The Niagara Region DEI Community of Practice, a joint collaboration between the Niagara Region, District School Board of Niagara (DSBN), Niagara Health Services, Niagara College, Brock University and the City of St. Catharines, met for the second time in February to continue working toward increasing inclusion across the region.
With representatives from more than 60 organizations throughout Niagara, the group meets quarterly to share practices, learn from one another and collaborate to support addressing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) concerns that arise within the region.
“We meet four times a year and organizations take turns hosting the meetings,” said Samah Sabra, Director, EDI and Accessibility. “The focus is guided by feedback received from across the organizations involved to allow us to choose topics that will be helpful to everyone.”
The Feb. 13 meeting was a hybrid event; participants joined the meeting online or attended it at the Daniel J. Patterson Campus.
“The advantage of coming together as a community of practice if you’re a department of two (is) you can join up with (a) department of 10 and find out what they’ve been up to and learn from each other,” said Pam Skinner, Senior Vice President, College Operations, who offered welcoming remarks on behalf of Niagara College. “Together, we can all advance the cause that we’re all interested in. Collaboration has always been a key part of Niagara College’s way of working, and when we put together our EDI Blueprint, it was developed through strong collaboration–consultation over months and months.
“That collaboration is continuing as we move from a blueprint to action. It’s also what makes us stronger together. Right from the beginning, the College’s commitment to EDI has been a responsibility of everyone. It’s not up to the Executive Team, it’s not up to HR.”
The day’s panel included Sabra, Cassie Ogunniyi, Manager, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Indigenous Relations at Niagara Region, and Zakia Hamdani, DSBN’s equity, inclusion and anti-racism education consultant. Each delivered a brief presentation to share the EDI strategies and action plans currently in place at their organizations.
Niagara College’s EDI Blueprint was introduced in April 2023, the result of more than two years of collaboration between the College and the college’s Student Administrative Council (NCSAC), and informed by work done by the Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce.
The EDI Blueprint is a living document that will evolve as the needs of students and employees change. It aligns with the college’s five-year strategic plan and includes steps to ensure all NC programs, services, physical spaces and policies are equitable and accessible.
Like Niagara College, both the DSBN and the Region began working on an EDI framework in 2020, starting with consultations and focus groups to gather the information needed to identify priorities and create an action plan.
The DSBN collaborated with Brock University to put together a research team that could go through the feedback it collected from staff, students and families. From that, the DSBN came up with six priorities that were action-oriented: student voice, inclusive spaces, culturally and historically responsive curriculum, anti-bias, anti-racists and anti-oppression learning community partnerships, and identifying and removing systemic barriers.
Ogunniyi said the Region started by looking at what it was already doing and at what was happening across the region, the province and the country.
“We used that information to plan our staff and community research, and then we collected staff and community input,” she said.
Ogunniyi said six areas of focus were identified including: inclusive workplace culture, leadership and accountability; increased understanding and humility through learning; diverse workforce reflective of Niagara’s community; programs and services that meet the needs of everyone; addressing discrimination; and inclusive communication.
To implement the action plan, Ogunniyi said the Region has set up multiple groups within the organization, supported by the senior leaders at the Region.
Building a DEI Community of Practice was one of the external strategic actions identified in the action plan.
Established in 2023, the Niagara Region DEI Community of Practice aims to advance equity, build welcoming and inclusive communities and workplaces, and eliminate barriers and forms of discrimination. The Community of Practice connects like-minded organizations to collaborate, share insights and learn from each other’s experiences in order to drive meaningful change.
The network will meet again in May 2024.
