people of numerous cultural backgrounds and races in attendance as well as a list of community and political leaders on hand to celebrate this melting pot of a city and as Ron Cunningham (Executive Director) of the organization said “We want to showcase what the black community has done here in Canada to make it the diverse and productive country that it is today’

The evening was chaired by none other than master of ceremony, radio personality and entertainer Mr. Chris Hayles himself of G98.7 FM and the distinguished speakers ranged from the founder Mr. Cunningham, Jamaica Consulate General Mr. Lloyd Wilks, Peel Police Inspector Donavan Howell, the MPP’s were Deepak Anand, and Kaleed Rasheed from Mississauga’s Cooksville East and Mississauga’s Mayor, Mrs. Bonnie Crombie.

From one speaker to the other the message was unanimously clear the CACD is all about unity and equality for all no matter your color, race religion or beliefs and as Mayor Crombie said with a wide smile in Mississauga, she welcomes everyone around the table.

That was very evident in the entertainment dished out by CACD that evening from a Chinese dance group, a Middle Eastern dance group as well as Black Canadian dancers and singer and a Heritage Drummer who performed.

The audience was treated to a predominantly Caribbean home cooked meal and treats from rice and peas to jerk chicken, curry goat, sweet potato pudding, beef patties, and salad.

CACD is the brainchild of Cunningham, an accountant by trade who has worked with Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Royal Bank of Canada for over twenty years. He and his wife started the organization some 15-years ago in Toronto, before that he was always involved in community work on his island of Jamaica while still working here. Cunningham told Toronto Caribbean News “I have always had a strong passion for doing work with the less fortunate.”

It was the unfortunate situation in 2005 of Jane Creba who was shot while walking on Yonge Street that moved the couple to turn their attention to Toronto.

Cunningham said he thought “Here am I, running off to Jamaica to work with inner-city kids while the same thing is happening right here in my own backyard and so my wife and I registered this same organization CACD here in Canada as a non-profit organization.”

Cunningham said that for too long the good work that members of the black community have done here has gone unnoticed and one of the focuses of his organization is to keep these good deeds and the people that do them in the spotlight by recognizing them for their efforts over the years.

A huge part of the organization’s goal is making sure that at-risk kids age 10-25 don’t fall through the cracks by mentoring and keeping them on track to successful adult life through as he explained “programming that serves a unique need, develop leadership capabilities and foster civic participation.”

The CACD has over the years ran a number of programs for middle-school kids from 3:00pm-6:00pm Monday-Friday. Cunningham said “The rationality behind this was that these kids had parents who were doing two or three jobs and between these hours the kids were unsupervised so we embarked on providing them with things like music, dance, art, photography, nutrition, and basketball to positively engage them.”

The organization targeted high schools in which certain kids were failing. CACD would then get the kids and provide a special targeted approach to the programs that they were failing so that they could succeed, said Cunningham.

When asked what the most difficult hurdle the organization has faced so far the founder replied “Funding. The CACD right now is at a plateau. It is sad to say but funding is of the essence and not all companies and corperations are giving funding as they used to, they are more strict and so there are greater requirements to achieve the outcome as they see fit from the organizations. More organizations are coming on board and the financial pot is shrinking. “However, the founder pointed out that CACD is a registered charitable organization and as such can issue a tax receipt for donations received.

The organization’s founder said that he would like to be remembered as one who despite the odds strived to lift up others and believes that despite our differences there is so much more that unites us rather than that which divides us.

The CACD can be reached at 647-339-2223 or e-mail rcunnin123@rogers.comwww.cacdcanad