About Our Initiative
Black Lives Living Well Initiative / Initiative Vies Noires Vivent Bien
A Federal non-profit organization on a mission to transform the health and well-being of Black Canadians.
The trauma that Black people experience on a daily basis affects our mental and physical health. Black Canadians are dying earlier and at higher rates from preventable diseases.
Systemic racism within health, education, and justice systems creates barriers that prevent Black communities from accessing the resources and support they need to thrive.
This is not acceptable. We believe every Black person deserves the opportunity to live a long, healthy, and meaningful life.
Our Vision
Black Lives Living Well Initiative / Initiative Vies Noires Vivent Bien wants to see every Black Canadian live long, healthy, prosperous, and meaningful lives.
We see thriving Black communities across Canada that celebrate their African heritage with pride and live in harmony with the principles of the Nguzo Saba which include: Unity (Umoja), Self-determination (Kujichagulia), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa), Purpose (Nia), Creativity (Kuumba), and Faith (Imani). These principles guide our approach to wellness, healing, and empowerment.
We see Black people making informed choices about their health and wellbeing, integrating both medical and holistic approaches rooted in Africentric values. They pay attention to all dimensions of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional/mental, spiritual, environmental, financial, occupational, and social.
Our allies recognize how their biases affect Black people and actively engage in the work of learning and unlearning biased beliefs and attitudes, while living and working with cultural competency and humility.
We see a world where Black people have equitable health care, education, justice, and are free of the harms of anti-Black racism.
Our Mission
The mandate of the Black Lives Living Well Initiative / Initiative Vies Noires Vivent Bien is to empower Black Canadians to move from surviving to thriving by advancing their health, wellness, and equity through culturally relevant health and wellness education, capacity building, advocacy and systems change.
We promote holistic wellness based on Africentric principles that honour the 8 dimensions of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional/mental, spiritual, environmental, financial, occupational, and social.
We work to address systemic barriers in healthcare, education, justice, and other systems that impede wellness in all dimensions. We support – not compete with – other Black organizations and where possible unite siloed initiatives to strengthen community resilience.
Through programs such as education, community outreach, professional training, capacity building, and social enterprise development, BLLWI/IVNVB fosters environments where Black people can flourish and the organization is self-sufficient.