Foundation supports newcomers as they settle into life in Sudbury

Settling in a new city can be difficult for newcomers. To help with the transition, there is now a space for black women and youth.

It’s a community centre tucked in a strip mall at 1191 Lansing Ave. in New Sudbury. The goal is to support black women and youth as they integrate and settle.

“Some people are finding it a little difficult in terms of, you know, being isolated,” said Abedola Adefioye, founder of the Afro Women and Youth Foundation.

“Not being able to have a lot of friends of places to go to to connect with people. So different people have different experiences.”

For newcomers, the centre offers mental health support, vocational training in hairdressing, sewing and wellness programming.

“We do cooking circles so we have women come together and learn how to cook,” said Adefioye.

Abedola Adefioye is the founder of the Afro Women and Youth Foundation (Alana Everson/CTV News)

“We cook together we eat together. We have conversations about our health and how we continue to navigate being newcomer black women in Canada.”

The foundation also provides anti-black racism training and consulting for everyone to promote inclusivity and diversity.

“We think the training is needed and is very important because a lot of times people want to support people … communities but sometimes they don’t know how to do that,” she said.

“So we have the lived experience we also have the knowledge and we are more than happy to provide that support.”

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The centre is also home to a food and clothing bank that families sign up to access. There is currently a waiting list for the food bank, which just started in December.

Donations can be dropped off Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.