Black-led · Halifax, Nova Scotia · Est. 2025
Sankofa Collective strengthens the conditions for social participation, for people navigating justice, health, housing, and education systems in African Nova Scotian and Black communities.
Our primary commitment is to African Nova Scotian and Black communities. We are open to serving all people who face systemic barriers to participation, across health, justice, housing, and education.
Who we are
The name Sankofa comes from an Adinkra symbol with deep roots in West African and African Nova Scotian culture. It means: it is not wrong to go back and fetch what you forgot. That principle shapes everything we build.
Sankofa was built on a consistent observation: across health, justice, housing, and education, the services often exist. But the conditions that allow people to meaningfully access and benefit from them often do not. Trust has been fractured. Social roles have been disrupted. Agency has been eroded. Belonging has been severed. We address those underlying conditions directly.
Incorporated under the Nova Scotia Societies Act, Registry ID 4685402. Charitable status application in progress.
Our practice model names five interconnected conditions of social participation: Trust, Social Role, Agency, Belonging, and Opportunity. The Framework is the foundation of everything Sankofa builds. We develop it, teach it, and build tools that bring it to life across health, justice, housing, and education contexts.
Workshops, presentations, and public education grounded in Afri-centric principles and restorative values. We bring the RN Framework to practitioners, organizations, and communities working across sectors, building shared language and capacity for restorative approaches to participation.
Sankofa serves as the administrative home of the African Nova Scotian Coordinated Justice Network, a practitioner space for Black professionals working across the Nova Scotia justice ecosystem. We support coordination, convening, and capacity across the Network.
A mobile companion app that puts the Restorative Navigation Framework directly in the hands of the people it serves. Named for the 52 historic Black communities of Nova Scotia, the app is built and currently in testing, ahead of a wider community release.
Where we are today
The Restorative Navigation framework, developed over more than a decade of direct community practice.
52 Roots is built and currently in testing, ahead of a wider community release.
The African Nova Scotian Coordinated Justice Network is in its founding membership year.
Sankofa Collective, established in 2025 and incorporated as a nonprofit, with a charitable status application underway.
Contact
Whether you are a funder, a community partner, a researcher, or someone who wants to learn more about our work, we would like to hear from you.