BUILDING COMMUNITY CAPACTY TO FACILITATE THE HEALTHY & EQUITABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC INTEGRATION OF RACIALIZED COMMUNITIES IN ONTARIO
A PROJECT BY THE COLOUR OF POVERTY CAMPAIGN
WITH FUNDING SUPPORT FROM THE ONTARIO TRILLIUM FOUNDATION
Who We Are
In 2007, the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (MTCSALC) received funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to both address and work to redress the issue of the increasing racialization of poverty in Ontario. With the guidance of a coordinating group representative of a broad spectrum of ethno-racially diverse communities as a resource or steering committee, the Colour of Poverty Campaign (COPC) was launched.
In less than a year we developed, produced and distributed 10,000 sets of Fact Sheets as well as 400 copies of an educational video on issues relating to the racialization of poverty. With our encouragement many of the groups have in turn made copies of the Fact Sheets and the video to be further shared with their members, program participants, volunteers, staff and others.
With the support of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, we have also translated the Fact Sheets into several languages including: Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Tamil and Vietnamese.
After first having developed some basic educational tools & materials, representatives of the Campaign membership traveled to communities around the province to outreach and more fully engage and work with other local community partners. A Shared Framework for Action was then developed based upon the many and wide-ranging local community meetings and conversations that took place in both medium and larger urban centres across the province, as well as from an Ontario Provincial Forum dialogue which brought together close to 300 individuals from around the province on April 28 and 29, 2008.
What this Project is About
The Ontario Provincial Forum dialogue urged us to continue our work by ensuring the most effective action on, and implementation of, the Shared Framework for Action. To honour the wishes of all those who had participated in the consultations, the Colour of Poverty Campaign is working on the first two priorities identified in the Shared Framework for Action, namely:
The current project is designed to effectively engage members of various racialized communities in six local municipalities across Ontario as animators for community action so as to carry out these two top priorities of the Campaign.
Specifically, we will undertake the following activities:
1. Development of a set of relevant training tools
In building on earlier Campaign and Network activities - the first part of the project is to develop a set of training tools which would help in:
· Developing background and locally relevant analysis with respect to barriers facing members of racialized communities in achieving equitable employment opportunities as well as broader social and economic integration;
2. Community Coordinators and Animators
The second part is a train-the-trainer program for community members/anti-racism/ anti-poverty advocates - as local Community Animators will be trained in the content as well as in the effective use and application of the tools earlier developed. The Community Animators will engage with their respective communities to both raise awareness and understanding of the relevant issues as well as to help organize and animate the respective local communities to effectively advocate for the needed change, and in the process, form and help facilitate ongoing local Multi-Sectoral Work Groups.
3. Building Local Solutions
The final part of the project will help to ensure that there will be both a locally relevant as well as province-wide implementation plan and a support infra-structure that will help address the issues, needs and concerns as faced by racialized communities at the local level. To that end, local Multi-Sectoral Work Group meetings will take place on an ongoing basis involving government officials, anti-poverty and other relevant organizations and institutions, academics, funders, media and so on to work out the details of how to move locally on specific measures and indicators of social exclusion, and on the issue of employment equity. A final local report will be prepared on the commitments made by the local governments as well as other key institutions and stake-holder groups with respect to the desired outcomes of the implementation plan.
Our Local Community Parters
The six initial communities-regions that we will be working in, where there has been active and committed leadership with respect to racial equity-racial justice advocacy, are
Hamilton - led by Hamilton’s Centre for Civil Inclusion
London – led by London Cross Cultural Learner Centre
Ottawa – led by Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization
Peel Region – led by East Mississauga Community Health Centre (Health and Racism Working Group Network)
Toronto – led by Council of Agencies Serving South Asians
Windsor – led by Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women
Conclusion
Racialization of poverty is real. It is causing immeasurable hardship to hundreds of thousands of Ontarians, and it is endangering the very foundation of our democracy, by creating a growing racial divide amongst us.
With the funding support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, we will be able to undertake a project that will be led by, and undertaken for the benefits of, racialized communities. We believe that by allowing racialized communities to take the lead to address issues that affect them the most, we will have the best hope of ensuring these communities - who are very clearly ever-more disproportionately represented among the poor - will escape poverty.
A PROJECT BY THE COLOUR OF POVERTY CAMPAIGN
WITH FUNDING SUPPORT FROM THE ONTARIO TRILLIUM FOUNDATION
Who We Are
In 2007, the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (MTCSALC) received funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to both address and work to redress the issue of the increasing racialization of poverty in Ontario. With the guidance of a coordinating group representative of a broad spectrum of ethno-racially diverse communities as a resource or steering committee, the Colour of Poverty Campaign (COPC) was launched.
In less than a year we developed, produced and distributed 10,000 sets of Fact Sheets as well as 400 copies of an educational video on issues relating to the racialization of poverty. With our encouragement many of the groups have in turn made copies of the Fact Sheets and the video to be further shared with their members, program participants, volunteers, staff and others.
With the support of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, we have also translated the Fact Sheets into several languages including: Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Tamil and Vietnamese.
After first having developed some basic educational tools & materials, representatives of the Campaign membership traveled to communities around the province to outreach and more fully engage and work with other local community partners. A Shared Framework for Action was then developed based upon the many and wide-ranging local community meetings and conversations that took place in both medium and larger urban centres across the province, as well as from an Ontario Provincial Forum dialogue which brought together close to 300 individuals from around the province on April 28 and 29, 2008.
What this Project is About
The Ontario Provincial Forum dialogue urged us to continue our work by ensuring the most effective action on, and implementation of, the Shared Framework for Action. To honour the wishes of all those who had participated in the consultations, the Colour of Poverty Campaign is working on the first two priorities identified in the Shared Framework for Action, namely:
- The collection and tracking of disaggregated data across a number of institutions and sectors in order to better identify racialized and other structural and systemic disadvantage, and to develop clear definitions and indicators, in order to get full and consistent pictures as to who - and why - are the poor in this province; and
- Re-introduce the policy imperatives of employment equity to Ontario in order to level the playing field for racialized communities & other historically disadvantaged groups.
The current project is designed to effectively engage members of various racialized communities in six local municipalities across Ontario as animators for community action so as to carry out these two top priorities of the Campaign.
Specifically, we will undertake the following activities:
1. Development of a set of relevant training tools
In building on earlier Campaign and Network activities - the first part of the project is to develop a set of training tools which would help in:
· Developing background and locally relevant analysis with respect to barriers facing members of racialized communities in achieving equitable employment opportunities as well as broader social and economic integration;
- Identifying and adapting existing tools/resources/policies and measures to address these barriers as drawn from various jurisdictions and institutional environments;
- Developing public education materials about employment equity and why it will help facilitate equitable social and economic integration by racialized communities;
- Creating training materials on how to develop relevant indicators in order to measure the degree of socio-economic exclusion/inclusion experienced by members of racialized communities, as well as to measure the success of any initiatives undertaken by communities and public institutions alike to overcome such exclusion.
- Initiating action tools for building effective media relations; for organizing and conducting community meetings; for analysing and evaluating equity related policies, programs, practices and statistical information; and for learning how to work with governments, academics, mainstream institutions and other key stakeholders to help promote racial equity-racial justice and related structural change.
2. Community Coordinators and Animators
The second part is a train-the-trainer program for community members/anti-racism/ anti-poverty advocates - as local Community Animators will be trained in the content as well as in the effective use and application of the tools earlier developed. The Community Animators will engage with their respective communities to both raise awareness and understanding of the relevant issues as well as to help organize and animate the respective local communities to effectively advocate for the needed change, and in the process, form and help facilitate ongoing local Multi-Sectoral Work Groups.
3. Building Local Solutions
The final part of the project will help to ensure that there will be both a locally relevant as well as province-wide implementation plan and a support infra-structure that will help address the issues, needs and concerns as faced by racialized communities at the local level. To that end, local Multi-Sectoral Work Group meetings will take place on an ongoing basis involving government officials, anti-poverty and other relevant organizations and institutions, academics, funders, media and so on to work out the details of how to move locally on specific measures and indicators of social exclusion, and on the issue of employment equity. A final local report will be prepared on the commitments made by the local governments as well as other key institutions and stake-holder groups with respect to the desired outcomes of the implementation plan.
Our Local Community Parters
The six initial communities-regions that we will be working in, where there has been active and committed leadership with respect to racial equity-racial justice advocacy, are
Hamilton - led by Hamilton’s Centre for Civil Inclusion
London – led by London Cross Cultural Learner Centre
Ottawa – led by Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization
Peel Region – led by East Mississauga Community Health Centre (Health and Racism Working Group Network)
Toronto – led by Council of Agencies Serving South Asians
Windsor – led by Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women
Conclusion
Racialization of poverty is real. It is causing immeasurable hardship to hundreds of thousands of Ontarians, and it is endangering the very foundation of our democracy, by creating a growing racial divide amongst us.
With the funding support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, we will be able to undertake a project that will be led by, and undertaken for the benefits of, racialized communities. We believe that by allowing racialized communities to take the lead to address issues that affect them the most, we will have the best hope of ensuring these communities - who are very clearly ever-more disproportionately represented among the poor - will escape poverty.
