In summer 2020,the Invisible Man movie was out in drive-in theatres and on online streaming platforms due to social distances measures of the COVID 19 pandemic. The story of the Invisible Man has been popularized with several blockbuster films over the years. Every time I hear the name of the film, I cringe. While in these films the superpower of invisibility was by choice and for terror, Black women’s invisibility creeps up as a form of oppression in many aspects of their life, even in the charitable sector whose sole purpose should be for the betterment of society.  We hear of so many stories of marginalized bodies experiencing harm in the nonprofit sector, the health sector and other caring sectors, of having their voices muffled, feeling overworked, and being devalued and overlooked for opportunities for leadership. This has been part of my story navigating the nonprofit and health sectors.

In 2008, just out of university, I was fortunate to get a job doing HIV/AIDS prevention work at a community health center. I was hired to do HIV/AIDS work in the Black community. Under the management of a much older white woman, I experienced sexism, racism, and ageism. I was that “token black girl”. Within weeks of taking on the job, I quickly realized that I was simply hired to gain buy-in from the community because I was a well-known community leader in Ottawa. However, my voice did not matter to management, especially when I brought concerns of the Black community about the ineffective, conventional HIV/AIDS measures that they were trying to implement in the community. Funds that were supposed to be channeled into the was being used to pay white evaluators and contractors while volunteer work was expected from the Black community as “advisory group” members. I spoke up about this. They made several attempts to silence me.

In my attempts to combat the oppression that I was experiencing and in trying to have a voice by speaking to a governing body about my experiences with the organization, I was met with violence through threats to my livelihood by management of the organization.  “I know a lot of people and even if you think that you are moving to Toronto, I know people there. You would learn to keep your mouth shut if you want to work in the HIV/AIDS or health sector again”. These were words uttered to me by this white woman supervisor. This was not her first instance in excluding me from opportunities.

The stress of this job made me put on weight and my neurological health declined. My health was at one of its all-time lowest points. The irony of the situation is that I was working at a community health center whose mission was to create healthy individuals for a healthy community and here I was suffering within its system.

But it is truly no surprise of the harm caused by the health sector on Black bodies. Many studies show that Black women are less likely to be taken seriously about their health concerns than white women and suffer more in silence, even resulting in preventable deaths. For more than half my life, I have suffered with strange neurological symptoms, including twitches, burning sensations, unexplained fatigues, headaches, and temporary paralysis, just to name a few. I have seen several medical doctors and undergone numerous tests from MRI to CAT scans. Nothing wrong could be found. My nerves were apparently in good physical health. While all my life I had suffered with these symptoms, during the time of working at that place, my symptoms were exacerbated. I ended up going to another doctor as I was concerned about my unknown deterioration. While in his office, he told me that my neurological symptoms, including my episodes of paralysis, were all in my head. I felt that my voice was not being heard and expressed these feelings to the doctor. He stated that if I knew better, then I did not need to see him anymore. I left that meeting quite hurt and I hid my story for years in fear of being abnormal.  Luckily, I found a doctor 5 years ago who was willing to listen to me and promised to stick by me in finding out what was wrong with me. About two years ago, with a story of serendipity, I learned about a disease called fibromyalgia. After speaking with my doctor and seeking some other specialists, I was finally diagnosed with the disease and having been undergoing treatments for it.

Fibromyalgia is a disease that impacts the nervous system and is precipitated by stress. It is an invisible disease, as many people with fibromyalgia look fine while dealing with debilitating symptoms.  Black women are more likely to have fibromyalgia than white women, but it takes them much longer to get a diagnosis because their concerns are not taken seriously. This was my story.

Stress is killing our Black community.

Microaggressions are killing our Black community.

Injustices are killing our Black community.

Anti-Black racism is killing our Black community

Black people have always had to create spaces for themselves to be safe, validated, and to be heard. Many of us know that we cannot fit into some of the white dominated spaces. I think of several Black organizations or groups, such as the Canadian Black Fundraisers network (unofficial name) or the Black Women Civic Engagement Network, that have started up as a result of the lack of inclusion in the mainstream nonprofit sector.  In 2008, I created an organization called BrAIDS for AIDS for African, Caribbean and Black people to have a voice within the HIV/AIDS sector. It was developed as a direct result of my experience of oppression at that aforementioned health center. It is important to me that woven into the culture of BrAIDS for AIDS and the listed values of the organization, there is the word Inclusiveness. It is important for me that people feel psychologically safe within the organization.

 I use my experiences of invisibility to now create my super power of visibility for myself and others because of the positions that I now hold in my career. There are so many young Black women that I have supported while they are coping with various isms in their workplace. There are so many young men who I have supported at schools or in the justice system because they did not have a voice to combat oppression.

Sharing my tools for greater inclusion after experiencing oppression

My experience of racism, sexism, and ageism has shaped the type of working environment that I have created for those experiencing my leadership. I am the Executive Director (ED) of a youth charity called Frontlines. Frontlines is located in York-South Weston, one of the poorest ridings in Toronto. As the ED of Frontlines, I sum up my work in 4 areas, which I call the 4P’s: People, Pennies, Promotion and Position, and Place. There is a 5th P of Plan which cuts across all of these, as a plan is needed for all the other 4P’s. I will share my superpower practices and examples of inclusivity and visibility within these 4P’s in my plan to create an inclusive environment. I hope that the practices below give you some ideas to find your superpower to create change within your organizations.

People: Visibility and Inclusion

There are so many key groups of people to talk about here, whether it is our participants, partners, parents, or personnel at Frontlines. I will focus on two of these.

Personnel

1. Open-door policy. An open-door policy allows for staff to share their concerns directly to management. It is important that staff feel that their voices are being heard and their concerns are being addressed. Their concerns may be raised with their managers in their weekly supervisions or on an as needed basis. In my weekly supervision with management, I check in with them about the concerns that their staff have raised and strategize on ways for their concerns to be addressed. While my time is limited, I have set aside one day per week in which junior staff can have meetings with me. However, I am flexible if a matter is urgent.
2. Sick days. As someone who suffers from an invisible disability, I am understanding of staff who need to take time off and sometimes can’t fully explain their health situation. Sick days need to look different for our sector. Self-care is important, and we must find ways to support staff.
3. Results-based performance management. I work with staff from a results based performance management perspective as opposed to a time-based performance management perspective. This philosophy looks at the completion of deliverables, impact of work, and key deadlines as opposed to the time that someone spent at work. This has been particularly useful now, during COVID-19, because staff are not clocking in on the time-tracking system. However, we are still seeing results and even greater impact. This strategy is also useful in working with staff who have various barriers to employment, for example childcare or varying abilities.
4. Creation of staff surveys. Gaining staff feedback on the work environment helps leadership improve the organization. A general staff satisfaction survey was created with input from the staff at Frontlines. Another survey was created for staff to garner feedback from other staff anonymously about their performance and engagement. Management is also assessed with this survey. This helps to make staff feel that they are included and that they are evaluated by the same performance processes as management.
5. Intradepartmental problem sharing and solving. At team meetings, staff are encouraged to share challenges. One of our practices is staff presentations and challenges. Staff are scheduled to make presentations to the entire staff compliment. Intradepartmental teams are created and are asked to problem solve with each other. The teams are judged on their solutions and given various prizes. This process allows for individuals who may not otherwise have been included in other department conversations to be involved and heard.
6. Hiring from the community. We hire people from within the community. Some of our current personnel are participants who went through our programming. Their voices are included at team meetings, in surveys, and in general, day-to-day engagement.
7. Representation matters. Our staff are reflective of the community that we serve. It is important that our participants see people who look like them in positions of leadership. This is part of visibility.

Participants

1. As mentioned, some of our youth participants have become staff at Frontlines. We have youth who have been part of our Leaders in Training program and we have hired them as summer staff or afterschool staff.  We also run a culinary program and, as a result of this program, we have a catering social enterprise. We are able to hire youth in the program before they graduate from the program as well as after they graduate. These youth are included in the running of the kitchen from menu planning, to purchasing, to preparation, and to serving.
2. Youth voice. Youth are able to voice their wants to staff and this feedback is used to help to develop new programs or to revamp old programs. Youth surveys are completed periodically but their voice is taken in consideration daily. Youth are involved in strategic planning.

Promotion and Position: Visibility and Inclusion

1. Narrative of our participants.  It is important for us at Frontlines to showcase our youth as vibrant and resilient. Despite all the challenges that our youth face, they are full of life and this is how we want to represent them in our communications. Many nonprofits need to change the narrative and pictures that they present of their clients to funders and the general public. Visibility must include treating people with dignity
2. The imagery in our promotion to recruit participants must be reflective of the community that we serve and project that it is a safe space for youth.

Pennies: Visibility and Inclusion

1. Inclusion in fundraising. In speaking to funders and in writing grants, it is important for me to amplify the voices of the community and highlight the needs of the community. It is my job to make our youth’s issue visible to funders and that they feel compelled to give funding to Frontlines.
2. Selecting funders with similar values. It is important to have funders that share in our values of inclusion and respect for youth. I have turned down a funder for making disrespectful comments of our youth’s work.
3. Inclusion of youth in fundraising. I have taught youth at Frontlines about fundraising, including grant writing and product fundraising. Youth voices are included in our fundraising efforts. Many of our project ideas are derived from conversations with youth and having them read proposals to gain feedback.

Place: Visibility and Inclusion

I speak of place here as it relates to the physical space of the organization. At Frontlines:

1. We ensure that the pictures and books that are at Frontlines are reflective of the community.
2. Representation with physical space. A mural is painted on the side of the building that says “Seeds of Diversity” and was developed from feedback of the youth. Here is a picture of some youth in front of the mural for their youth cookbook. The cookbook was created by youth to address violence in their community. They came up with cool recipes such as “Don’t Jerk Me Around” that spoke about bullying with a jerk chicken recipe.

 

While I wish I did not have the experiences of oppression and invisibility throughout my life, these experiences have led me to be cognizant of how I treat and engage individuals of all walks of life. Luckily, through personal agency and the utilization of my power and privilege through my social capital and educational background, I have been able to obtain roles of leadership and enact change within my circle of influence.

We all have some form of power and privilege.

We all have personal agency.

What superpower will you choose to create better spaces for oppressed individuals?

My Superpower Diagram

Stachen Frederick has over 20 years in the field of community/program development. She is Founder of BrAIDS for AIDS, a not-for-profit to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in the African, Caribbean and Black Communities in Canada and internationally through a culturally relevant practice of hair braiding. She is the Executive Director of Weston Frontlines Centre: a youth charity in Toronto. One of her recent projects is the development of a posting site for the not for profit sector called Frontlines PinUp. She is also a consultant providing grant writing workshops and grant coaching sessions for her clients and is a professor at Sheridan College.

Her work has been recognized by L’Oreal Paris as Top 10 Women of Worth in Canada, 100 Accomplished Black Women Network, Black History Ottawa, the High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, YMCA Canada, How She Hustles with CBC Toronto, Black Health Alliance and The Minister of Immigration and Citizenship. She is the recipient of scholarships and accolades in academia including an entrance scholarship for Chemistry to the University of Ottawa, Honor Society, Magna Cum Laude for Social Work at York University and just recently a scholarship winner for her Executive MBA at Ivey Business School. She is also a poet and dancer.

She loves to travel particularly to see her niece and nephews and enjoy spending time with her friends and partner.

Connect with her on LinkedIn.