When talk leads to action
Date: Thursday, February 02 @ 00:00:00 UTC
Topic: Black Habits Articles


By NICHOLAS DAVIS (Toronto Sun) The election results marked the beginning of change for this country.

After 12 years of Liberal rule, Conservative leader Stephen Harper was elected prime minister.

Harper’s move to the PM’s office also marked the beginning of change for Wayne Harris.

Harris — the public sector security principal for IBM Canada — and a group of his high-powered IT (information technology) friends and project managers, between the ages of 35 and 45, meet frequently to discuss what they see as some of the challenges facing black people in Toronto.

After the election last week, Harris and his friends decided to stop talking and start putting some of their ideas into action.

“I can’t speak for everybody in the group, but I was tired of sitting on the sidelines and watching the negative things happening in the black community,” says Harris, responding to the spate of shootings over the past year.

“Harper’s victory motivated me to start doing something.”

Harris has already been doing his fair share of helping various black communities in this city move forward in a positive manner.

Harris is the project leader for the IBM Visible Minority Council, a member of the Black IBMers Networkers Group, a parliamentarian for the Toronto chapter of the Urban Financial Services Coalition, past president of the Toronto Toastmasters, member of BITEPRO (Black Information Technology E-Professionals) and a Junior Achievement volunteer.

Harris also speaks at schools during Black History Month.

“I’m in there,” says Harris, who lives in Mississauga.

“I’m also part of the junior leaders and I volunteer for the Harry Jerome Awards. But I need to raise the bar. What I’m doing is not enough.”

Share resources

What Harris and his friends want to do is find a way for all the different black communities to communicate with each other so they can share resources, lessons learned and best practices.

“I think one of the things that other communities do that ours doesn’t do as well is communicate with each other,” says Harris. “I know there are a number of people out there in the black community doing good things. We want to find out where the most successful programs with measurable results are in the GTA, and eventually across Canada. We then want to put the information about these programs in one central place so everyone can learn from each other.”

With all their computer savvy and connections in the IT industry, Harris and his friends plan on starting a website that they hope will become a central place for people to park information about their successes and failures.

“I’m sure there are lots of websites out there already providing links to other groups sharing the same cause,” says Harris.

“But with our expertise in the IT field we feel we can make a difference. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. We want to be like that company BASF.

“Their slogan is: ‘We don’t make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.’ We don’t want to make up any new black organizations. We want to make the black organizations out there better.”

Harris and his friends plan on creating a virtual community with blogs, websites and the latest in IT technology along with support.

One of the biggest hurdles they face, says Harris, is the lack of unity within the black communities here in the city.

“The problem here is that every flag has its own mandate,” laments Harris.

“The Jamaicans, Barbadians, Trinidadians, Africans and so on all have their own concerns and problems. I think there are things that transcend all groups. Things like employment, empowerment and justice.”

‘Unified front’

“And there needs to be somewhere to unify these groups and have a unified front,” he says.

Harris feels another way to help unify the black community is to get involved in the political process.

“We need some black candidates,” says Harris. “So I’m joining the Liberal party, and seeing what I can do to extend the footprint of blacks in politics.”







This article comes from Black Habits
http://www.blackhabits.com

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