This community-led project is aimed at improving culturally responsive health and social services through research on issues related to COVID-19 and focused on the disease’s impact on access to services for African Nova Scotians who faced gender-based violence.

Partners include the Association of Black Social Workers, Be the Peace Institute, and Leave Out Violence, who conducted a series of “kitchen table discussions” with people from the African Nova Scotian community. They discovered that people were encountering racism and inequalities that negatively affected their access to care and service. While the research indicates that this issue didn’t start with COVID and will unfortunately not end with it, the pandemic has brought systemic inequities in our systems to light so we can better address them.