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July 2007

Promoting Social and Economic Justice from an Inclusion Lens

ACF Launches Inclusion Task Force

The Atkinson Charitable Foundation (ACF) has a rich track record of partnerships geared towards advancing our mission of promoting social and economic justice. 

Over the past decade, the Foundation has dedicated a very significant portion of its resources to projects that promote fairness and equity, socially responsible commerce, as well as work in the spheres of housing, public education, food security, and universal health care.

While we have made significant strides, we are committed to doing better and to strengthening a process whereby everything we do and everything “we are” is viewed from our definition of an “inclusion lens.”

The ACF recognizes that some social groups are more impacted than others by changes in the labour market, in communities, and society at large and in decisions about policy and funding.  These groups include women; racialized people; immigrants; poor people; persons with disabilities; Aboriginal populations, and sexual minorities.  As such, ACF has promoted the principle of inclusion – that those who stand to be directly affected by public policy should have a direct stake in setting priorities and in the design and evaluation of related projects and initiatives.

Furthering this understanding commits us to continuously strive to achieve equity through processes that enable sharing of power, both in our operations and through the work of our partners.

With this in mind, ACF is striking the ACF Inclusion Task Force to advise the Foundation as it seeks to promote social and economic justice through an inclusion lens. 

ACF’s “social inclusion lens” is grounded in a systemic analysis of the persistent sources of exclusion, among them – racism, sexism, classism, ablism, ageism, faithism, immigration-status and homophobia – how they interact with key institutional relations that determine access to social, economic, political and cultural resources and how we can address them through actions that seek to overcome them and ensure equitable outcomes.

The Task Force will research, discuss, convene and provide recommendations that can help enhance the work of the ACF in this regard. It will report in the winter of 2008.  Activities will include:

• Evaluate the current community/policy/funding environment for organizations and individuals seeking to promote or seek social and economic justice and inclusion; 
• Review the efficacy of ACF, both individually and in the context of other funders, in promoting inclusion;
• Identify promising avenues for action in the area of social economic justice and inclusion;
• Identify the best vehicle and/or processes to keep the Foundation plugged into potential partnerships and emerging trends in the area of inclusion.

ACF Inclusion Task Force members

Grace Edward Galabuzi (ITF Chair), is Assistant Professor, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Ryerson University. A seasoned community advocate, he is the author “Canada's Economic Apartheid: The Social Exclusion of Racialized Groups in the New Century.” He was appointed to the Atkinson Charitable Foundation’s Board of Trustees in November 2006.

Jehad Aliweiwi the Executive Director of Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office where he helps settle new immigrants in Toronto. Among his extensive community activities, he is a Member of the National Executive Committee, Canadian Council for Refugees, a member of the Board of Trustees  of the Ontario Science Centre a former executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation and a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Zainab Amadahy is an indigenous writer, activist and community worker. She is a founding member of the Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, member of the Board of the Association of Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts and the Executive Director of Community Arts Ontario.

Saron Ghebressellassie is a third-year student in Ryerson University’s industry-renowned Radio and Television Arts program, where she has immersed herself in a range of groups and organizations related to women’s social justice issues. From Regent Park to Queen’s Park, Haiti to Darfur, campus to community, she makes an impact on every neighbourhood, event or group with which she comes into contact. She is the YWCA 2007 Young Woman of Distinction.

Avvy Go is a lawyer and, since 1992, has been the Clinic Director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic. She is currently a part-time Board member of the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Avvy has served on the board of directors for a number of non-profit organizations including the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto.

Ali Mohamed-Ali is a MA candidate in the Public Policy and Administration program at Ryerson University.  Ali is an advocate for breaking barriers so that  people with disabilities can gain meaningful employment in Canada’s competitive labour market.  He has also been widely recognized for his work encouraging often high risk immigrant youth to attend college or university.

Uzma Shakir is a community-based researcher, activist and current Executive Director of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario. Among her extensive community involvement Uzma is president of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), board member of the Association of International Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (AIPSO) and the Coalition for Accessing Professional Engineering (CAPE), founding member of Alternative Planning Group.

Judith Snow is a social inventor and an advocate for inclusion. The inclusion she seeks is for people of all abilities to be recognized and supported as participating citizens in communities everywhere. Her social inventions to date are the establishment of Canada’s first resource centre for post-secondary students with disabilities, the wide spread adoption of support circles as a relationship centred means of overcoming isolation and exclusion, opening the policy door to individualized funding of personal assistance as a support to participation for Canadians with physical disabilities, and the development of facilitation of art making for artists with mobility limitations. Believing firmly that inclusion is about community and citizenship Ms. Snow is an active member of several collectives, such as the Asset Based Community Development Institute, the Marsha Forest Centre, the Individualized Funding Coalition of Ontario, Laser Eagles Art Guild and the High Park Laughter Yoga Club.

Charles E. Pascal is the Executive Director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation that promotes social and economic justice through its granting programs. Pascal has a strong background in education, leadership and organizational development. He has been President of Sir Sanford Fleming College, Chair of the Council of Regents for Ontario’s colleges, and has also held deputy ministerial posts with the Government of Ontario, including the Premier’s Council on Health, Community and Social Services, and Education and Training.