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HARAMBEE ALLIANCE
HARAMBEE ALLIANCE
FOR HEALTH, WELLNESS AND AGING SOCIETY
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    📣 Calling All Changemakers, Scholars, Elders, Advocates & Allies!

    Join Us for the “Elders in the Margin Symposium, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

     and Black Health & Wellness Expo” 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM (PST)

    📅 Saturday, February 7th, 2026 | 🕘 

    Venue: Langara College, 100 49 Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. 

    We’re inviting dynamic presenters, passionate partners, and committed community builders to be part of an urgent and powerful conversation: “Elders in the Margins: The Aging While Black Experience”.


    This symposium is a movement to center the voices, stories, needs, and legacies of Black elders. We're looking for:

    ✨ Speakers to share research, lived experience, 

          or cultural insight

    ✨ Community partners to collaborate and co-

          create impact
    ✨ Artists, advocates, and storytellers who are 

         ready to spark change


    Let’s shift the narrative from invisibility to visibility, from margins to the center.


    Interested in presenting or partnering?

    Click the button below to contact us today.

    Register Now!

About us

Harambee Alliance 
​for Health, Wellness & Aging

Advancing health equity through Afrocentric care and collective action.

Harambee Alliance for Health, Wellness & Aging Society (HAHWAS) is a black-led health and wellness society based in Vancouver, B.C. 

We serve as an Afrocentric, culturally affirming society, dedicated to advancing health equity for Black, African, and Caribbean (BAC) communities, as well as other racialized groups across the province.

We believe that health equity is a right for all seniors, not a privilege. Guided by cultural safety and collective care, we create spaces where individuals and families can thrive across the life course. 

We apply an Afrocentric approach that prioritizes cultural safety and equity in community health and wellness. Our goal is to support individuals and families in thriving physically, emotionally, and socially throughout their life course.

Our work includes health education, wellness services, mental health support, and social programs designed by and for our communities and we address the unique needs of Black people navigating health and social systems that too often overlook or exclude our realities.

Harambee Alliance stands as a trusted advocate and community partner, working to ensure that aging is visible, celebrated, and supported with dignity and justice for all.

Our work is guided by four core pillars:

CONNECTION

We foster meaningful connections across black-led organized and black-serving (B3) spaces. Through our annual symposium and expos, community events, virtual programs, social content, and our upcoming private membership platform, we uplift and amplify leaders, innovators, change-makers and our Black Advisory Committee across our networks.

REPRESENTATION

Centering black lives, we identify, analyze, and address the systemic barriers affecting black health outcomes. Our work includes research, data gathering, and community-informed advocacy that highlights both the challenges and the solutions.

EDUCATION

We provide our community with access to culturally relevant resources, leadership pathways, and professional development opportunities.

ENGAGEMENT

 Through strategic partnerships and targeted programming, we equip individuals and organizations to thrive personally and professionally.

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What we do?


HAHWAS walks with elders, not in front of them, not speaking over them. We stand beside them as advocates, partners, and amplifiers, ensuring that healthcare providers, governments, and service agencies deliver care that is equitable, dignified, and culturally informed. Because black seniors deserve to age well with joy, belonging, and support.

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Education & Outreach

Public campaigns, school resources, workshops

Community & Social Services

Peer support, elder services, mental health

Research & Advocacy

Symposiums, community-based research, reports

Training & Consulting

Cultural safety, anti-black racism and aging

Media & Storytelling

 Documentaries, storytelling circles, oral history

"A future where Black people in Canada can age with dignity, wellness, and joy, supported by systems and communities that are culturally safe, historically informed, and equity driven."

Meet our Team

People you can trust

Meet our team of passionate people who have your care and well-being at the forefront of their minds.

Elvenia Gray-Sandiford
Elvenia Gray-Sandiford

Executive Director

Elvenia Gray-Sandiford is a family life educator, community engagement practitioner, and capacity-building specialist, with over 40 years of experience advancing health equity, aging justice, and community resilience. Her work spans the full family life cycle—from early childhood to end of life—supporting families through culturally grounded education, crisis response, and system-level advocacy. 


She has worked extensively with children and youth, single and young parents, survivors of gender-based violence, and older adults navigating aging and care systems.

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Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith
Kandi-Lee Crooks-Smith

President & Chairperson

Kandi-Lee A. Crooks-Smith is the President of the Board of Directors for the Harambee Alliance for Health, Wellness & Aging Society. She holds a Diploma in Primary Education from The Mico Teachers' College in Kingston, Jamaica, and both a B.Ed. (Hons) and MAEd (Hons) in Lifelong Learning (Adult Education) from Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is certified to teach in both British Columbia and Ontario, and is an alumna of East China Normal University in Shanghai, China. Additionally, she participated in the Fulbright Scholarship's International Visitors Leadership Program.

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Anne Dolina
Anne Dolina

Office Manager

A law clerk and advocate with strong administrative background. Anne Dolina has lived and worked in Canada and the US. She has participated in and with a wide variety of groups and institutions with a primary focus on equity for women and marginalized folks, ecology, and aging well with scarce resources.

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Mathew Fraser
Mathew Fraser

Policy & Strategic Affairs

Matthew Fraser is a recent graduate from Simon Fraser University with a diverse educational background and a passion for interdisciplinary knowledge. Bringing insights from Economics, Psychology, and Public Policy, Matthew aims to use community building and advocacy to improve health outcomes for Afro-Canadian and other racialized groups.

Mathew also previously organized, directed, empowered and oversaw a team of writers and budding journalists by guiding and publishing their work in an independent newspaper. 

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