News
May Highlights
PRAN's First Event Brief
Knowledge mobilization is a PRAN cornerstone, supporting the flow and uptake of research knowledge, which is why we aim to produce more briefs.
We tested our new brief templates with an event brief for Moving Forward: Canada and the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent, our October 2024 conference. The brief summarizes the event, the six panel, and the roundtable discussions.
PRAN Welcomes 3 New RAs!
New Lunch & Learn Fall/Winter Series
We will be launching the PRAN Lunch & Learn series for Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 featuring PRAN original research, as well as the projects and research of our team members, partners, and students. Stay tuned!
New! PRAN Briefs
We created research, policy, and event brief templates in the six PRAN colours. Partners—consider collaborating with PRAN to develop a brief or explore other options to increase the reach and impact of your important work!
Research & Policy Brief Series
Where to find PRAN briefs
PRAN briefs will be added to the PRAN website under Knowledge Mobilization>Publication>Briefs as they become available.
Coming soon
Briefs on the PRAN-BEKH scoping reviews of Black and visible minority entrepreneurship and the PRAN SSAI census data project are underway!
Cross-Sectional Survey
On March 31, the cross-sectional survey closed. Spring and early summer will focus on additional data cleaning, preliminary analysis, and identification of analysis priorities. Mid-summer, PRAN will collaborate with partners to determine partner-driven analysis priorities to finalize the survey analysis plan, with the implementation of training and analysis plans set for July. Result dissemination is predicted for September.
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Featuring Dr. Philomina Okeke-Iherjirika, this video introduces the topic of gender relations and the factors that impact them. Listen to our podcast, Better Than the Cure, to learn more! linktr.ee/pran_22 #genderrelations #gender #IPV #equality #yeg #YYC #DomesticViolence
— Partnership for Research with African Newcomers (@pran-22.bsky.social) May 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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Better than the Cure: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence is an 11-part podcast series on the complexities of #IPV in African-descent communities. Explore issues related to gender relations, engaging men, masculinity, & community engagement. All episodes available on Spotify & YouTube, link in bio.
— Partnership for Research with African Newcomers (@pran-22.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM
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April Highlights
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Program
In April, we bid farewell to our seventh QEScholar from West Africa, Dr. Añulika Kosy Okafor, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. Añulika continues to work on two QES-related articles for publication, and we look forward to collaborating with her further!
The team is working to bring three additional scholars to complete placements this summer.
Congratulations, Dr. Phil!
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika on receiving the Rosalind Smith Award from the National Black Coalition of Canada(NBCC)-Edmonton!
New Lunch & Learn Fall/Winter Series
We plan on launching a new Lunch & Learn series in Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 featuring PRAN original research, as well as the projects and research of our team members, partners, and students.
Cross-Sectional Survey Data Collection Completed
At the end of March we closed the PRAN African Newcomer survey. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our partners, community outreach workers, collaborators, students, and the Malatest team for all their hard work and support.
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Our #IPV Project included diverse voices as collaborators, working group members, and experts. Project stakeholders included Black Canadians and immigrants, victim-survivors, and those with experience in gender-based violence advocacy and education, newcomer support, and programming for men & boys.
— Partnership for Research with African Newcomers (@pran-22.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 12:09 PM
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Meet our team! PRAN's team includes researchers, partners, and student research assistants from Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. Our partners serve and support African immigrants and refugees in multiple capacities (1/2).
— Partnership for Research with African Newcomers (@pran-22.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 2:09 PM
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2022-2023 Highlights

2023 PRAN Annual Meeting
PRAN’s first Annual Meeting took place on June 23rd & 24th, 2023, at York University in Toronto. The event brought together a diverse group of partners, including academics, researchers, students, non-profit workers, and community representatives.
Director Dr. Philomena Okeke-Ijherika, kicked off the meeting by highlighting PRAN’s key goals:
- Supporting the SSAI community
- Redefining resilience by adopting a more inclusive and community-engaged approach
- Training graduate students and early career researchers
- Fostering a network of academic and community partners to create a support network for SSAI newcomers in Canada
May 2022 PRAN Community Launch
PRAN Community was launched at the Africa Day event in May 2022, which was hosted by our community partner, Africa Centre.
All images are from Faith Abimbola






August 2022 PRAN Official Launch
In addition to our Community Launch, we also held another significant event to mark the official launch of PRAN. This event took place at the University of Alberta on August 17th, 2022.
All images are from Faith Abimbola