Recently, a young man from our community was found dead. Of all the all-too-many stories and suppositions floating around, one thing rings clear: we are not doing enough to assist our young people. We are not doing enough to build our community.

We are not doing enough to rally support for solutions to fix some of our problems. Of course, we could all say like we have been all these years - that there is a leadership vacuum in the community. There are far too many separate groups - from BCLC and the Sudanese Association to Wafrika and the Congress of Black Women - with no clear protocol for cross-communication. When one says the black community, there is no recognizable leadership or at least easily accessible points of contact.

This has been happening for a while and everyone laments about it, yet many years have passed and we are still short on action.

So this is a call for action. Our supposed leaders need to build a platform where all the leaders from different groups can meet and forge a common course for our community.

All the groups need to be sitting at the same table, planning and plotting for the betterment of our people.

Only then can we truly say we are leaders.