Someone working to change the inequities impacting the lives of Black Canadians is Dr. Pat Francis, Church pastor (President of Pat Francis Ministries and a Senior Pastor of Kingdom Covenant Ministries), televangelist, author, international speaker, and CEO of Elomax Employment Services, a staffing recruitment agency. Dr. Francis is committed to building programs and networks that provide practical solutions, particularly for Black Canadian youth. 

“Systemic racism is so dangerous because it intentionally targets a group of people to undermine them and hold them back. So to awaken the glory within is to understand who you already are as a human being, regardless of whether you're Black or white,” says Dr. Pat Francis.

Born and raised in Jamaica, Francis immigrated to Canada around 30 years ago and began working in the Queensway General Hospital. However, her faith pulled her towards a mission to share hope in God with people in devastating situations. In doing so, she concluded that poverty is one of humanity’s biggest issues.

“Being Christian is my inspiration for reaching out to the poor and doing whatever I can to help humanity, but sometimes poverty is less about just money, and more about the way you think of yourself,” Dr. Francis insists. Since coming to this realization, she has developed quite a few programs offering hope to young people trying to raise themselves out of poverty and other challenges.

Acorn2Oak Justice Program

“I'm just seeing so many beautiful young people dealing with family issues, poverty, systemic issues, peer influence, and other traps,” says Dr. Francis. “Due to these issues, they lose hope, become vulnerable to criminal behaviour, and just give up on life.”

She believes the issue is complex and a constant uphill battle. “I asked God to help me to help the poor,” says Dr. Francis of finding strength in her faith. As if in answer to her prayers, twenty years ago a group of legal professionals, educators, social workers, mentors, and psychologists joined in her mission through the Acorn2Oak Justice Program.

This intensive program is meant to offer youth a holistic package of counselling, social workers, academic mentorship, and community work hours, in hopes of lowering the incarceration rate for marginalized youth in Canada. Francis offers disenfranchised youth charged with criminal acts an opportunity to undergo rehabilitation instead of incarceration.

The program is open to young people of all backgrounds but focuses primarily on Black and Indigenous youth; the communities who make up a disproportionate number of incarcerations in Canada. “We give them hope, and we will stand for and with them,” Dr. Francis says.

The program, which has only been offered in Ontario, is now going to every province and territory through partnerships with community centers, churches, and agencies.

Acorn2Oak Justice has been very successful, benefitting a considerable number of youngsters. After promoting the program in Jamaica, it grew from the involvement of a single church to a Jamaican government endorsement for wider support across the country.

Still, the program isn’t without its fair share of challenges. Funding being the first. The second is the complex nature of this work while working with families.

“Sometimes it's not easy for parents to admit that the child has indulged in criminal behaviour and they’ll work against you,” says Dr. Francis. “If you don't feel you have a problem, you don't need a doctor.” To overcome this hurdle, the program includes family counselling as it’s sometimes necessary to heal both the individual’s whole family as well as the individual. 

The Canadian Black Directorate

According to Dr. Francis, the solution to systemic racism in Canada is a commitment to balance the scales of racial inequities. In response, she assembled The Canadian Black Directorate (currently operating in Ontario and Quebec) in April 2021 to bring together Black businesses and professionals with a focus on business, economics, health, wellness, justice, youth, and community.

“Even in the workplace, you can have the same brains as a white person, work harder, and still not get the promotion,” says Dr. Francis. “But those who stay determined and become successful and prosperous Black people should go back to their roots to help their brothers and sisters.”

The program helps business leaders and professionals to become even more successful through a network of mutual support that achieves personal success, economic development, and social advancement. “We want to provide sponsorship, a network and resources for our own people so that we can activate our wealth to bless one another,” Dr. Francis explains. 

On the other hand, it also offers Black Canadians and their youth empowering solutions for issues like food insecurity, financial literacy, and the navigation of bureaucratic or systemic barriers.

Covenant Garden Estate – Bringing Hope to a Community in South Africa

During a trip to South Africa a few years ago, Dr. Francis saw poverty and abandoned children while travelling through Mathibestad, a town in the North West province of South Africa. What she saw motivated her to build Covenant Garden Estate, an orphanage and community centre in Mathibestad that assists families facing socio-economic difficulties.

The centre offers teaching resources, entrepreneurial skills for youth and women, after-school programs for children, clean water, food, and mentorship for young people in the low-income community. 

“I’m an intentional leader who is not just waiting for the future to happen,” says Dr. Francis. “I create it through self-mastery.” 

Dr. Francis supports the centre from her home in Canada, to ensure that it continues to serve the community. So far, the Covenant Garden Estate has sponsored 50 families and catered to over 200 vulnerable children and women. The centre has become a rallying point for the community, providing resources that are unavailable to many.

“I hope Mathibestad becomes one of the communities where, one by one, we can fight poverty and get the beggars to become blessers with their own dreams,” Dr. Francis says.

Dr. Francis has a dream that ten years from now, racial inequities in Canada will be eliminated. 

“I hope Black people have equal opportunities open to them regardless of their skin colour so that we get a chance to be all that God intended us to be,” says Dr. Francis.