This educator uses movement to keep youths from 'falling through the cracks'

CBC Quebec is highlighting people from the province's Black communities who are giving back, inspiring others and helping to shape our future. These are the 2024 Black Changemakers.

The sound of stomps and claps thundered in the practice space at Royal Vale School as Steev Blackette and his small cohort of steppers rehearsed their upcoming performance.

He spent six weeks teaching a group of five high school students a stepping routine — a percussive dance rooted in Black culture — as part of an after-school program, hyping them up and keeping them focused. The students came up with moves of their own to teach each other and Blackette.

Mataijah Jackson-Wynter is one of the students in Blackette's stepping workshop. She and her friends at the school in Montreal's western Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood signed up as soon as they learned it was offered.

"We didn't want to do ballet or contemporary dance," she said. "We wanted something more in our zone and in our culture."

Blackette starts each session playing his drum, stretching and warming up before getting down to it.

"We just basically create our own little melodies and use that stepping as a form of unity," he said. "I really wanted to use recreation and sports and activities as a form of therapy for young people."

Blackette, an educator and crisis interventionist at Batshaw Youth and Family Services, has been working with youths for 20 years. He also offers after-school programs, like his stepping lessons, and holds annual donation drives with the hope that fewer kids will "fall through the cracks."

He knew he wanted to work with kids after interning at the English Montreal School Board while doing his studies at Dawson College, and got a diploma in therapeutic recreation at Concordia University. From there, he made his way to social work and education at Batshaw.

"To be there for them, it was amazing. Fulfilling the gaps within the school system or fulfilling the gaps within your family needs, that's the part that was rewarding," he said.

"I think that being young, Black and professional, they look up to you and they really just gravitate towards you."

Blackette still thinks of his gym teacher and basketball coach fondly. As an active kid going through his parents' divorce, Blackette needed that go-to person and hopes to play a similar role.

But the job doesn't come without its challenges.

Blackette often works with families who don't know what resources are available, are less open to receiving help or are afraid to reveal the extent to which they're struggling. He's also aware that youth protection services don't always have the best reputation.

"As an educator, it's really important to help make those connections for the people within the home so that they're less apprehensive towards working with us," he said.

Roen Higgins nominated Blackette as a Black Changemaker and says she can always count on him. She's known him since high school and to this day holds workshops and tours schools with him, and says he's a natural when it comes to working with kids.

"He's charismatic, very cool. He is laid back, but very powerful. He definitely has that willpower to make a change and he's dedicated," she said.

"He's very playful too and he's able to work in intergenerational spaces."

'Love from the community'

Blackette's reputation for being kind-hearted goes back to his childhood. His parents told him a story from when he was five years old and saw an elderly man fall while on a walk: Blackette immediately let go of his mother's hand to rush to the man's side and try to help him up.

"Here I am trying to pick up an elderly man, a task that was almost impossible," he said.

"It was heartwarming to my parents, but they always told me, 'Listen, you have a big heart. You have to be careful, you know?' And my dad always told me you can't save the world."

But Blackette, now a father of four, understood he can change one person's world.

The rewards for his tireless work in the community have come in different ways.

A few years ago, one of the people he mentored as a teenager asked him to be the best man at his wedding.

Blackette met him while he was in Batshaw's youth probation program — which is meant for young offenders in the criminal justice system — after the teenager had just moved to Canada from the Caribbean and was isolated from his family.

"He said that 'You're like a father figure to me and you're really supportive. And so I can't think of anybody else to ask.' And I was just like, wow … so touched."

When Blackette lost his mother last year, he says the outpouring of support from his community helped him move through his grief. People cooked for his family, helped put calls in to funeral homes and checked in on him.

"That was amazing to see, just the love from the community, it really goes to show that you're never alone," he said.

"When you invest, it'll come back to you. That's it. And that's part of what kept me going."

Even though she's graduating from Royal Vale, Jackson-Wynter says she wants to continue stepping.

With the help of Blackette — who she says is a "great, great, great teacher" — Jackson-Wynter says her confidence in stepping has "grown above and beyond" what it was on the first day of the workshop.

"It lets your emotions flow, it's like a type of therapy. It's like dancing — it's a way to get your groove on," she said.

The Black Changemakers is a special series recognizing individuals who, regardless of background or industry, are driven to create a positive impact in their community. From tackling problems to showing small gestures of kindness on a daily basis, these Changemakers are making a difference and inspiring others. Meet all the Changemakers here.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.