Events such as BHM-African Heritage Month help to increase sense of individual self-esteem and improves individuals’ sense of belonging and attachment to a community – as much of the African descent community and immigrants/refugees don’t understand the larger history of Canada, Vancouver is largely similarly unaware of African descent heritage. Expanding the awareness of the history and experiences of African Descent peoples, helps to sensitize communities to take on antiracism action in their own communities Events such as this also help to expose and heal systemic racism

Participation in BHM-African Heritage Month activities builds interpersonal ties and promotes volunteering, which improves the health of the community as a whole. The event also increases opportunities for self-expression for all participants through access to workshops, public speakers panels and cultural activities.

For new Canadians, BHM-African Heritage Month builds individual social networks that will help all immigrants to come together to network, learn from each other, and build a strong relationship to the community. The events will enhance participants’ ability to work with others and communicate which is important to adaptation to new and surrounding neighborhoods.

Past years’ BHM events and activities have successfully built social capital by engaging thousands of participants, and by connecting organizations to each other. Individuals and communities who otherwise wouldn’t will have opportunity to come into contact with each other. These events played a key role in the birth of the annual African Descent Festival in 2015, the result of community conversations at past BHM events, which identified the need for more large-scale professional events.

BHM-African Heritage Month also helps to promote and improve relationships between the Vancouver police department, citizens, people of African descent. For example, through events such as Black community safety workshops, African descent youth get new opportunities to understands community safety, and police get opportunity to hear and respond to issues related to racial profiling; this helps to develop community skills in encounters with police, and promotes greater safety in the Black community.

BHM-African Heritage Month activities also help educate Black communities on how to create, own and run black community space, identify heritage places and buildings, and reoccupy (through events and activities) the historically Black-occupied areas of Strathcona and Hogan’s Alley of Vancouver back. Participants in our planned activities will be better empowered with the skills to advocate for heritage preservation and promoting arts and culture for people of African descent.