Equity and Inclusion
Prioritizing Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression in Environmental Education in Peel
Prioritizing
Anti-Racism
Anti-Oppression
in Environmental Education in Peel
Ecosource is deeply committed to providing inclusive programs that reflect the diversity of our community. We also recognize that there is much work to be done to dismantle systemic racism and address social inequities that have persisted for far too long. We know that we cannot achieve our vision of a community in which everyone takes action and cares about the environment without addressing systemic barriers to nature engagement in Peel and how these barriers intersect with other aspects of our work.
With this call to action top of mind, we engaged in planning exercises as a team in 2020 to identify areas for action to prioritize anti-racism and anti-oppression in our work. These conversations resulted in the creation of an action plan. Key highlights from our action plan include:
Programming & Community Engagement
- Amplifying the voices of Indigenous peoples, racialized persons/persons of colour, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQAI+ persons through community programming including creating more space for community-led cultural expression.
- Focusing on deepening engagement with priority neighbourhoods through community-led initiatives that support local leadership and climate action from the ground up.
- Prioritizing meaningful and equitable engagement with Indigenous peoples and communities to ensure our work amplifies their voices and calls to action.
- Coordinating regular anti-racism training for our Board, staff and volunteers that is responsive to team-identified learning needs.
- Building in regular reflection on our anti-racism and anti-oppression action plan to organizational planning activities to promote accountability and identify other priority actions on an ongoing basis.
- Fostering learning opportunities to promote going beyond Land Acknowledgements and centering Indigenous perspectives in our programming.
Training & Internal Capacity Building
Policy & Governance
- Reviewing recruitment practices through an anti-oppression lens to remove barriers and promote diverse representation across our team, including our Board, staff, and volunteers.
- Reviewing and updating our human resources policies to ensure current best practices for equity, diversity and inclusion are reflected.
- Updating communications policies and procedures to ensure they are reflective of anti-oppression principles.
We recognize that promoting equity through our work is an ongoing journey that requires us to continually surface unconscious biases and confront systemic barriers that impact our staff, program participants, and community partners, as well as nature engagement in Peel more broadly. We see this action plan as one step along this journey and will continue to revisit and revise it as our learning continues.
If you have any questions about our commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression, or would like to discuss our actions further with us, please contact info@ecosource.ca.