naifatoronto - National African Integration & Families Association of Ontario
Welcome To National African Integration & Families Association (NAIFA)
Our Mandate
To support new beginnings for those involved in the justice and immigration systems, especially youth, by providing them with supportive services and programs that both empower and offer them genuine alternatives. This support includes providing our clients and their families equitable access to all the social determinants of wellbeing including income, housing, employment, social inclusion, employment, safe physical environment, and healthy social development and relationships.
Our Mission
NAIFA is committed to Making Change and Building and Strengthening Community through Pro-Active and Preventative Programming and services. NAIFA exists to voice the opinions and concerns of those impacted by the justice and immigration systems, especially youth and to promote the improvement of services and programs for them within an environment that underscores the importance of culture and creativity. NAIFA is also committed to Working with African Canadians and landed immigrant and refugee communities to increase and improve the awareness of the issues that are of particular concerns to African Canadian, landed immigrant and refugee inmates and ex-inmates as they pertain to the justice and immigration systems.
Our Programming and Service Principles
NAIFA’s programs and services are client centric – "You Speak, We Listen, and We Do Together to achieve Better Space, Place and Mind. Our Programs and services are Afrikan Centered by being:- Less about collecting personal information and more about working with clients and program and service participants.
- More verbal – less note taking, more listening and more personal interactions and reflections and exchanges of anecdotes, personal stories and experiences.
- Based on reciprocal co-operation and consensus between counselors, youth and peer mentors, on the one hand and clients, on the other.
- About connecting the personal to the collective and the collective to the personal – following the core assumption of the Afrikan Principle of UBUNTU which is that the individual is the community and the community is the individual – 2 As 1 and 1 Of (never without) 2.
- About using The Empowerment Agenda (TEA). This is a social inclusion model that ensures that those who are being “re-integrated,” “counseled,” “mentored,” “trained,” “developed,” and otherwise ‘programmed’ or ‘serviced’ upon take more active and decisive role in their own re-integration, counseling, mentorship, training, development, etc.
Our Goals are aimed to ensure
- That program and service participants, especially youth, are protected from conflicts and involvement in the prison industry that would exacerbate many of the adverse conditions many of these individuals and their families live in.
- That preventative rather than remedial programs and services are emphasized whenever possible because it is demonstrable that preventative programs and services are less costly both financially and socially to the society and to the affected individuals than remedial programs and services. Following this thought process further; we view remedial programs as “crises management.”
- A more inclusive society that emphasizes Re-integration of those who may have erred against society instead of punishment.
News
Welcome to National African Integration & Families Association of Ontario (NAIFA).
We have updated our website to highlight our services and serve you better.