About Us
SPECTRA is a community-based initiative focused on Black and other racialized individuals with disabilities and neurodivergence, particularly children and youth. Centering dignity, cultural safety, and practical support for individuals and their families, SPECTRA works to strengthen the capacity of individuals, families, service providers, and institutions to advance equity, accessibility, and inclusion for Black and other racialized individuals with disabilities—especially neurodivergent children and youth.
SPECTRA envisions communities where Black and other racialized individuals with disabilities and neurodivergence can thrive with dignity, voice, and full participation in every area of life, and a future in which inclusive systems, culturally safe services, and strong family and community networks ensure that no one is isolated or left behind because of disability or difference.
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SPECTRA’s Core Values & Guiding Principles
SPECTRA’s name reflects the core values that guide all programs and partnerships: Support, Participation, Education, Community Building, Transformative Change, Resource Sharing, and Action.
1. Dignity & Support
We centre dignity, cultural safety, & practical support for neurodivergent individuals & their families, rejecting charity-based approaches
2. Participation & Leadership
We ensure Black & other racialized neurodivergent people shape decisions, programs, and policies that affect their lives.
3. Learning & Community
We use education, storytelling, and the arts to build understanding, reduce stigma, and strengthen belonging across communities.
4. Action for Systems Change
We move beyond awareness to coordinated action that drives transformation in policy, practice, and service.
Our Governance
SPECTRA is an operational extension of African Stages Association, operating under the authority and control of our board of directors. To be clear,SPECTRA is a registered trade name that we use to refer to the Alberta-based programming. It is not a separate legal entity and does not have independent governance or financial authority.
Our Partners and
Collaborators
Our Leadership
Executive Director, SPECTRA
Ese Ejebe is the Executive Director of SPECTRA, bringing over two decades of experience in community work, disability/neurodiversity, and nonprofit leadership in Alberta and British Columbia. With a Master of Social Work and a background in sociology, she has led complex programs with newcomer, refugee, and racialized families, designing practical, relationship‑centred supports across sectors.​
Her practice is strongly neurodiversity‑affirming, weaving in arts and cultural programming, storytelling, and collaborative planning to create learning spaces and services that honour dignity, autonomy, and diverse ways of communicating and being.
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Strength with Strategy
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JAR Consulting
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​Evelyn Consulting
Our Funders
