In 2024, a University of Calgary project led by Dr. Bukola Salami, PhD, received $2.5 million in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to improve the well-being of Black children and youth in Canada.
"Our project is both timely, strategic and bold in its focus on producing knowledge, mobilizing knowledge and ensuring sustainability by training the next generation of Black scholars," says Salami, a member of the O'Brien Institute for Public Health and the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine (CSM).
Since its launch, the Transforming Black Lives project has made significant strides towards addressing the systemic inequities faced by Black children and youth in five key areas:
- education
- health
- the justice system
- the child welfare system
- immigration and settlement.
The work over the past year culminated in two knowledge mobilization activities: a summer institute and conference focused on building the capacity of Black communities to co-create evidence-based, multi-faceted solutions to the critical issues they face.
The project is also leading a national survey to examine the experiences and outcomes of Black children and youth and their parents in the project's five key areas.
