Report from the Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Oppression and Health Equity Advisory Committee
– Tamara Este, Program Supervisor and member of the Advisory Committee
“We are working to support transformative change, so all staff and clients feel safe, respected, valued and acknowledged in our organization. No one should feel they need to leave aspects of their identity at the door – everyone should feel that they belong here.”
Our Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Oppression and Health Equity Advisory Committee was formed in the summer of 2021.
The Advisory workplan was founded on three pillars:
- To deepen organizational awareness of the impact of racism on individual lives and on specific communities
- To build cultural humility and awareness of the meaning and impact of racialized experience in our service delivery
- To foster equity and inclusion within our workforce
The Advisory has clinical and administrative staff from across the organization as members, and this includes front-line staff and leaders. The Advisory is part of the governance structure at GH-CCMH and develops recommendations – from staff training topics to changing policies and practices – which are provided to senior leadership. These recommendations inform agency priorities and current projects.
What we accomplished in 2024
- Reviewed our human resources policies and practices from an equity lens and received recommendations
- Reported back to staff on the above recommendations and built a leadership work plan to incorporate key suggestions
- Launched our new sociodemographic data questionnaire for clients and participants across all programs
- Reviewed and recommended specific staff EDI training and requirements, and rolled out mandatory training to all staff
- Adapted our washrooms to be gender neutral
- Supported smudging ceremonies at our sites in support of Indigenous clients
- Created the opportunity for two monthly staff guest spots at the Advisory meetings
What’s current
In April 2025, the Advisory launched a new work plan with concrete milestones for 2025-26. Many of these milestones stem from the HR review from last fiscal year, and our ongoing support of the Honouring our Promise: Ending Anti-Black Racism (HOPE) project priorities. The HOPE report, released in February 2023, outlines the strategy developed to dismantle anti-Black racism among the infant, child and youth mental health sector in Toronto.
What’s coming
The Advisory workplan for 2025-26 has three main intentions:
- Knowledge and awareness: Continued effort to improve our understanding of the racial identity of our clients, staff, and cultural competencies
a. Monitor staff completion of EDI training with intent to explore additional opportunities for training and education
b. Develop a plan for sustainable sociodemographic data collection as our electronic health record is optimized - Equity and access: Honouring our Promise to End Anti-Black Racism Task Force
a. Review and prioritize the creation and strengthening of partnerships with Black-led organizations to enhance culturally relevant programming
b. Create a peer support model for Black staff across the Centre
c. Advance practice in delivering care to Black infants, children, youth and families - Continued review of organizational policies, procedures and practices using an anti-racist, anti-oppressive lens
a. Promote the inclusion of EDI principles and practices in department workplans
b. Include EDI-based performance indicators and criteria in the Centre’s employee performance and development plan
c. Identify and remove any barriers to the hiring, retention and progression of Black staff
What do you think of our Advisory strategy?
Past updates
July 2024
What we have accomplished so far in 2024
- Committed to a review of our human resources policies and practices from an equity lens
- Launched our new sociodemographic data questionnaire for clients and participants across all programs
- Reviewed and recommended specific staff EDI training and requirements
- Adapted our washrooms to be gender neutral
- Created the opportunity for two monthly staff guest spots at the Advisory meetings
What’s current
- Rolling out staff EDI training
What’s coming
- Reporting back to staff on the results of the HR policies and practices review and building a work plan to incorporate key suggestions
- Adapting our wellness rooms to allow for smudging to support Indigenous clients
Check this page for seasonal updates!
July 2024
December 2023
What we accomplished in 2023
- Launched organizational policy providing clear process to address discrimination in the workplace
- Built a glossary of terms related to anti-racism, anti-oppression and health equity work to support our organizational learning and create a shared language for staff
- Launched safer space and brave space statements with input from our clients and youth mentors
- Revised our corporate bylaws to increase community representation on our Board of Trustees
What’s current
- Piloting our new sociodemographic data questionnaire for clients and participants
- Working with external experts to review our human resources policies and practices
What’s coming
- Launching our sociodemographic data questionnaire across all programs
- Launching organization-wide EDI training as part of mandatory staff training requirements
Check this page for seasonal updates!
December 2023
May 2023
We are pleased to share several updates from the Anti-Black Racism, Anti-Oppression and Health Equity Advisory. In 2023 thus far we have:
- Launched a new organizational policy focused on addressing discrimination
- Built a glossary of terms related to anti-racism, anti-oppression and health equity work to support our organizational learning and create a shared language for staff
- Launched safer space and brave space statements with input from our clients and youth mentors
What’s next
- We will review our past year’s client data, which is the first full year we have collected data using updated terms in the areas of gender identity, languages spoken and ethnicity (see December 2022 update below for more on data).
- Our working group is looking ahead for how we can improve our processes related to client data collection from an equity framework. This will better allow us to identify areas of health inequities and then design solutions to address them.
Check this page for seasonal updates!
December 2022
What we’ve accomplished so far
In February of 2022, the Advisory oversaw the expansion of data collection from our clients in the categories of gender, ethnicity and languages spoken. This expansion was informed by research on best practices and the categories were developed using sources from Statistics Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Rainbow Health Ontario.
We now have enhanced sociodemographic categories embedded into:
- our Mental Health Access Program questionnaire for incoming clients;
- our client information system that captures data as clients move through programs and services offered at the Centre; and
- the new client/participant experience survey that was introduced in the spring of 2022.
What’s next
2023 will see us move forward with our existing commitments to:
- review our HR policies and procedures related to recruitment through an equity and inclusion lens
- develop policies and procedures to address discrimination in our workplace
- create brave and safe space statements for the Centre
- analyze our equity-based data from clients in the interest of making our services more accessible to our clients
- implement upcoming recommendations from the Toronto Anti-Black Racism Task Force, comprised of 26 community mental health agencies in Toronto, including GH-CCMH.