{"id":490738,"date":"2026-02-21T21:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490738\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T21:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:39:48","slug":"new-program-aims-to-bridge-gap-between-black-youth-and-justice-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/490738\/","title":{"rendered":"New program aims to bridge gap between Black youth and justice system"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

The Somali Centre for Family Services is launching a new program to help Black youth and their families navigate the court system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, police Chief Eric Stubbs and Coun. Rawlson King gathered with community members in the atrium of the Ottawa Courthouse to celebrate the Black Youth Court Navigator Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It was a sight for sore eyes,” project co-ordinator Gulled Abdi Saleban told CBC. “To see people that really don’t just talk the talk … but actually walk the walk \u2026 it shows that our concerns in the community or the concerns in the city are being met.”<\/p>\n

Through educational workshops, prevention efforts, and emotional and navigational support, the program\u2019s goal is to bridge the gap between Black families and Canada\u2019s justice system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In my experience, a lot of Black people in conflict with the law have a mistrust or perhaps even a fear of certain aspects of the justice system, whether it be policing, whether it be the courts themselves, whether it be\u00a0 court officials,\u201d said Ewan Lyttle, a criminal defence lawyer in Ottawa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It can often lead to decision-making that ends up compounding their experience in the criminal justice system.”<\/p>\n

Lyttle, who will also sit on the program’s advisory committee, said he hopes it can lead to better outcomes for youth and the wider community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"aEwan Lyttle, a criminal defence lawyer in Ottawa, will sit on the Black Youth Court Navigator Program’s advisory committee. (Emma Weller\/CBC)A \u2018cyclical problem\u2019<\/p>\n

Multiple speakers at Thursday\u2019s event mentioned the many people they know in their community who have experienced these difficulties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re good kids [with] bright futures ahead of them, but certain things just kind of change that path dramatically and unfortunately,” Saleban said. “Maybe at those moments there weren’t programs that could kind of help them or give them that education to support them, but that’s the hope of this program.”<\/p>\n

“It’s a really cyclical problem,” Olantu Nini, a youth advocate, explained to CBC after the event.\u00a0“You enter the system once, it’s really hard for you to get out unless you have the proper education and awareness of it.”<\/p>\n

The new program is a two-year pilot , funded by a grant from The Law Foundation of Ontario.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saleban said starting next week, he’ll be at the Ottawa Courthouse, available to support potential clients and their families with everything from paperwork to understanding court terminology. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-490738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}