Doing the Work
We are committed to making sure Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) are at the core of everything we do.
IDEA Committee
CSI’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee is made up of members of our community, DECAs, Staff and Board and has met on a quarterly basis since 2016. The IDEA Committee’s purpose is to steward and support the work being done by CSI Staff and the community to make CSI more welcoming and inclusive.
Demographic Survey
CSI, guided by our IDEA Committee, launched our first demographic survey to our Staff, Board, DECAs (volunteers), and community in late 2016. The purpose of the survey was to help us understand and establish a baseline understanding of our community. We hoped to use this data to identify and address the potential barriers for individuals and communities who are currently underrepresented at CSI. You can check out the report here.
Policy
The IDEA Committee made significant revisions to our Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Policy to ensure there it is as clear and informative as possible for members, DECAs, Staff, and Board at CSI. The policy was implemented in the fall of 2017 and can be accessed on our website here. It is also included in the contracts for every CSI Staff, DECA, member and Meeting Room & Event-Renter. The policy will continue to be reviewed and revised as necessary to address any potential gaps.
Our next phase of work includes improving our conflict resolution process to ensure that issues and complaints can be resolved in an impartial, safe, and confidential manner.
Infrastructure
In collaboration with CSI Member The StopGap Foundation and with the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Toronto Foundation, we made significant accessibility improvements at CSI Annex and 192 Spadina Ave, including: installing wheelchair lifts, accessible bathrooms on the ground floor, and wayfinding signage that is in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).
We still have work to do in both buildings to improve overall access, and we are supporting Artscape on improving wheelchair accessibility on the third floor of the Daniel’s Spectrum Building, which is home to CSI Regent Park.
TechSoup Canada, a program of CSI, is dedicated to empowering charities, nonprofits and libraries with the effective use of technology. Over the last several months, TechSoup Canada has been integrating an anti-oppressive framework into their Marketing and Communications efforts, with the goal to simultaneously and intentionally elevate marginalized voices and counter forces of oppression in the nonprofit and technology sectors.
Hiring
Staff training combined with our desire for more diverse identities and experiences on our team has resulted in some promising progress on our Staff demographics. This progress will be more evident when we repeat the demographic survey in Fall 2018, but we have observed some preliminary progress including that 44% of our Director team now identifies as racialized (previously 25%) and 10% of our overall staff team identify as Black (previously 0%).
Education
In collaboration with CSI Member, Anima Leadership, we now provide a mandatory two-day Diversity and Inclusion training for all CSI Staff and DECAs twice a year.
In partnership with CSI Members, Rania El Mugammar and Bear Standing Tall, we have provided free monthly workshops for CSI Members on Anti-Oppression, Meaningful Inclusion, and Indigenous Protocols.