Hair Story

The Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth launched Hair Story: Understanding Culture and Community For Black Youth in Ontario’s Systems of Care last Thursday night, a project to support children in the system who do not have benefits to maintain their hair. “It’s been a systemic issue within our office where young people have called in regards to hair maintenance,” explains Erica Smith, Community Development Advisor for the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (OPACY). “Their foster parents or group home [staff] may not be educated on the maintenance of black hair and its affected self-esteem. We want to be able to have a free place to dialogue about their situations and dialogue about their experiences in care and how they want to see things changed.”

The event was launched in the office overlooking the city to bring awareness to the community and those who are in position to make decisions in order to make recommendations to service providers and the ministry to bring about change for affected youth.
“It’s the youth’s voice that we’re trying to propel,” says Andy Lee, Community Development Advisor. “And it’s already hard enough sometimes for young people to be heard by adults and if you add on top of that the young people that are in our mandate, I think there is an extra layer of losing their voice.”

Lee created a promotional video for the event, which kicked off the launch. There is also an online site dedicated to the project: http://provincialadvocate.on.ca/storyofmyhair. The project will culminate with a two-day event in May when 10 youth in care will get their hair done in a salon and be followed up with a panel where youth will be able to freely discuss the issues that surround life in care, and their hair. The office chose the hair salon as the base of the project because it often acts as a hub for the black community and a therapeutic space.
Rasheeda Bates-Williams, a panel leader at OPACY was asked to participate in the project due to her first-hand experience with being a child in care and dealing with the ignorance of black hair by her guardians.

“I realized that I had to say something about my hair and being in care so this was my opportunity to say something. I’ve been complaining a lot about the lack of responsibility that my caregivers were giving me when I was younger,” explains Bates-Williams.
She explains that her guardians would complain when she asked for extra assistance to maintain her hair and that she had to use the same shampoo as other members of her household who were different ethnicities. “I don’t think that being black should be an elephant in the room, or especially hair should be an elephant in the room. It should be something that is addressed and there needs to be protocols or something done about that so they don’t feel segregated or feel isolated because their hair needs special attention.”




Photos by: Isa Ransome