- Understand our role as a non-Indigenous organization in contributing to reconciliation and build relationships of trust.
- Review and update our policies to ensure Indigenous Peoples are accurately and respectfully reflected.
- Develop a workforce that intentionally seeks out and welcomes Indigenous talent and eliminates the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
OUR COMMITMENT
We pledge to celebrate diversity and inclusion within our work and across the organization, build a workforce that is as diverse as the communities we serve, and foster an environment where colleagues confidently bring their full selves and achieve their best. We are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and the work, reflection and action required as an organization to effect and sustain change.
We commit to being an organization that takes accountability for our learning through measurable actions. We recognize that building a more equitable, diverse and inclusive future is a journey. We accept the responsibility for each staff member to take an active role in advancing EDI. We recognize that we will make mistakes along the way. With courage, we will take responsibility, learn and modify our actions to reflect new knowledge and insights. We will share our learnings as we evolve as an organization.
Our Actions: EDI Themes and Corresponding Goals
Success means EDI becomes an integral part of our organizational culture. We have worked with intention to develop a strategy and actions framework to ensure we embed equity, diversity and inclusion throughout our organizational policies and practices. We have mapped these actions against four themes, with a focus on the most urgent and important goals for 2022 and beyond.
1. Reconciliation and Decolonization
We commit to reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities (Indigenous Peoples) and understand that this process is a journey. We recognize that reconciliation requires an understanding of decolonizing practices, which are founded on values of mutual respect, integrity, and transparency in communication and action and include working collaboratively in shared decision-making.
2. Justice and Anti-Oppression
We are committed to centering the voices of Black, Indigenous and people of colour, 2SLGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities and other equity deserving groups. We will take an intentional approach to deliver culturally relevant programs, ensuring systems of oppression are challenged through our focus on identifying and removing barriers to access.
- Learn to become leaders in workplace Anti-Oppression practices.
- Act with accountability through facts, not claims.
- Learn from and act with Black, Indigenous and racialized community groups who are close to the Veteran communities and youth populations we serve.
3. Inclusion and Belonging
We embrace a broad definition of diversity that recognizes the intersecting identities and experiences of the people we work alongside and those we serve. We affirm the essential focus on access; the challenges experienced by youth navigating various social locations; intersectionality; and the value that diverse voices and lived experiences bring to our work.
- Become a Decent Work employer and exemplify Decent Work principles across our programs. (Learn more about the Decent Work Charter at theonn.ca)
- Increase skills and knowledge of employees, people managers and Board members to promote inclusion and belonging.
- Reflect the principles of anti-racism, diversity and inclusion in all aspects of our programs.
4. Consultation and Collaboration
We recognize the strengths of the communities we serve, and we commit to the co-creation and co-development of programming alongside community members to ensure their voices are heard, amplified and respected. We believe in the importance of the assertion ‘nothing about us without us.’
- Center lived experiences and cultural appropriateness in program development while building respectful, reciprocal relationships with involved groups and organizations.
- Identify and close gaps in program offerings and their delivery through meaningful consultation grounded in principles of EDI.
- Lead by example as an employer through diversity audits and quality of work surveys.
These themes are grounded in Action and Accountability – we recognize that to make progress in this work as an organization, we must act and hold ourselves accountable to one another and to the communities we serve.
We look forward to sharing our progress and learnings as part of our Strategic Plan reporting.
For more information about the development of our strategy and additional background, please write to us at info@princestrust.ca