Much of what guides the U of T Mississauga’s (UTM’s) need for a Black Flourishing Framework on confronting anti-Black racism at the University of Toronto Mississauga stems from the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Higher Education: Principles, Actions, and Accountabilities and the University of Toronto’s Anti-Black Racism Task Force report. Both documents prioritize the need for campus-specific actions to address systemic anti-Black racism and advance Black equity, inclusion, and excellence across U of T’s three campuses. This framework goes beyond addressing anti-Black racism and sets the conditions for UTM’s Black communities to flourish in the environments where they learn, teach, live, and work across our campus.

Since the Report’s release in 2021, staff, students, faculty, instructors, librarians, and caretakers across the UTM community have collaborated to develop initiatives that directly address the Report’s recommendations. The Black Flourishing Framework introduces new ideas about what UTM can achieve by creating campus-specific approaches to implementing the Report’s recommendations, particularly by recognizing the unique landscape and priorities of UTM’s Black communities, including Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, librarians, and caretakers.

Black flourishing aims to create conditions that allow more Black individuals to thrive and excel, free from the burdens of racial trauma. In this context, anti-Black racism is seen as harmful to the academic and professional success and well-being of our Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, librarians, and caretakers’ and in full realization of their potential.

We strive not just to tackle the impacts of anti-Black racism at the university level but to realize a vision of Black flourishing that is normalized, embedded in our campus culture, and attentive to the varied and specific needs of the U of T Mississauga’s self-identifying Black/African Canadian and Afrodiasporic communities.

Black flourishing combines emotional well-being with engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement. It goes beyond transient feelings, encompassing a holistic approach to Black lives through purpose and connection. Flourishing means thriving, not just surviving. Institutionalizing Black flourishing fosters shared abundance, enabling the entire U of T Mississauga community to thrive and succeed.

The values of the Black Flourishing Framework are threefold:

1) It reaffirms our commitment to fostering the flourishing of Black individuals, removing structural barriers to inclusion and belonging, and enabling the comprehensive realization of human potential for everyone on our campus.

2) It promotes institutional alignment and accountability among UTM’s departments, units, and teams to achieve the shared priorities, commitments, and accountabilities outlined in UTM’s Strategic Framework.

3) It positions the University of Toronto Mississauga as a benchmark for the wider University of Toronto and an institutional leader in purposefully and proactively transforming systems, structures, policies, practices, and processes to promote equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging for Black individuals.

The Black Flourishing Framework allows the U of T Mississauga to express its vision in which Black knowledge, experiences, and identities are respected, celebrated, and empowered to thrive. Making UTM a better community that embraces and actively engages Black individuals in all aspects of university life and lifts barriers to belonging requires commitment and participation from all of us. All departments, units, individuals, and other key members of UTM must fulfill that vision. The Black Flourishing Framework speaks to the kind of institution U of T Mississauga is now and intends to be.

Operationally, the Black Flourishing Framework allows UTM to set a strategic “north star” for departments, units, and staff to direct their actions. It will also inform resource allocation and guide investment toward achieving shared objectives. Finally, it provides priorities and commitments around which U of T Mississauga can organize and mobilize our community.

UTM’s Strategic Framework outlines key priorities for our campus and partners that will strengthen consensus, inspire action, and guide investment. The six campus priorities and specific commitments and accountabilities can be found here: https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/strategic-framework/media/61/download?inline.

The Black Flourishing Framework is specific to the UTM campus. It is a key mechanism for achieving the University of Toronto’s commitment to accepting all 58 recommendations of the Anti-Black Racism Task Force from the perspective of the University of Toronto Mississauga. It is endorsed, guided, and supported by the Office of the Vice-President and Principal, UTM.

The Black Initiatives Team developed the Black Flourishing Framework in collaboration with the Anti-Black Racism (ABR) Operational Group and the Black Leadership Advisory Committee (BLAC). They had two main roles: 1) to lead the drafting and review of the Black Flourishing Framework’s content, and 2) to participate in and/or facilitate discussions and gather widespread feedback from UTM’s staff, students, faculty, instructors, librarians, and caretakers.

The Black Initiatives Team analyzed trends within the UTM landscape, consolidated anecdotal feedback from focus groups and surveys, evaluated and categorized the feedback, and led several rounds of revisions with UTM Communications, UTM’s Director of Strategy and Brand Integration, the Director of Office, and other senior leaders at UTM on how the Black Flourishing Framework can be utilized to bring about meaningful and systemic change.

The primary focus of the Black Flourishing Framework is to establish favourable conditions for Black communities across UTM to flourish. Throughout the process, we aim to evaluate, share, and learn about promising practices that are aligned with, but not limited to:

a) Increased participation rate for UTM Black communities in advisory roles, academic positions, and equity-deserving committees.

b) High satisfaction scores on workplace interactions and culture in annual surveys by Black staff, faculty, instructors, librarians, and caretakers at UTM.

c) Increased size and scope of internal and external funding opportunities centred on Black flourishing and addressing anti-Black racism at UTM within departmental and institutional budgets.

d) Increased internal and external collaborations among UTM’s departments, units, and teams centred on Black flourishing and addressing anti-Black racism.

e) Increase utilization of the University of Toronto’s research data management stream to implement, resource, and develop strategies that promote Black flourishing at UTM.

f) Increased number of partnership-focused grant applications, resulting in increased funding that prioritizes research led by Black staff, students, faculty, instructors, and librarians.

The Black Flourishing Framework will be updated to align with the campus’s Strategic Framework.

Updates to the TUM Strategic Framework will prompt how the Black Flourishing Framework reimagines how to address anti-Black racism and cultivate Black flourishing, drawing from priorities, commitments, and responsibilities outlined in the UTM Strategic Framework.

The Black Flourishing Framework is currently funded through the University of Toronto’s One-Time-Only (OTO) funding. This funding supports the University’s institutional academic priorities, and the Provost allocates a portion of incremental operating revenue. The University of Toronto Mississauga is exploring internal and external funding opportunities to continue this vital work.