About Us
SPECTRA is a community-based initiative in Alberta created to walk alongside families of neurodivergent children and youth. Too many families face long waits, fragmented information, and services that don’t reflect who they are or what they’ve experienced. Through culturally responsive education, caregiver support, system navigation, arts-based engagement, and partnerships, SPECTRA aims to help families find the knowledge, support, and connection they need.
We hope to work alongside the systems and programs families already rely on, so that every family has somewhere to turn for guidance, support, and belonging.
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, and practical support for neurodivergent children, youth, and their families, building on the strengths they already hold.
2.Participation & Leadership
We ensure that those with lived experience shape the 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.
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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. For more than two decades, she has worked in community and nonprofit leadership across Alberta and British Columbia, alongside a lifelong artistic practice in African performing arts. A Master of Social Work with a background in sociology, she has led complex programs with newcomer, refugee, and racialized families, designing practical, relationship-centred supports across sectors.
Her work is strongly neurodiversity-affirming. She weaves arts and cultural programming, storytelling, and collaborative planning into learning spaces and services where every way of communicating and being is welcome.
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Strength with Strategy
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JAR Consulting
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​Evelyn Consulting
Our Funders
