ONABSE celebrates the black education community with the 5th annual provincial conference and celebration dinner

BY LEANNE BENN

On April 12^th-13^th 2019, the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators (ONABSE) celebrated their 5^th annual provincial conference and AGM by hosting two days filled with exciting agendas for the black education community. ONABSE under the theme to — educate, innovate and elevate aims to promote the availability of proper facilities especially for Afro-Canadian students and their educators. This movement creates a forum to open the lines of dissuasion to improve education in black communities.

The organization deals with issues from racism to sexism in education as well as increasing the level of academic achievements of Afro-Canadian students.

ONABSE also provides awareness to Afro-Canadian educators so that there is a level of motivation within that community. Warren Salmon is the current president of ONABSE and is part of a team of nine other founding members.  Salmon stated some of the highlights of the conference this year included the availability of over twenty-five different workshops focusing on topics such as higher education resources, parent and community involvement, leadership, student achievements, mental health and college and career readiness amongst other important topics.

There were also parent and educator forums as well as many different exhibitors all leading up to the first annual awards dinner, which featured various award presentations, board inductions, to the ever-expanding team as well as an appreciation ceremony. The awards ceremony itself was held on April 13^th as an act of recognition of excellence in education at OCAD U – waterfront campus on Queens Quey East. This year the main honorees included Dr. Carl James, a professor from York University who received the Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence and Kathy McDonald who is a trustee of the Peel District School Board received the Champion Educator Award of Excellence. The award ceremony also honored the Christian Network, a network of black Christian churches with a Community Service Award of Excellence.

The keynote speaker of the evening was Director X, a filmmaker and co-founder of Operation Pre-Frontal Cortex. The dinner also featured many of the Ontario members of the ONABSE as well as members from other international alliances such as TABSE, the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators. Dr. Kimberly McLeod, the current president of TABSE came to Toronto so show her support of the conference as well as to enforce the potential behind such an alliance like this. As one of the featured speakers, McLeod stated that the Texas Alliance has over 1000 members and has been around for 37 years. So it sets the tone for the potential to what ONABSE can achieve.

The president of ONABSE, Warren Salmon spoke about the importance of closing off the two-day conference with a dinner celebration “Definitely wanted to have the dinner to recognize the people that do great work in the community and promote community engagement.” Salmon also remarked about the 150 plus guests that attended and engaged in the activities planned during the conference. Salmon is aware of the importance education plays in the community and he is also the founder of Ashaware, an Afro-centric software with programs for children including geography, history, mathematics, science, careers as well as music and other educational subjects.

If you are interested in finding out more about ONABSE or considering becoming a member visit www.onabse.org