Amplifying Black Mothers’ Voices
Charis-Chara is a community collective dedicated to centering the lived experiences, knowledge, and leadership of Black mothers through research, storytelling, and cultural expression.
Who We Are
Charis-Chara is a Black-led nonprofit collective based in the Greater Toronto Area, committed to uplifting Black mothers as possessors of knowledge, knowledge producers, cultural creators, and community leaders.
We challenge systemic barriers by turning lived experiences into meaningful insights, programs, and resources that empower individuals and strengthen communities.
Charis-Chara advances the voices and lived experiences of Black mothers through research, storytelling, and arts-based knowledge mobilization, with a focus on exposing how social institutions, including healthcare, housing, education, and legal systems, produce and sustain inequities, including financial precarity and exclusion.
Charis-Chara advances the voices and lived experiences of Black mothers through research, storytelling, and arts-based knowledge mobilization, with a focus on exposing how social institutions, including healthcare, housing, education, and legal systems, produce and sustain inequities, including financial precarity and exclusion.
- Lived Experience as Knowledge: We center the voices of Black mothers as authoritative, valid, and necessary forms of knowledge that challenge dominant institutional narratives.
- Truth-Telling and Accountability:We are committed to exposing how systems perpetuate harm and to holding institutions accountable through rigorous research, storytelling, and public engagement.
- Care and Ethical Engagement: We approach all work with care, consent, and respect, recognising the weight and complexity of the experiences shared with us.
- Creative Resistance: We use art, storytelling, and cultural production as tools to disrupt erasure, resist injustice, and reimagine possibilities.
- Collective Memory and Preservation: We document and preserve experiences that are often erased, ensuring they remain part of public memory and future knowledge.
- Equity and Redistribution: We actively challenge financial and structural inequities, advocating for more just distribution of resources, recognition, and opportunities.
- Community-Led Practice: Our work is guided by and accountable to the communities we engage, prioritizing collaboration over extraction.
Our Meaning
Charis (Grace) + Chara (Joy)
Our name reflects the balance between resilience and beauty, the grace required to navigate complex systems and the joy found in community, culture, and shared experience.
At Charis-Chara, we honour both.
Community Based Research
We conduct research grounded in the lived experiences of Black mothers, transforming real stories into insights that inform policy, programs, and community change.
Workshops &
Toolkits
We deliver practical workshops and develop accessible toolkits that equip Black mothers with knowledge, skills, and resources to navigate everyday challenges.
Publishing &
Knowledge
We create and share publications that elevate Black mothers’ voices, turning community knowledge into impactful stories, reports, and educational resources.
Afrocentric Arts &
Culture
We celebrate identity and heritage through arts and cultural programming that amplifies storytelling, creativity, and the richness of Black motherhood.
Merva Hutchinson
Founder, Charis-Chara
Merva is a PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) whose work bridges research, storytelling, and community impact.
Her vision for Charis-Chara is rooted in the belief that Black mothers’ experiences are not only valid but essential to shaping more equitable systems.