Africa Centre’s Boost Employment Program | The Verdict
Within twenty four hours of signing up as an employer on Africa Centre’s Boost Employment program, we were interviewing with a possible employee. It was exciting for us as they would have been our first full time employee.
We are a new media company. Much of our work is done online. We wanted to give our verdict on the process of finding an employee through the Boost – Pathways to Success Program. This is a free youth employment program aimed at helping individuals aged 15-30 years to develop and/or improve the skills and knowledge they need to address the various social, institutional and systemic barriers they may face in life and in the pursuit of employment.
In the last 18 months, Africa Centre has positioned her self as the community of choice for people of African descent and they have become consciously representative of Black- African aspirations in Alberta.
From the Food Bank that provides the much needed culturally sensitive foods to Africans with little or no income to their early learning and child care services, Africa Centre has something tangible for everyone. Once you are within the doors, the ambience makes you feel as though you are home.
The Africa Centre is home for us all. As a matter of fact, it appears you may be allowed to call the Executive Director, Sharif Haji, daddy. His burden is to look after us all. If you are of African descent, you are important to the Africa Centre. In 2016, more than 1.2 million people in Canada identified as Black. This means that, with a Black population of about 175,000, the Prairie provinces were home to 14.6 per cent of the country’s Black population. The vast majority (129,390) were in Alberta, followed by Manitoba (30,340) and Saskatchewan (14,925).
Supporting Black communities is indeed something they do well. The process to get an employee was indeed seamless, a manager responded to our form submission in less than ten minutes and an assistant/ program coordinator called us to find out what our needs where within the hour. Before the end of business, we had two possible candidates that could have been a match for us.
It was an interesting interview. It was a chat to get to know the candidate. They were looking to travel, presently doing a business course and on the 10 week training portion of the Boost Program. They were interested in world affairs. The thing though was that they wanted an in-person work life but at LCCMedia, we work remotely. An argument can be made that it is time for LCCMedia to venture into the business of office space rental.
But, the experience was good. We reflected on the wisdom of our approach. Most importantly, we learnt what our possible future employee wanted from life. We desperately wanted to be a match, but as a business, we could not be what the employee needed for their career progression.
After the interview, the assistant/program coordinator from Africa Centre called us to ask us if we would be taking it further. Needless to say, we are very impressed with the professionalism and dedication they gave to us.
The Verdict: Excellent
But you are talking about the Africa Centre……. it has to be excellent!
We are still looking for writers who can work remotely and without supervision. If that is you, please email: info@lccmediafoundation.ca
Tee Adeyemo is the Publisher of Ladies Corner Magazine. She writes for www.ladiescorner.ca on women, social justice and community issues.
