{"id":36427,"date":"2025-06-12T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36427"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:28:03","slug":"community-organizations-police-present-black-community-barbecue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/community-organizations-police-present-black-community-barbecue\/","title":{"rendered":"Community organizations, Police present Black Community Barbecue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Black Community organizations in the area are coming together with York Regional Police this weekend for a community picnic in which they hope to foster \u201cmeaningful engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set for Saturday, June 14, from 10.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Community Safety Village, located at Bruce\u2019s Mill Conservation Area in Whitchurch-Stouffville, the event promises a day of family fun, but also a chance to brainstorm ways all organizations \u2013 including the Aurora Black Community Association (ABC) and NACCA (Newmarket African Caribbean Canadian Association) \u2013 can move forward together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEngagement is one of our priorities as an organization, and it\u2019s something that our community needs and have asked for from us,\u201d says YRP Superintendent Sarah Riddell. \u201cI think sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong, so the purpose of this event is\u2026 we\u2019re inviting the community into our backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for the day, she says, were developed in consultation with leaders of the ABC, NACCA, and more, says Riddell, including \u201cwhat we can learn together to determine what it\u2019s going to look like to have more good days, and to continue building that trust, because there\u2019s trust that needs to be built.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe relationship is not perfect, but as long as everyone is willing to work on it, you know there\u2019s going to be some level of success,\u201d she says. \u201cYork Regional Police as a whole are dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our community feels like they belong and feels respected, valuable and heard. I\u2019m just looking forward to all of us getting together and enjoying each other\u2019s company in a really positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC founder Phiona Durrant says the fact Saturday\u2019s picnic is a Police-led initiative is \u201camazing\u201d and she sees it as a further community partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about accountability, visibility, and intentional relationships. I personally value the police a lot and believe that they are a great part of the community,\u201d says Durrant. \u201cThis is not a homogenous situation. It\u2019s individual organization and individual experiences. I can only speak from my experience because I have both experience with the Toronto Police and York Region and trust is a big thing. We don\u2019t build trust through headlines; we build it through moments like this that we\u2019re about to create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to take responsibility for our part and sometimes we get caught up into the negative and the blame and we miss the good things that are happening. York Region, in my opinion, has been extremely intentional about relationships and that stands out and really sets them apart \u2013 and they are very consistent. From my experience, they come across as very authentic. I believe they\u2019re going to be a different community; we can expect better from the police and better relationships, but we also have to put the work in and that\u2019s so epic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A portion of that work will be put in during the panel discussion that is intended to explore what it truly means to have \u201cmeaningful engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s recognition that we\u2019re working on the relationship,\u201d says Riddell, when asked to unpack what would entail a truly meaningful engagement opportunity. \u201cWe need the engagement, not to just be that we\u2019re in the same place at the same time and that\u2019s it; it needs to be about building relationships, it needs to be about respecting and valuing diversity. The name of the event is \u2018Unity and Diversity,\u2019 about recognizing the unity that can come when diversity is respected and celebrated, so it is meaningful from that standpoint. It\u2019s about how we can work together. How we can co-create the steps forward in this relationship. That\u2019s where it makes it meaningful. It\u2019s about co-creating positive experiences so that we can move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Durrant: \u201cEverything is about relationships and I love that we\u2019re doing this over food, because that\u2019s how the Aurora Black Community started \u2013 right in my own kitchen, having honest conversations around food, and this is just a bigger version of the same idea. [This event being co-led] is a model of change we truly believe in. Everything is really about the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe relationship is the real focus of it. When we talk about intentional or meaningful, it\u2019s going to be different for everybody because what\u2019s meaningful to me might be looked upon like nothing to somebody else. But when we are bringing people to the table, they have a voice, they are being heard, they are participating, and they\u2019re not just being listened to \u2013 but you can see that their feedback is being received and incorporated. That, to me, is meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on how to attend, email Phiona Durrant and the Aurora Black Community Association at abc@aurorablackcommunity.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Panel discussion will include discussion on \u201cmeaningful engagement\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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_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-36427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9tx","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 10:29:09","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\/36427","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=36427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36428,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36427\/revisions\/36428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}