Contribute
Dear friends and colleagues:
The Racism Free Ontario Initiative is a 100 day anti-racism campaign, across Ontario. During the campaign, community organizations, groups, individuals and media from across the province will be working together to create awareness about the impact of racism and about potential solutions to addressing various aspects of systemic racism, with the following objectives:
a) to create broader public awareness so that Ontarians accept and acknowledge that racism (structural, institutional and individualized) is still alive in our province
b) to organize the communities to educate the systems so that the systems also accepts that racism exists within their structures, policies and practices
c) to support and promote people working on anti-racism related initiatives so that they feel encouraged and motivated
d) to showcase and profile initiatives addressing racism and promoting access, equity and inclusion
e) to build momentum, strength and capacity so that our collective anti-racism work in Ontario becomes sustainable, collaborative and impactful
100 Days Period will fall between the International Human Rights Day (Dec 10th) to International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Mar 21st).
There are several ways an organization may contribute to the campaign:
a) Put on an anti-racism event in Ontario
Please email us or call us if you or your organization wishes to join the campaign. It is very simple. You can be part of the campaign with offering to host an activity (i.e. teach-in, movie night, seminar, workshop, town hall, booth, poster, forum or anything else you consider appropriate for your organization). Last year we have 8 activities through partners and this year, we hope to have at least twenty activities across the province through partners. We hope you can join and help us advance anti-racism work in Ontario.
We are also looking for volunteers to help with this campaign, please contact us if you wish to be involved in an individual capacity as well.
Organizations and individuals working to eliminate racism are encouraged to contact CASSA at deena@cassa.on.ca or at 416 932 1359 X 14.
b) Support the Racism Free Ontario Forum on March 21
As you may know already, the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), in partnership with the Colour of Poverty, Sociology in Education and Equity Studies, University of Toronto and The Centre for Integrative Anti-racism Studies, OISE, is holding its first annual Racism Free Ontario forum. This forum is the feature event of CASSA’s 100-day anti-racism campaign, Racism Free Ontario.
The theme of the forum is to address racial inequities faced by children and youth. Specifically, it aims to discuss the impact of racism on children and youth by identifying strategies to better understand and address racial inequities in educational institutions, neighbourhoods, and workplaces.
The forum will be held on March 21, 2012 at OISE from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. It is free, but requires preregistration.
- We are inviting organizations to join the forum as a participating organization. You can participate by sending one or two delegates on the event day
- and by circulating information about this campaign to your internal and external contacts.
Additionally:
Our team of volunteers is working hard to get this event off the ground. However, we are still looking for sponsors to help cover forum costs (food, materials, etc.). Donating to this event would list your organization as an event supporter. If you would like to donate, please contact cj@cassa.on.ca as soon as possible. Your support would be greatly appreciated.
[[We also have the Let's Talk Race video contest, asking people to join the conversation and make their own 5-min video talking about their experiences with racism. Videos are asked to be submitted by March 5th and will up for voting until the 20th. The video with the most "likes" will receive $500! It would be great if you could also circulate information about this contest using a link to our website or our video (http://youtu.be/KGkEa6Chokc).]]
