Stop waiting for change: How one family created the culturally safe program their son needed

As Toronto’s Black and Caribbean communities prepare for another back-to-school season, one local organization is changing the conversation. It is shifting focus from just books and backpacks to something far more critical: safety, dignity, and empowerment for Black and racialized neurodivergent youth.

The Youth Alliance for Intersectional Justice (YAIJ), co-founded by mother-and-son team Carolyn Tinglin and Jantz Richards, was born out of necessity. Carolyn recalls searching for programs that could support her son: flexible, inclusive, and culturally competent spaces, and coming up short.

“When we couldn’t find what we needed, we decided to create it,” she says. “Most spaces lacked cultural understanding or couldn’t adapt to meet Jantz’s needs. We wanted to change that not just for him, but for other youth like him.”

Initially, YAIJ’s programming revolved around community-building activities like go-karting and movie nights, creating a rare social space where Black neurodivergent youth could meet others who shared their experiences. Over time, the focus expanded to peer support, advocacy, and employment readiness, skills Jantz wished he’d had access to earlier.

“If he’d had a peer mentor in high school,” Carolyn reflects, “Seventy percent of what he went through might not have happened.”

The current six-part Community Safety Forum series emerged from a deeply personal and troubling chapter in Jantz’s life. At just 12 years old, he was bullied relentlessly. One day, he wrote down the names of classmates who had been cruel to him and imagined “just punishments.” When a staff member at his school found the note, the police were called without notifying his parents first.

“He was interrogated alone by two uniformed officers,” Carolyn recalls. “He was criminalized for being bullied. That moment never left either of us.”

The forums address the very real risks Black neurodivergent youth face: bullying, social exclusion, online predators, and police encounters that can escalate dangerously. Carolyn is clear; this is not about “training” youth to accept injustice, but equipping them with: tools, context, and confidence while pushing for systemic change.

“We’re not saying, ‘prepare your kids instead of training police.’ We’re saying, do both,” she explains. “The reality is, we’re not there yet.”

Each forum is structured as a learning circle, a space for: listening, sharing, problem-solving, and connecting participants with resources such as the disability justice network, roots, peace builders, and Black lives.

“We don’t hold all the answers,” Carolyn says. “The power comes from learning together and recognizing that you’re not alone.”

Sometimes, the impact is immediate. Carolyn recalls a grandmother who attended a session and, for the first time, spoke openly about her grandchildren’s negative encounters with police, and how the system had also failed family members in law enforcement.

Carolyn agrees that a generational healing moment gave her context she didn’t have before.

For YAIJ, it’s non-negotiable: support must affirm cultural identity and neurodivergence. “You can’t ignore race to address disability, or ignore neurodivergence to address race,” Carolyn says. “If you do, you’re not seeing the whole person.”

This intersectional lens means rejecting the deficit-based models standard in education and replacing them with student-defined success metrics. “There’s more to a child than a label,” she emphasizes. “Relationship-building is where it starts.”

YAIJ is transitioning, with evolving staffing and resources, but the commitment remains firm. “We’re here when youth need us,” Carolyn says. “We might be small, but we’re mighty.”

A call to the community

Carolyn is clear about how the Caribbean and Black communities can help:

• Check your biases at the door and come with an open mind.
• Do your research about neurodivergence in Black communities.
• Volunteer—after a vulnerable sector check.
• Spread awareness by sharing YAIJ’s work on social media.
• Donate to sustain programming.

Above all, she asks the community to lean in with curiosity and care. “Before you reach out, take a moment to reflect. Be ready to learn, not just about the community, but about yourself.”

For more information or to support YAIJ’s work, visit yaij.org or follow them on Instagram and Facebook