OEA Community Network

The Food Without Borders project brought families from many different cultural backgrounds together in North End Halifax to build stronger community connections through food. Families from African Nova Scotian, newcomer, and refugee communities gathered every two weeks to cook and share meals from around the world.

This helped people learn about each other's cultures, feel more welcome, and build friendships. Participants grew culturally meaningful foods in the garden and cooked together in the Hope Blooms Global Kitchen. Women in the program had the chance to earn certificates in Safe Food Handling, First Aid, and WHMIS, and could join a workshop series to learn how to start their own small food business. They also sold what they made at the Hope Blooms Farmers Market, among the products sold we had chilean empanadas, syrian bread, popsicles, agua de jamaica, horchata, and butter chicken.

This project helped reduce food insecurity while also making sure people had access to the traditional foods that are part of their heritage. It created a safe space for women to support each other, share stories, and talk about their experiences in a changing neighbourhood. By bringing together long-time African Nova Scotian residents and new Canadians, the project built understanding and helped heal divisions caused by racism, displacement, and gentrification.

We are pleased to share an overview of our work through the African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw Learning Experiences project, made possible by the OEA Community Network Grant, funded by the Nova Scotia Office of Equity and Anti-Racism.

Rooted in the values of truth, reconciliation, and equity, our project focused on anti-racism education and awareness grounded in the lived experiences of African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities. Through community-based activities, we aimed to amplify voices often silenced, challenge systemic barriers, and foster cross-cultural learning rooted in solidarity and mutual respect.

Over the past six months, we developed and delivered educational workshops, cultural experiences, and resource materials grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk), blending Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. These sessions engaged 175 tenants in our supportive housing units and 55 staff members, with events held in meaningful community spaces such as the North Memorial Library, Black Cultural Centre, and Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre. Highlights included:

• Cultural film viewings and discussions (e.g., Fitting for Shoes)

• Tours of local cultural institutions and community support spaces

• “Food for Culture” cooking sessions centered on cultural identity

• A community celebration to close the project in March

Each gathering reinforced pride in identity, empowered participants with tools for advocacy, and encouraged meaningful dialogue about racism, equity, and resilience.

What We Learned:
Creating culturally safe spaces is essential. While these conversations are powerful, they can also be emotionally heavy. We’ve learned the importance of incorporating mental health supports and ensuring facilitators are equipped to guide participants through difficult truths with care.

We also learned that authentic collaboration across African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities requires trust, time, and an understanding of unique cultural histories. Our project emphasized the need for long-term, sustained investment in this work—not just in funding but in relationships and systems change.

What’s Next:
As we reflect on this experience, we are committed to continuing this work beyond the grant period by:

• Sharing our culturally relevant resources and tools with local schools, community partners, and housing providers

• Supporting the integration of anti-racist education in institutional settings

• Encouraging leadership development among youth and emerging leaders in our communities

• Exploring ways to make these engagements permanent through ongoing community-driven programming

—
Submitted by the North End Community Health Centre
[Contact: northend@nechc.com | 2131 Gottingen Street, Halifax]

We’re proud to share an update from Upper Hammonds Plains, a historic African Nova Scotian community shaped by generations of resilience, resistance, and deep care for one another. Like many African Nova Scotian communities, our efforts to steward and develop our land have long been impacted by systemic barriers, especially when it comes to land ownership and access.

That’s why we’re so thankful to the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism Initiatives (OEA) for awarding us a Community Network Grant to support our project: African Nova Scotian Pathways to Inclusive Development. This support came at a pivotal moment. For years, we had been working to secure formal access to parcels of historically African Nova Scotian lands now held by the Province.

With OEA’s support, we were able to complete a feasibility study on these key parcels. That study provided the technical and environmental analysis we needed to confirm the land’s potential for community-led development. It also gave us something even more important: momentum.

This project helped us demonstrate that with the right support, Black communities can lead our own development processes, on our own terms, and in ways that reflect our values, history, and collective vision. It’s a major milestone in our broader effort to ensure that land in Upper Hammonds Plains is stewarded for the benefit of our people today and for generations to come.

We are grateful to OEA for believing in our work. This grant didn’t just fund a study, it strengthened our capacity, lifted community voices, and helped move our long-term vision closer to reality. 

We’d love to connect with others compelled to do this work. Whether you're navigating land access, starting a community land trust, or reclaiming space in your own way. Let’s keep learning from one another and building together.

In solidarity,

Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust

I would like to take this opportunity to share a part of my story not just for myself —  but in hopes that it might spark a meaningful conversation about the barriers many of us continue to face in healthcare, especially as Internationally Educated Nurses (IENs), underrepresented groups, or members of marginalized communities.  

Not long ago, I found myself working for a reputable organization, hopeful and ready to contribute meaningfully to my community. The community who faithfully welcomed me and my two young children when we immigrated in the year 2018. Instead, I was met with exclusion, a lack of due process, and what I strongly believe as rooting from discrimination. I was terminated early in my employment during probation — without clear justification, proper communication, or support. It is also my belief that there was lack of impartial treatment by the union during the grievance process, hence denied, and further inflicting hurtful feelings.

The pain remains to this day and this experience broke something in me — emotionally, financially, and mentally. Unexpected job loss, especially coming from a vulnerable single parent like me, is perhaps nothing but a ruthless circumstance. As I pave my way through healing, this experience also somehow lit a fire. While I am currently fighting a legal battle and walking this dark path alone, I have come to realize how important it is that stories like mine be heard, and to know that I am not alone.

I believe that many IENs like myself and marginalized healthcare workers are enduring racism and systemic neglect in silence. Albeit we come with skills, passion, and a desire to serve — are often met with barriers and dehumanization in the workplace.

How can lived experience like mine be turned into advocacy and action? 

And how do we make sure no one else has to go through this alone?

.  

As we are approaching to the end of our project, at Adsum, we are grateful for the opportunity to enhance and expand our knowledge of the impacts of transphobia when navigating community support. With support from the Restorative Approach through the Expanding Beyond the Binary Workshop and Affirming Spaces for Folks Experiencing Homelessness Workshop the Nova Scotia Youth Project, staff where able to gain information on how to better support trans clients and staff. Each session discussed how we can enhance policies and shift our way of practice to be more inclusive of the needs of trans community.

In Canada, trans individuals are four times more likely to experience violence in comparison to cis peoples gendered. Additionally, trans and gender diverse people are twice as likely to experience homelessness, and one in five non-binary people live in poverty. With statistics such as this, it is crucial that front-line workers are provided with the tools to not reinforce forms of oppression too often experienced by this community when accessing supporting.