Celebrating Black History Month

This year’s theme for Black History Month is, “The Future is Now”. Did you know that in February 1979, Toronto was the first city in Canada to recognize and celebrate Black History Month? That was long before I lived here, and as one of the most diverse cities in the world, it makes sense. In 2008, Senator Donald Oliver, the first Black man appointed to the Senate, introduced the Motion to Recognize the Contributions of Black Canadians, and February as Black History Month. The motion received unanimous approval and was adopted on March 4, 2008, completing Canada’s parliamentary position on Black History Month (from the Government of Canada’s website).

I grew up in a town of 650 people lacking any cultural diversity. I moved to Toronto in 1992 and became a part of a culturally diverse church in the Jane and Finch area. This helped to deepen my understanding of the differences in cultures, but the murder of Mr. George Floyd last year made me realize I still had much to learn about the disadvantages and fears of racialized communities. I am grateful for the work of the Anti-Racism Task Force to help us learn, identify, and make changes to address systemic racism. We know that communities are better when everybody belongs, and we say it often. This is also true of culturally diverse communities; we are all better when people of all ethnicities belong.

In December 2020, I shared six priorities (found here) we have begun to work on as an organization:

  1. Our Recruitment Action Plan will include a “Diversity and Inclusion Working Group”.
  2. For all new leadership hires, we will intentionally advertise in communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour. It is important that our leadership reflects the broad ethnicity of our communities.
  3. “Workplaces of Belonging” course will be reviewed and updated to embed anti-racism education.
  4. We will consult with an external agency to provide education on anti-racism, discrimination and inclusion.
  5. We will review and fully develop more formal policies regarding racism and discrimination.
  6. We will consult with an external agency to learn about the racial and ethnic demographics of the employees of Christian Horizons.

We’ve identified organizational leads for each of these priorities. In the coming weeks, I’ll share more details as they are developed. For example, this week we will post our first external posting that includes a diversity statement (priority 2), our next policy update is planned for the fall of this year (priority 5), and we’re in the process of outsourcing and preparing to launch the demographics survey (priority 6).

One more thing – Our LifeWorks has assembled some resources which they’ve called the Black History Month Collection. It also includes a free workshop, Mental Health and the Black Experience Webinar, on February 24, 2021 at 11:00 AM Eastern Time – you can register for free here.

Thank you to those of you who called or emailed me since my post in December. I remain available at dmilley@christian-horizons.org or 647-204-7914.

Sincerely,
Dwayne Milley, Vice President of Operation