Empowerment Squared

If selected, I will use the funding to support our effort in Liberia to build the first and only public library and community hub since the civil ended in 2003 called "The Liberian learning Center." 

While most teenagers surfed the web and learned to drive, I spent eight years in refugee camps, after fleeing war-torn Liberia in 1998 like thousands of Liberia children. I arrived in Canada in 2006 as a refugee, I decided I could either carry on with a victim mentality – or be a champion of possibilities, I chose the latter.  

After I was separated from my family, my mother's warning about not giving up on education never left my soul. That seed drove my efforts to establishing Empowerment Squared as a way of ensuring that I continue to share the gift of education in meaningful ways.

I am still haunted by the horrors of being in school and getting attacked by rebels and running under hails of bullets for dear life. That is why I have committed my work to turning that horror into hope, where many children who have never seen a library can experience the power of knowledge and learning right within their community.  

I spent eight years in refugee camps, having fled civil war in Liberia. In 2006, I was resettled in Canada as a refugee. In 2008, I founded Empowerment Squared, a charitable organization committed to building a world where everyone is empowered with the tools and opportunities to thrive and contribute to society through education. The organization has assisted thousands of refugee youth and families with settling in Canada. Additionally, we recently completed the groundbreaking ceremony for Liberian Learning Center which will house the only public library in Liberia since the civil war.

I have been honoured to have my work recognized for its impact all over the world. I have received the J.C. Holland Award for Youth Leadership and Excellence, the YMCA Peace Medal, been named one of the Hamilton Spectator’s Top Forty Under 40 and one of the top 75 immigrants in Canada. I was recently awarded the World Citizenship Award by the City of Hamilton, Gandhi Peace Award, McMaster University Global Community Impact Award and the Afroglobal TV 2018 Visionary Award. In 2019, I was one of 14 people selected globally as a Fellow for the International Decade for People of African Descent by the United Nations.

Empowerment Squared is building a world where everyone is empowered with the tools and opportunities to thrive and contribute to society through access to education.

In our community, refugee and Black students constitute more than 70% of school dropouts even though they are less than 10% of the student population in our city and many places across Canada. Access to education is not just about letter grades, for refugee youth it is also about navigating racial discrimination, pre-and post-migration trauma, inter-generational trauma and other hurdles. Globally, more than 75 million children and youth have no  access to proper education as refugees including western democracies.

That is why we are focused on empowering refugee youth in Canada through education by directly supporting over 1000 annually through culturally relevant academic mentoring, physical, social and emotional supports required for improved learning outcomes and leadership development. We do this through mentorship, access to post-secondary education, leadership skills development and sports and recreation.   

In Liberia, we are building the Liberian Learning Center which will provide direct educational support to more than 300,000 youth in the largest slum community of Red-light, all of whom have never seen a library in their entire lives.

Our work is innovative because it uses the power of stories, lived experiences and culturally relevant engagement to empower youth as champions of possibilities and resilience. Our asset based approach emphasizes that being successful in life is not just about letter grades at school, it is also about navigating discrimination, culture differences, language barriers, pre-and post-migration trauma, inter-generational trauma and mental health difficulties. As such, we build on their resilience, skills, stories and lived experiences as leveraging tools to fill in gaps they are faced with. In other words, our approach is not to rescue or save anyone, rather, we work with them to discover the incredible drive and determination of young people to thrive and succeed. 

People already know the solution to their problems, we are only partners to help fill the gaps that they are facing. For instance, we spent five years working with local communities in Liberia to develop the Liberian Learning Project based on their needs, cultural understanding and community priorities. We then built a collaboration of multiple partners based on the gaps identified including Rotary International, Paynesville City Corporation, mcCallumSather Architects, and Hamilton Public Library, and local construction firm Tri Buchanan Development Corp. 

Empowerment Squared is having a major impact by empowering over 1000 refugees and Black youth in Hamilton annually through access to education and pathways to postsecondary and auxiliary supports to thrive in society. Additionally, we are building a learning centre in Liberia to support over 300,000 youth in the largest slum community in the country. Our impact is rooted in the strength of our team's diversity which is culturally representative of the communities we serve coupled with lived experience. This year, we've launched the School Readiness Academy for refugee and Black youth. The Academy is a system level innovation which will compliment the formal education system by improving learning outcomes for refugee and Black youth through culturally relevant learning curriculum and methodologies as well as experiential learning.   

There are three key steps we are taking to achieve our planned impact:

Resource mobilization - mobilizing diversity of stakeholders to ensure sustainable support based on shared outcomes.

Strong Governance - ensuring the diversity of skills and talents are empowered to ensure responsiveness to emerging community needs. 

Collective Impact - cross sector partnerships to strengthen knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer to foster the culture of best practice.    

Currently, Empowerment Squared serves 800 families in addition to 250 newcomer, refugee and racialize youth. 

Number of people (800 families) - 2400 

Number of children and youth - 250

Total number of people being served currently - 2650 

Direct COVID-19 Emergency Relief

Since the inception of COVID-19, we continue to support 800 marginalized families severely impacted by COVID-19 specifically dealing with food insecurity, lack of access technology for their children to remain in school and culturally relevant mental health support as a result of increased stress levels caused by COVID and growing isolation. 

Educational Support (Ages 5 - 29) 

We are currently supporting 250 newcomer, refugee and racialize children and youth severely impacted by COVID-19 through our virtual academic mentoring and wellness program weekly to ensure that they do not drop out of school given the abrupt interruption that has resulted to an ever evolving virtual education for many marginalized children who were already struggling in the education system pre COVID.      

In one year, we anticipate supporting 3500 people directly through Empowerment Squared initiatives including our pandemic recovery efforts and youth programs. 

Quality Education

1. At least 250 marginalized children and youth at risk of dropping out of school adequately supported to successfully meet the required educational outcomes at school including having access to culturally relevant, and caring adults and mentors. 
2. At least 150 marginalized parents and adult caregivers empowered through information literacy to provide the physical, social and emotional support needed by their children to succeed in school. 

No Poverty 

1. At least 75% of all program participants completing high school successfully transitioning to postsecondary opportunities and access to higher education to foster long term economic prosperity and poverty reduction. 

Zero Hunger 

1. At least 500 marginalized families dealing with severe food insecurity as a result of COVID-19 provided adequate support through bi-weekly grocery gifts cards to avoid hunger and food related challenges.     

Partnership for the Goals 

1. Meaningful partnership development with at least five cross sector stakeholders in the community to foster collective impact through the creation of an ecosystem of wrap around support for program beneficiaries.    

Financial 

As an organization that relies significantly on donations from small businesses, the broader community and grants from foundations, governments, etc., we are currently experiencing a reduction in donations and funding opportunities as many businesses and individuals have been negatively affected by the pandemic. At the same time, governments are reorganizing their priorities largely focused on short term emergencies and recovery efforts which is having an impact on revenue generation.  

Technical 

Due to the impact of COVID-19, newer technological needs have now emerged that will become a permanent part of the delivery mechanisms of programs. As such, technological adaptation, organizational capacity and program delivery needs reorganization to enhance the new realities of expectation, accessibility and engagement.  

Strategy 

We've began the development of a robust strategy to ensure we adapt and build the resilience needed to leverage existing opportunities. For instance, we have began expanding our partnership engagements to leverage in-kind services and shared resources for collective impact including resource mobilization. We are in the process of finalizing a partnership with the Hamilton Children's Aid Society which will allow us to access 10,000 sqft of shared office and programming space for five years and a shared full time staff.  

Empowerment Squared has a reputation for great innovation, transformation and storytelling. However, due to our limited capacity and resources, we have only been able to amplify that work mostly in our local communities and particular places of impact whenever possible. For example, our programs have been so impactful for families that we have waiting lists of up to 50 families at a time even though we've never really done an intentional marketing campaign. 

If we are successful to become an Elevate Prize Winner, this will open up a world of possibilities through alignment with Elevate Prize's credibility by telling the story of our work to inspire thousands through our impact and commitment to sustainable change. This will accelerate our engagement with newer audiences, individuals and organizations that we cannot currently reach due to our limited resources. From the story of our founder as a young refugee boy committed to a vision bigger than himself, to the transformation of the lives of thousands of marginalized children and youth, we will leverage this opportunity to connect with people looking for such innovative solutions to invest in education, community driven solutions, and collective impact to break the cycle of poverty in our world.    

Diversity, equity and inclusion is at the core of our organization's culture. For example, our program design and innovation model requires the full participation of the participants and beneficiaries at all levels. This ensures that there is cultural relevance and reflection of the ideas of the people and communities we serve. Additionally, We are intentional that the organization leadership is representative of the communities and people served including governance at the board of directors level and management at the staff level with the application of a gender-based, antiracism and anti-colonialism lens. Furthermore, we have another layer of governance which is our advisory council which consists of diverse thought leaders in the community that are committed to advising the board on emerging needs, trends and specific areas of expertise. 

Tangible goals include the following:

Program participants go through a culturally relevant onboarding engagement to ensure that they are empowered and set up for success. 

All individuals including former and present program participants being recruited to the board must complete an onboarding process that empowers them with the tools and resources needed to thrive in their roles. We are guided by the mantra that says "nothing about us without us."

The founder and leader of our organization spent 8 years of his childhood in West Africa as a refugee separated from his family and was resettled to Canada as an unaccompanied minor. The inspiration for the vision of Empowerment Squared was a direct result of his first hand experience in addition to his work serving refugee youth and defending human rights of marginalized communities. Th vision of the organization and impact of his work also attracted other young professionals with similar experiences or with interests in similar issues. As such, 80% of Empowerment Squared staff have a combination of lived and professional experiences with regard to the issues the organization is working to solve - empowering racialize, newcomer and refugee youth, and families through pathways to education and access to postsecondary education to foster long term economic prosperity. Our board is also structured in a similar manner. 

We are also guided by the ideas, inputs and experiences of our community, thought leaders and best practice throughout the organization. Our programs go through a co-design hub where we work with our entire leadership team to create programs and then another open session for community members' input. We listen, learn and respond.  

During the onset of the pandemic, we lost about 40% of revenue from fundraising. The logical approach was to shut down operations as many other organizations did. Instead, we re-organized as shutting down on our community when they needed us the most was not an option. We conducted an "Emerging Needs" survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable families in lieu of the situation. Over 100 families were engaged and a list of top four emerging needs were identified including food insecurity, lack of access to technology for kids to participate in school, social isolation/worsening mental health. We then developed a strategy that focused on letting the impact drive the revenue and support. Within the space of three months, we were able to mobilize our community around the severity of the needs and impact and in the process raised approximately half a million dollars given the overwhelming response from the community and businesses. As such, we have been able to support 800 families dealing with food insecurity, mental health supports and lack of access to technology as well as 250 children and youth through virtual academic mentoring and tutoring weekly for the last nine months.

The Power of People

Our Youth Our Future

Empowerment

Liberian Learning Center

Empowerment Squared at the United Nations

Buduburam Refugee Camp

Making the Difference

https://www.chch.com/tag/empow...

https://www.hwdsb.on.ca/blog/h...

https://socialimpactadvisors.c...

If selected, the funding will help us build additional capacity needed to serve more communities including a growing number of families currently on the waiting list. More importantly, it will give us a great opportunity to leverage the credibility, opportunities, validation and prestige that comes with the prize in sharing our story and impact in meaningful ways to drive inspiration and mobilize more resources for growth and sustainability. For example, the incredible story and projected impact of the Liberian Learning Center project which will house the only library in the West African Nation of Liberia is already transforming the aspirations of over 300,000 children, youth and adults who will for the first in the lives experience what a library looks like. 

If successful, we intend to leverage this opportunity to drive more impact both in terms of additional program support as well as mobilizing additional resources by engaging newer audiences and forging more partnerships that would otherwise not be within the realm of possibility.    

Children's Aid Society of Hamilton - our partnership is designed to provide culturally relevant supports and educational pathways for racialize and marginalized children and youth at risk of being removed by the Child Welfare System from their homes as well as supporting children and youth already in care remain connected to their community as well forge a pathway of reintegration with their families. We are also co-sharing office spaces to ensure accessibility of services for families. 

Immigrant Working Centre - as the largest refugee settlement agency in Hamilton, our partnership is geared towards provide the only specialized services for refugee youth to ensure their integration into the new community as well as access to pathways to education and access to postsecondary education. 

McMaster University - as a thought leader in our community, our partnership with McMaster University focuses on community based and participatory research to identify and share best practices to enhance collective impact and evidence based program development. 

Hamilton Public Library - our partnership focuses on sharing of resources and expertise to develop the only public library in Liberia as a foundation for developing a long term public library system.