A London technology firm is supporting Black youth in a big way.
Northern Commerce is giving $150,000 to the Lead to Change Foundation, a Toronto-based agency that support black youth in arts and culture. The money is a one-year commitment and will be used to offer youth workshops in:
- Garment and print design.
- Podcasts and broadcasting.
- Photography and video.
- Audio recording and engineering.
In addition, Northern staff will work with youth in developing digital marketing skills.
“It’s a great partnership for us. The money is great but to have access to staff in digital marketing, they’re a leader in that,” said Carl Blackman, executive director of the foundation.
Northern has presented Lead to Change with an initial donation of $40,000 for the workshops that will begin in April and an additional $110,000 will flow later this year, he added.
More employees at Northern will provide educational workshops to youth.
Said Blackman: “We’re excited to work with Northern to help youth successfully bring their creative ideas to fruition.”
The workshops will instruct about 56 young people a year.
“We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Lead to Change,” said Michael DeLorenzi, Northern Commerce president. “As a young teen, I was lucky to have access to creative arts like web development and HTML courses.
“Helping me gain the experience and skills to fuel my passion and drive, which in turn helped me lead Northern to become what it is today.”
Northern is a web development and digital marketing firm that was founded in 2015. It has about 190 staff.
“Educational experiences continue to be inequitable and unequal for minorities,” DeLorenzi said. “Being able to provide Black youth. . . with similar experiences and resources that I had access to as a youth is extremely important to me. I want to help to inspire and empower the youth in our community.”
Northern officials were motivated after reviewing national industry data that showed only three per cent of the tech workforce across Canada identified as Black while 70 per cent identified as white, said Samantha Courneya, senior director of people and culture at Northern.
“We saw a disparity that was staggering and we thought ‘what can we do,’” she said. “We felt it was important to make this a priority, to give opportunity to others.”