Olivia Jensen - Organizer

Focused on interactions in your workplaces, this session will engage attendees in discussions of belonging and inclusion. Grounded in an evidence based understanding of equity, diversity, and power, we will explore our understanding of how various workplace practices affect marginalized and racialized members of our organizations.

Some of the themes we will address include:

(1) the importance of building inclusive environments to support full participation of all individuals;
(2) thinking about ways to create spaces of belonging in our day-to-day work and examining challenges to inclusivity in one-to-one exchanges;
(3) understanding the role of power dynamics and its interplay with belonging.

The Halton Early Years Mental Health Committee (EYMHC) invites participants to join our virtual exhibit over lunch. The EYMHC will have resources promoting the Early Years Mental Health Toolkit and materials to support professional development and applying the toolkit into practice. We look forward to chatting with you!

Mary Lynne and Carole describe the evolution of culturally responsive practice at Intercultural Child and Family Centre's two locations: a diverse inner-city program and a college demonstration site. They will share ideas and projects that educators have used to transform environments, document children's learning and engage families. Every centre's context is unique and we hope you will come away with possibilities for using the strengths of educators and families in your own program.