Two organizations from Toronto’s Caribbean community will be the recipients of the Caribbean/Black Impact Awards 2022 to be presented at the Ontario Science Centre on November 20.

They are The Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity and The CEE Centre For Young Black Professionals.

The Black Scientists’ Task Force on Vaccine Equity was formed in 2020 “to share information about COVID-19 with Toronto’s Black community and to address its concerns about COVID-19-related issues.”

Chaired by Dr. Akwatu Khanti, Assistant Professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health of the University of Toronto, the Task Force continues its efforts “to support the Black community with related-COVID-19 information through health promotion messaging and building trust and relationships with community members, partners and other stakeholders.”

It will receive the Impact health award.

The CEE Centre For Young Black Professionals, headed by Agapi Gessesse, offers an intensive six-week-eight month program “to improve careers, education, and empowerment (CEE) that are holistic, person-centred, culturally relevant/responsive, informed by industry standards and augmented by a wrap-around social support model.

Since 2012, CEE has successfully launched 19 industry-specific career training programs.

The Centre will receive the Impact community award.

In addition, eight individuals will also receive IMPACT Awards 2022.

They are as follows:

Tony Sharpe (Sports), Joel “Connector” Davis (Arts & Entertainment), Kirk Diamond (Entertainment), Louis Saldenah (Carnival Arts), Sherrie Mohammed (Mental Health) Marcus Davenport (Business), Kandy Samsundar (Education) and Colleen Russel-Rawlins (Education).

The Caribbean Camera and the Black Indigenous Business Development Association (BIBDA) have organized the awards ceremony “to celebrate the achievements of outstanding Caribbean and Black people in Canada.”