Resisting Racism

Tuesday, December 21, 2021 / Online

In the face of the brutality of racism, Lakehead alumnus Paul Popo-Ola (HBCom’10) is shaken, but unbowed.

The Lakehead alum has set his sights on helping Toronto inner-city kids escape the lives of poverty to which they are often condemned. In 2020, Paul and a group of friends set up the Black Health and Wealth Fund to provide university entrance scholarships to grade 12 students. It’s Paul’s latest advocacy project, and one close to his heart.

“My family left Ghana when I was eight years old to come to Canada,” he says.

They ended up in Toronto’s Rexdale area – one of the toughest neighbourhoods in the country. “There’s a lot of poverty and government housing,” Paul explains. 

In Ghana, Paul’s father was a bank employee and his mother was a registered nurse, but in their new homeland, they found themselves at the bottom of the social ladder. Paul’s mother worked at McDonald’s until she requalified as a nurse and his father worked in factories before becoming a church pastor. 

Along with these hardships, their young son was confronting harmful prejudices and stereotypes. 

“Most of my friends are Black, and when we were kids,” Paul says, “we thought the only things we could be were athletes, rappers, and drug dealers.”

Paul began getting into trouble, to the distress of his parents and older brothers, but the YMCA and Rexdale’s Albion Neighbourhood Boys and Girls club threw him the lifeline he needed.

“Sports got me out the bubble I was trapped in. Coaches waived my registration fees and helped me buy basketball shoes,” he says. “If I got a bad grade, my coach would say, ‘Paul you can do better.’”

When he finished high school, Paul went to Lakehead University on a basketball scholarship. He enrolled in the commerce program because it offered financial security and career avenues beyond athletics.

But Paul wasn’t just concerned about himself. As a university student, he volunteered with the Thunder Bay Boys and Girls club (he was named their 2011 Volunteer of the Year) and Shelter House.

Since graduating, Paul has become an Investment Advisor with RBC Dominion Securities based in Toronto. He frequently counsels newcomers to Canada, and he encourages financial literacy as the host of the Cash Rules Financial Podcast.

His success, though, doesn’t mean that the struggle for racial equality is over.

Paul and friends were traumatized by videos of verbal and physical attacks against Black people – especially the murder Paul (centre) and his fellow members of the Black Health and Wealth Fund executive are changing the lives of vulnerable youth. of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer – that occurred in 2020. The assaults galvanized them to support the current generation of kids growing up in Rexdale through the Black Health and Wealth Fund.

They quickly raised over $40,000 for 12 scholarships and forged connections with Canadian universities, including Lakehead, who donated tuition credits, meal plans, and other services to the students (next year, they hope to increase the number of scholarships). They partnered with the Albion Neighbourhood Boys and Girls Club because, as an existing non-profit, they had the authority to distribute scholarship funds.

Pictured right:  Paul (centre) and his fellow members of the Black Health and Wealth Fund executive are changing the lives of vulnerable youth.

The Black Health and Wealth Fund members are also committed to nurturing the students.

“We didn’t want to hand the kids money and say, ‘See you later,’” Paul says. “Every one of them received mentorship in different areas – financial literacy, public speaking, good life habits, healthy living.”

Although Paul is doing his part to make the world a place where everyone is valued, he would like to see the media – and ordinary citizens – better educate themselves and overcome their biases.

“Black Canadians aren’t monolithic,” he says, “so don’t put us in a box, just give us a fair playing field.”

 

Watch the Black Health and Wealth Fund video to learn more about these transformative scholarships and how you can make a difference:  https://youtu.be/lGnh9OUnzuc