Fuelled by their progress, this Montrealer dedicated her career to empowering youth

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.

When Joan Kirton was around 13 years old, she would ignite her mother’s irritation, taking fabric from her sister — a dressmaker — to craft clothes for children in need across the parish of Saint-Michael in Barbados. 

“My mom said, ‘One day, you’re going to give away your whole face and you’re going to have nothing left,” said Kirton with a smile. 

As the years passed, Kirton’s giving spirit only deepened, with a focus in mind: helping youth. 

At 21, she arrived in Montreal, where she spent years supporting Caribbean newcomers to adjust to their new life in Canada.

And in 1987, when she was 40 years old, she graduated from a special care counselling program and began working at Batshaw Youth and Family Centres, after a teacher encouraged her to join the team. 

Over the years, Kirton worked with youth aged 18 months to 18 years, offering help to families facing challenges that required intervention. 

She says she was drawn to the “bad ones.” 

“You work with the teenagers, you see progress,” said Kirton. 

Kirton, who described herself as a “rough teenager,” found it easy to relate to them. 

“My mom would say, ‘You never listen. You don’t listen. You have a hard head’,” said Kirton. 

Kirton sought to offer unwavering gentleness, but says she also, at times, had to walk through fire, enduring the trials that came with the beauty of her work.

She was subjected to several racist remarks from some of the mothers and grandmothers of the youth in her care, she explains.

Kirton recalls the story of a girl whose mother refused to communicate with her because of her skin colour. 

“Her mom said, ‘I don’t want to talk to you,’ so I said, ‘You don’t have to talk to me, just listen to me,’ and she listened,” said Kirton. “And for Christmas, she bought me the biggest gift.” 

‘They all made something of themselves’

Kirton was guided by a lucky star: her father. His teachings and softness grounded her and followed her wherever she went, no matter the challenges she encountered with the youth. 

“That was my hero,” said Kirton. “I always remember whatever thing that he taught me. I would try to tell them, ‘Don’t get upset. When you get upset, you don’t think straight, you don’t hear straight.'” 

At Batshaw, she worked alongside Virginia Dipierro, who says she learned a great deal from Kirton. 

“She [would] use her beautiful, unique, positive spirit to guide us all to a better place to be allies for the Black community and other diverse communities as well,” said Dipierro.

At the time, Kirton noted that there weren’t many Black workers at Batshaw, and there was little understanding of the realities Black children faced.

“They weren’t sure how to deal with the Black kids,” said Kirton.

But according to Dipierro, Kirton’s actions taught her colleagues how to understand and support children better. 

Dipierro also learned from Kirton about institutional racism and the challenges Black people face in the workplace. 

“Joan is certainly an outstanding individual in making sure the Black community in Montreal is always in a state of growth, in a state of positive change, spirit,” said Dipierro. 

She describes Kirton as a woman full of “joy and exuberance,” someone who seeks to make people feel heard and understood. 

“I think her legacy will be … her smile, her positive spirit, and her language in perpetuating change and for the better,” she said. 

For Kirton, the memory of the youth she worked with at Batshaw remains a cherished one.

“Just watching the kids that came in that everyone thought were not going to make anything, they all made something of themselves,” she said. 

After decades at Batshaw, Kirton took a different route in 2017. She travelled to Northern Quebec, where she worked with Inuit youth at the Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre in Kuujjuaq. 

Many of them had parents or grandparents who were residential school survivors. 

“I learned so much,” said Kirton. “I really loved those kids.” 

‘I’m just doing what makes me happy’

In 2019, Kirton shifted her focus to working with Black seniors at the Council for Black Aging Community of Montreal, even acting as president for a year. 

She took part in various activities with seniors — from crafts to line dancing to aqua-fitness and computer courses. She also worked with mayors to advocate for the needs of Black seniors.

“I love the hugs. I love the smiles. I love to see them happy,” said the 77-year-old. “Some of them are older than I am. They have knowledge that I don’t have.”

Outside of her professional work, Kirton has been involved with different organizations, including the Quebec Amateur Netball Federation, where she has been active for over 50 years. 

She also participates in an annual walk for cancer with Team Susie-Q, a cause that is close to her heart after surviving endometrial cancer. 

Despite all her years of service, Kirton says she sometimes struggles to realize the impact she’s had on people and the breadth of the lives she’s touched. 

“I feel so good that somebody even sees that in me, something that I never saw myself because to me, I’m just doing what makes me happy,” Kirton said of being named a Changemaker.

Though she retired last month and is planning on spending time with her family here and in the Caribbean, she’s always open to new opportunities and adventures.

“We never know, something might come up and I might say, ‘Yeah, I gotta take that!'” she said.