Congress of Black Women Of Canada- London Chapter

The Congress of Black Women, London (CBWL) is an organization of African Canadian Women whose mission is to improve the lives of Black women and their families. Our vision is an empowered community in a just society. We have worked for just over thirty years to help women and young people of the Black community to improve their lives through our support of post-secondary education, as it is established wisdom that through higher education individuals increase their earning power and are thus better able to support themselves and their families. Our scholarships provide increased opportunities for students entering post-secondary institutions as well as support for continuing students to facilitate their graduation.We have established endowment funds for student support at Brescia University College and Western University.

According to Statistics Canada, Black/African-Canadian youth are less likely to graduate high school, less likely to seek a postsecondary education, and more likely to drop out once registered. Local data indicate that Black/African-Canadian students are proportionately under-represented in the student bodies of universities and colleges.

CBWL supports students through our ongoing fundraising. This year, due to the COVID 19 pandemic we have had to cancel our annual summer fundraising event. This will affect our ability to make the awards we had planned.

In addition to education, our l work in the community includes support for homeless people through organizations such as My Sisters’ Place, as workshops on Financial Literacy for women. Our members have also assisted to recent immigrants to find pathways into their chosen occupations, and provided tutoring to students in the public schools.

This fundraising campaign aims to raise $150,000 to support this work over the next year or two. Funds will be used to support the following: engaging the Greater London community through cultural expression and history such as our commissioned play, Flowers and Thorns; other expressions of Art such as Fashion, dance and song; maintaining cultural identity through public installations such as the plaque in Victoria park, London honouringthe site of London’s first integrated public school; educating families through workshops on Financial Literacy for Women, tutoring for early grades, life skills for young Black men; providing community support for homeless persons, disaster relief, immigrants and refugees and others in need.

We thank you for your support!