York’s Business & Society (BUSO) program in partnership with the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and Its Diaspora will present a special event to mark February as Black History Month.
The lecture “Black Social Economy: Boosting Social Enterprises, Money Pools & Cooperatives Among Canadians” will take place on Feb. 9 from 2:30 to 4:30pm, with a reception beginning at 2pm.
This is a free event for York U students and for the public. Come and experience an evening of dialogue and lessons from a diverse range of accomplished entrepreneurs from the Black community.
Guest speakers at the event include Jessica Gordon Nembhard and Ginelle Skerritt.
“Given the social exclusion that exists for racially marginalized Canadians, it is vital to focus on the Black perspective of the social economy as a way to co-opt business resources,” said Caroline Shenaz Hossein, professor, Business & Society, York University. “Black people in the diaspora have had to engage in alternative economic systems. The two speakers Gordon- Nembhard and Skerritt will share the varied ways in which Black people in the US and Canada come together for mutal aid.”
Nembhard is the author of Collective Courage: A History of Afridan American Cooperateive Economic Thought and Practice and a 2016 inductee into the U.S. Cooperative Hall of Fame. She is a political economist and professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Africana Studies Department at John Jay College, City University of NY. She is also director of John Jay’s McNair Program and an affiliate scholar with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives (University of Saskatchewan). She has numerous publications on cooperative economics, community economic development, credit unions, wealth inequality, community wealth, and Black political economy. She is the 2014 recipient of the ONI Award from the International Black Women’s Congress, and the 2011 recipient of the Cooperative Advocacy and Research Award from the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy.
Ginelle Skerritt is a graduate of York and Carleton Universities. She has won numerous awards for community work including the Phenomenal Woman Award and Insomuch community Leadership Award. Throughout her 25-plus year career in the non-profit sector, she has focused on community development with the United Way of Greater Toronto and UNICEF. Currently she leads a multi-service community-based agency as the executive director of Warden Woods Community Centre in Southwest Scarborough. As a member of the Board of Social Planning Toronto and Toronto Neighbourhood Centres, she contributes to the strategic leadership of the non-profit sector in Toronto.
This event is supported by YUFA Community fund, A&PS, Dept of Social Science, Office of the Vice-Provost, York TD CEC, Dept of Humanities, Dept of Geography, Faculty of Education, Black Daddies Club, The Jean Augustine Chair, and the IDS program.