About GCAO’s Youth Wing

GCAO’s Youth Wing oversees the initiatives for both the youth and young adult generations. Our mission is to elevate, cultivate, and inspire the strengths and collaborative efforts of the young generation, encouraging them to take charge as positive change agents while leaving an impactful and lasting footprint in local communities.

Objective

• Provide a space for reflection, communication, mentorship, and growth, through innovation and implementation
• Showcase and promote local Ghanaian-Canadian businesses and organizations
• Develop strategies to increase civic engagement, ensure representation in media and creative arts, grow Black wealth and ownership, and enrich mental health and physical wellness
• Enable the mobilization of young people to own initiatives focused on strengthening educational outcomes, improving access to social justice and community safety, and better facilitate diasporan efforts

Programs/Activities

• Youth Leadership Summit: Designed to facilitate the connection, engagement and empowerment of Ghanaians, both youth and young adults. During the event, participants will be involved in various workshops on Criminal Justice, Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy, and Youth Employment.
• Mentorship Program: This program is designed to match mentors with mentees between the ages of 18 – 29 as well as professionals to build one-to-one relationships that provide participants (mentees) with access to advice and guidance.  The purpose of this program is to create change agents in the community by integrating academic learning with real-world experience, ultimately assisting Ghanaian young adults for a transition into the workforce. 
• Seminars:  Offering different interactive presentations, workshops and discussion related to leadership, entrepreneurship and identity to engage and empower youth and young adults.
• Scholarship – In collaboration with external organizations, this is established to respond to the educational needs of the communities. The scholarship is available for students of Ghanaian Heritage who are pursuing studies at an Ontario College or University.