Empowerment Squared is an international charitable organization founded by Leo Johnson at McMaster University and based in Hamilton, Ontario which seeks to identify and address local and global needs.  Empowerment Squared has successfully undertaken a variety of projects focused on empowering underprivileged persons and communities to help themselves, and activating citizens as change agents in their communities.  

In 2007, McMaster University’s Global Citizenship Conference featured Leo Johnson who spark a powerful social movement in the Hamilton community.  A refugee from Liberia, Leo explained from his own successes and challenges that youth aren’t needy, they just long for opportunities to prove their worth. He then shared his vision for a youth-driven organization that promises resourcefulness, compassion, diversity – and most of all, empowerment. Inspired by his message, students approached Leo to tell him they were ready to help. Since then, there has been no looking back. Today, our history continues to be written as we build memorable stories on participation in local engagement and global citizenship.

To better reflect this expanding mandate and to reinforce the organization’s commitment to helping people help others, CURE Canada was renamed Empowerment Squared. To ensure sustainability, a new, expanded board was formed that included a diverse and widely experienced group of Hamilton community organizers and leaders. Empowerment Squared now has the talent, experience, connections and enthusiasm to bring Mr. Johnson’s vision for changing people’s hearts and then changing their lives to a new, international level.

 

Taking its inspiration from a local Hamilton woman who lost her husband to AIDS in 1990, ShAIDS of Grey uses vignettes, songs, and dances to weave together the stories of men, women and children affected by the disease into a thought-provoking and modern masterpiece.

Its present day, the HIV/AIDS pandemic rages onward while the rest of the world moves forward. Convinced that it deserves more attention, a young journalist named Luke sets out across two continents in search of the truth about the disease. However, his interviews, hospital visits, and a budding relationship with a South African artist leave him with more questions than answers. Soon, he too is caught up in a world that is struggling to find meaning and hope in vortex of emotions, uncertainty, and devastation wrought by HIV/AIDS. In this grey world, none are safe from the scourge and its effects. Secrets surface, tempers flare, questions abound, and despair grows as communities become inured to the horror around.

Created by Empowerment Squared, ShAIDS of Grey boldly tackles the stereotypes and stigmas swirling around the devastation of HIV/AIDS—a world where there is no black and white. It is a mirror that brings us face to face with ourselves.