October 21, 2021

Our work around Anti-Racism within Christian Horizons must be transformative – it must make a difference in our bones, so to speak.

Last year, the Anti-Racism Task Force submitted a report to Janet Noel-Annable, our CEO, in September 2020, with recommendations of areas (or priorities) that we should undertake to help us do our part to identify and dismantle systemic racism. One of the first things to do was to prepare and share an Organizational Value & Anti-Racism Statement. You can find it here, under the heading, “Our Values”:

Christian Horizons recognizes that Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour experience systemic racism within our society. Christian Horizons is committed to ensuring that these members of our community feel valued. In order to stand together with our colleagues, partners, and neighbours who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, we must address systemic racism. We can do better. As an organization that advocates for and upholds the rights of people who experience disabilities, we have a responsibility to learn from the experiences of all marginalized minorities. Christian Horizons will continue to work, with intention, towards promoting communities of belonging where Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour feel valued, respected, represented, and heard.

Please take a moment and click on the link above. When you do, you’ll see that this statement is part of a broader value statement, which is:

Christian Horizons’ values arise from our belief that every person is loved by God and created in His image. Because of this, we strive to honour God and value people in all we do and with all of our resources.

We promote communities where everybody belongs and each person’s gifts are celebrated. This includes people with and without disabilities, employees, families, volunteers, and partners. We value and respect diversity of race, disability, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, colour and all other grounds reflected in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and provincial human rights codes.

If we end the work there, then it’s not transformative and nothing will change. Rather, this is our starting point.

Following the recommendations in the initial report, we launched the “Diversity and Inclusion Working Group”. I was pleased to attend a portion of their meeting in September and witnessed firsthand this wonderful and diverse group of people who have agreed to help Christian Horizons fully live up to and into the statements above. Their work is already evident in the land acknowledgments that have occurred at the beginning of our recent Annual Community Meetings. I’m grateful for their commitment and excited about the things they will help us accomplish.

Our vision is that people who experience disabilities belong to communities in which their God-given gifts are valued and respected. Hope in Action has been our theme this past year and for the recent Annual Community Meetings (ACM). The Diversity and Inclusion Working Group is an example of hope in action, because transformative change happens as we practice belonging across the entire organization – not just for the people who use our services.

In this Together,
Dwayne