BE Initiative

BE Initiative helps engage black communities in environmental action through the “I can Breathe” program, an intervention model that relies on three main pillars:

1. Engaging children and families through outdoor activities that promote both a passion for nature and a good appreciation of the value of cultural diversity and antiracism.
2. Engaging students in environmentalism through in-class training and local environmental justice chapters in schools.
3. Engaging community members in environmental action through a citizen research project that get them to become familiar with the use of air monitoring devices to better understand the reality of their local environmental issues and to start community conversations and action on the quality of their environment.

We are one of the very few environmental organizations in Canada to see black and brown communities not as secondary beneficiaries but as the main priority and the main targets of our action.

BE Initiative is committed to applying an anti-colonial lens to our work. We also strongly value innovation, research, science and creativity.