{"id":30461,"date":"2021-12-16T18:20:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T23:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30461"},"modified":"2021-12-16T18:28:42","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T23:28:42","slug":"york-regions-first-black-led-community-centre-opens-its-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york-regions-first-black-led-community-centre-opens-its-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"York Region\u2019s first Black-led community centre opens its doors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You can\u2019t serve a community without a home base, but now York Region\u2019s first Black-led community centre has a place to call home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association (NACCA) formally opened the doors to its new permanent home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located at 449 Eagle Street in Newmarket, the NACCA, which was founded in 2018, has designed the hub to be a place where the community can learn and grow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving an actual community space is critical to preserve the community,\u201d says NACCA Chair Jerisha Grant-Hall. \u201cWhen you have a space that you\u2019re operating out of, it provides an opportunity for the community to come together. We\u2019re in a situation right now where we\u2019re all isolated. It\u2019s an opportunity to connect and this goes beyond COVID-19 \u2013 way beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for people in our community to gather, connect, to share, to create their own vision. It\u2019s all about connecting and building our community up. I think it is critical to have a space to call our own, whatever form it takes. You can\u2019t really serve a community from nowhere. I think having a permanent space is one step towards decolonizing, for us as a Black community. It\u2019s one step towards decolonizing our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It provides an opportunity, she says, for \u201cthought and innovation\u201d that wouldn\u2019t be possible in other kinds of spaces, including the virtual realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are operating as a Black community \u201cfrom a historical lens, from a lens of anti-oppression and resisting anti-Black racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the NACCA\u2019s community centre is running at full steam, they plan to offer services ranging from mental health to financial literacy and education, food security, and scholarship opportunities. There is already a library in the building, so reading, tutoring, and youth mentorship programs are also on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eagle Street location is in a historic home, originally built on Yonge Street, by Quaker settlers. It\u2019s a fitting new chapter in its life, says Ms. Grant-Hall, as by and large Quakers were abolitionists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has that historical connection to what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d she says, adding that its proximity to Newmarket\u2019s downtown core is also an asset. \u201cWe know Newmarket is kind of, in a sense, separated from itself. Oftentimes when activities are going on downtown there are not a lot of people from racialized communities I see participating. We\u2019re trying to interrupt the separation we see. We\u2019re trying to make our community more connected, more inclusive, and, for me, the location is pretty important in bridging that gap we see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the NACCA was, as the name suggests, founded in Newmarket, it is important to note that this community hub is intended to be a welcoming space for all York Region residents, she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a welcoming organization. We\u2019re a group of like-minded people. If you\u2019re of like mind and you\u2019re keen on building inclusive spaces and keen on equity, especially racial equity, then we want you to visit, we want you to participate, because the space is really there for all of our communities to engage. We would love for our partners, our stakeholders, and folks in Aurora to use the space and come visit. Everyone is welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about equity, we\u2019re about inclusion, so if you\u2019re keen on those things, then you\u2019re welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Newmarket African Caribbean Community Association, visit\u00a0www.naccacommunity.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t serve a community without a home base, but now York Region\u2019s first Black-led community centre has a place to call home. On Sunday, the Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association (NACCA) formally opened the doors to its new permanent home. Located at 449 Eagle Street in Newmarket, the NACCA, which was founded in 2018, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-12-16-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7Vj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 21:57:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}