Our Identity
Who
We Are
A Black-led, Black-serving registered nonprofit founded in 2010 in British Columbia — dedicated to arts, culture, education, and community empowerment.
Our Story
Built From Community,
For Community
The Great Lakes Networking Society of BC is a registered nonprofit organization founded in British Columbia in 2010. We are a Black-led, Black-serving organization, focused on underserved communities and mandated to advance arts, culture, education, and sports — dedicated to building inclusive, empowered, and culturally vibrant communities alongside our allies and partners.
Through arts, culture, education, advocacy, and community programming, we bring people together across differences to promote equity, reconciliation, and social cohesion. Our work takes shape through festivals, dialogues, panel discussions, and community-based initiatives that celebrate diversity, strengthen belonging, and advance social justice for underserved and interfaith minority communities.
We offer support, services, and referrals to refugees and newcomers from the Africa Great Lakes Region, and we organize and promote community arts, culture, and heritage programs that nurture the artistic development of local and grassroots initiatives throughout British Columbia and beyond — in collaboration with our international partners.
Our Identity
Black-Led. Black-Serving.
Community-Centred.
These are not just words — they are the foundation of every decision we make, every program we run, and every partnership we build.
Black-Led
Our organisation is founded, directed, and governed by Black community members. Leadership that looks like the communities we serve is not optional — it is essential.
Black-Serving
Our programs, services, and resources are designed to meet the specific needs of Black communities in BC — grounded in cultural competence and lived experience.
Black-Focused
We centre the stories, voices, challenges, and triumphs of Black people in our programming, advocacy, and public presence — without apology.
Black-Mandated
Our mandate is defined by and accountable to Black communities. We exist to serve them and our decisions are guided by what best advances their wellbeing.
Our Work
What We Do
Through four interconnected pillars, we address the whole person and the whole community.
Arts & Culture
Festivals, cultural celebrations, arts, heritage programs, and community events that support local and grassroots artists. Organizing platforms for diverse communities — particularly people of African descent — to express, share, and celebrate their identities, histories, and traditions.
Education & Empowerment
Facilitated dialogues, panel discussions, workshops, and reconciliation programming that deepen intercultural understanding and advance anti-racism. Financial literacy programs, seniors' storytelling, and intergenerational mentorship.
Community Wellness & Support
Community wellness programs addressing mental health, addiction, homelessness, and refugee protection. Support, services, and referrals for refugees and newcomers from the Africa Great Lakes Region — connecting them to resources, networks, and opportunities.
Partnerships & Advocacy
Local, national, and international partnerships that strengthen our reach and deepen our community impact. Championing equity, inclusion, and social justice — advocating for the rights, visibility, and full participation of Black, African diaspora, Indigenous, and minority communities.
Who We Serve
Our Community
We serve Black and African-descent communities across Greater Vancouver and British Columbia — from recent newcomers finding their footing to second-generation Canadians reconnecting with their heritage.
We walk alongside Indigenous communities in a shared commitment to reconciliation, cultural preservation, and healing — recognising the deep historical connections between African and Indigenous peoples.
We welcome allied communities and interfaith minority groups — anyone who believes in equity and belonging. Our festivals and programs are open invitations to learn, celebrate, and connect across difference.
We offer support, service delivery, and referrals for refugees and newcomers from the Africa Great Lakes Region.
Our Message
We Cannot Be Erased
We are living through a moment in history where, in some of the most powerful administrations in the world, there are deliberate and organised efforts to attack diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. To defund programs that support marginalized communities. To remove critical race theory from classrooms. To rewrite history in ways that erase the contributions, the suffering, and the resilience of people of African descent.
We see it. We name it. And we say clearly and without fear — it will never work.
"You cannot erase what is woven into the foundation of every nation on earth. There is no country — not one — built without the hands, minds, creativity, and resilience of African people."
Critical race theory is not a radical invention. It is simply the honest telling of history. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are not political agendas. They are the basic requirements of a society that wishes to call itself fair.
You can remove the words from a curriculum. You cannot remove the truth from history. You can defund a program. You cannot defund a people. You can try to erase a narrative. You cannot erase the people who lived it, survived it, and are still here — still creating, still contributing, still rising.
"We are not a footnote in someone else's story. We are authors of our own."
"They can try to erase the chapter. They cannot erase the authors."
Territorial Acknowledgement
We Are Grateful to Be Hosted on This Land
Great Lakes Networking Society of BC lives and works on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish People, including the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Stó:lo and Tseil-Waututh Nations.
Musqueam
Nation
Squamish
Nation
Stó:lo
Nation
Tseil-Waututh
Nation
As an organisation dedicated to reconciliation, we honour this acknowledgement not as a formality but as an ongoing commitment to relationship-building, allyship, and solidarity with Indigenous peoples — both in BC and across the continent.
Karibuni — You Are Welcome Here
Whether you want to attend a festival, volunteer your time, support our work, or simply learn more — there is a place for you in our community.