Meet the team
Black Youth Initiative is a collective product of love and care from the tireless labor of three Black femmes with the intersections of being Refugees, Migrants, Muslim and Queer. Our hope and intentionality for the work we do rests with sharing mutual aid efforts and resource redistribution that are vital for supporting our beloved Black and Indigenous communities
Click through each team member to read their bio and learn more about them.
-
Lauretta is a graduate of Sociology and Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University. Working and volunteering in student advocacy through her bachelor's degree has led her to working in the arts and culture non-profit space with different organisations. She is a mental wellness advocate and enjoys working on creative projects in her freetime.
Meet the Board
Natasha Mhuriro
Director of Strategy and Systems
Beaty Omboga
Director of Governance and Communications
Emmanuela Droko
Chair, Director of Fund Development
Beaty was born and raised in Kenya and now lives and works on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (also known as Vancouver). She is passionate about justice and committed to learning, unlearning, and acting in solidarity with the oppressed. She is guided by the call to “keep learning to do good, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, correct the oppressor, defend the defenseless, and ensure that justice is done.” Her mission is to bring hope to the marginalized and amplify the voices of those who are often silenced. Beaty has a deep passion for supporting orphans and oppressed women especially widows in the Global South and is equally committed to fighting racism and empowering racialized communities through opportunity, service, and advocacy. With a Master’s degree in Political Science and expertise in privacy law, she uses these tools to advance economic, social, and political justice in every space she occupies.
Emmanuela is a dedicated community leader and advocate with a strong background in organizational development, donor engagement, community engagement. She co-founded Black in BC Aid, raising $250,000 to provide emergency financial support to Black residents across British Columbia. She has also held key roles in public education and advocacy with various organizations across the province, as her work rests on developing strategic frameworks to address barriers to access for historically underserved communities. She currently serves as the Chair of the Black Youth Initiative. Emmanuela’s work spans granting, the arts, housing, and equity-focused initiatives, and she is passionate about driving systemic change through inclusive, accessible and community-centered solutions.
Natasha is grateful to live, work, and learn on the occupied Coast Salish territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ Peoples. She holds a master’s in public policy and has a keen interest in a range of current public policy solutions, including, access to safe, affordable housing options for racialized communities, and the use of disaggregated race-based data to address systemic inequities. More recently, her research examines the racialized demographics of senior governance positions within Canadian public corporations, identifying barriers to achieving equitable representation. Driven by a commitment to challenging colonial injustices, Natasha’s work seeks to transform the systems that govern society. She is continually inspired and guided by the teachings and lessons from the Black women in her life.