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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-06-13Clarftwn Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee Minutes — June 13, 2024 Microsoft Teams Need help? Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 265 190 381 013; Passcode: nEKWzx Dial -in by phone +1 289-274-8255„826474362# Canada, Oshawa Phone conference ID: 826 474 362# Present: Tenzin Shomar Pranay Gunti Councillor Anderson Ron Hooper Lauren Reyes -Grange Joe Solway Dione Valentine Vincent Wong Bev Neblett Rochelle Thomas Absent: Aaliyah Ruddock Also Present: Pinder DaSilva, Municipality of Clarington Donnalee Smith, CLMA 1. Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 7:01 pm 2. Land Acknowledgement Land Acknowledgement read by T. Shomar The Municipality of Clarington is situated within the traditional and treaty territory of the Mississaugas and Chippewas of the Anishinabeg, known today as the Williams Treaties First Nations. Our work on these lands acknowledges their that resilience and their longstanding contributions to the area now known as the Municipality of Clarington. 3. Introductions and Welcome T. Shomar welcomed guest speakers and Donnalee Smith from CLMA. 4. Declaration of Interest There were no disclosures of interest stated at this meeting. 5. Review and approval of Agenda Moved by R. Hooper; seconded by J. Solway That the agenda for June 13, 2024, be approved with one change -removed Clarington Diversity - 2 - June 2024 Advisory Committee DRPS guest speaker and replaced with discussion on topic for September presentation by DRPS. Carried 6. Adoption of Minutes Moved by D. Smith, seconded by J. Solway That the meeting minutes for May 9th, 2024, be approved. Carried 7. Guest Speaker — Odessa Grignon and Denise David Pickering Anti -Black Racism Task Force T. Shomar welcomed the guests Odessa Grignon (Chair) and Denise David (Vice -Chair) to the meeting. Presentation highlights: • Council appointed Task Force in January 2021 • Goal was to identify barriers and opportunities for stakeholders and community engagement related to anti -black racism. • Annual budget for 2024 increased significantly as they will be engaging with a consultant to build a framework and measures for addressing racism related issues and challenges • Work in conjunction with staff liaison, the Mayor, and with residents of lived experience • Lots of collaborations with local organizations and local businesses • Trying to build capacity in other organizations so that community organizations are also encouraged to facilitate anti -racism and diversity events in the community. • They are a group of volunteers and although they have lived experience, their role is not to solve community problems. They have pushed back to Council and asked Council to consider what they are doing about some of the challenges facing the community. • Shared that there is a likelihood that the PABRT will become an anti - racism task force at the end of this council term because they do deal with various types of anti -racism. Stated they are very happy and grateful to the City for giving this important topic the attention it needed and deserved during this term. Past initiatives: Imagine Culture Days; Powerfully Informed Municipal Election Series; Youth Open Mic, Participatory politics — past candidates for Council who were not successful etc. Members asked if the PABRTF works with the Region. It was shared that every municipality seems to work in silo's although the Region led DEI symposium is a good step in breaking down the silos. Discussion on what DAC can do to support PABRTF and the challenges Clarington Diversity - 3 - June 2024 Advisory Committee that they have been facing. Recommendations included: • Standing in solidarity especially on issues that come up not only in Pickering but across all of Durham • Mutually supporting one another any events and celebrating joy • Staying engaged in your community -figure out how decisions are being made • Members asked where their source of funding comes from. Indicated it is allocated from Pickering CAO office. Mayor also pushed through some of the new funding, but they did have to prove their purpose and impact. Took time to build trust with the community and the City. • Collaborate on planning and implementing community events. • Cllr Anderson shared there may be opportunity for the committees to advocate on behalf of CDCD (Community Development Council Durham) to support their request for additional funding from the Region for their Refugee Assistance Program. 8. Discussion on future DRPS presentation topic T. Shomar asked members to consider what issues/concerns the committee would like DRPS to present on. Some suggestions included: • Gaps in recruitment and advancement for marginalized individualized in police services • Amendments to the Community Policing Act —what is DRPS' Diversity plan and do they have plans for each of the divisions? 9. Student Bursary application review • Closed June 71" and received 7 applicants. Working group met earlier this week to review the applications. • Great to read the essays from the individuals and the fantastic work they are doing. • Shortlisted 3 names and have scheduled "discussion/interviews" where members can get to know the students. After that working group will select the recipient for the bursary. • The recipient will be part of the Mayor's presentation of awards to Grade 8 and 12's at the June 24th Council meeting. • Working group will complete a post -process discussion after recipient is selected to look at our learnings. 10. PA days at School Board Some school boards in Ontario have started to align their PA days with certain religious holidays that are not typically reflected in their calendar. For example, the Waterloo School Board scheduled PA Days on Diwali or Eid to allow students and their families to participate in the festivities and celebrations without missing school. KPRDSB — originally had 2 PA days scheduled on the same days as Diwali and Eid for 2024-2025 school year but out of concern for not holding staff development events on celebration days, they have made the decision to move the PA days to Clarington Diversity - 4 - June 2024 Advisory Committee different times. This would mean that students who celebrate these holidays will be at school. Discussion by members on whether this should be a motion put forward to Council to make a recommendation to KPRDSB to adjust PA Days to allow for students to have time off to celebrate with their families. Understand that teachers would still be at work and expected to work no matter when the PA day is scheduled for. Moved by J. Solway; seconded by R. Thomas That Council supports the Clarington Diversity Advisory Committee's position to request the Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB to take into consideration other holy holidays and align certain PA days with days of religious significance not currently reflected as holidays in the traditional school year calendar, providing students with the day off, similar to the calendars approved by the Durham District School Board and Waterloo Region District School Board. 11. Council Update Emancipation Day on August 1st and there will be an event held by the Region. Councillor Anderson encouraged everyone to attend. P. DaSilva shared that Clarington will be on the planning committee. Sport and Recreation Master Plan is coming out in September. Will continue to have conversations with staff on specific issues that support the needs of our diverse community such as pitches that can be converted to cricket pitches when needed. This particular need is missing in the master plan P. Gunti clarified that the community is not asking for brand new Cricket pitches to be implemented but asking for permission to turn current pitches into Cricket pitches, when needed — to do this requires changes to the master plan that has been introduced. This request for Cricket pitches will only occur at times when the pitch is not being used by other sporting events. P. Gunti shared that the cricket community needs to know as soon as possible as a lot goes into getting the pitch ready. Stated he will continue to advocate and talk to municipal staff to move this forward. 12. DAC member update P. DaSilva confirmed with Municipal Clerk that DAC will need to wait until the committee member who has been on/off absent misses three meetings in a row (as per the Terms of Reference) before requesting Council remove and replace the member. If the member misses the September meeting, then can officially request removal from committee. P. DaSilva shared that she did text the member on the phone number they had provided to P. DaSilva but there has been no response. Shared that another email was also sent but have not heard anything as of yet. Clarington Diversity - 5 - June 2024 Advisory Committee 13. Community Update a. Anti -Racism Workplan The Anti -Racism and Anti -Discrimination working group has brought forward some ideas for education and training for the community business leaders and organizations. One of the initiatives will be an anti -racism and anti -discrimination social media campaign. P. DaSilva is working with the Communication team to identify a video production consultant who can help create the campaign. The consultant will meet with the working group, DAC and CABRTF for feedback and input. Hoping to launch the campaign in the fall. 14. ABR Task Force Update ABRTF member resigned last month; have an open call out for new member to fill the role. To date, have received 7 applications and the posting is open till end of June. P. DaSilva will create a summary of the applicants and create a small matrix to help DAC select a new member for September 2024. 15. Future Agenda Items — Guest speakers Redemption House Recovery & DRPS V. Wong brought forward the idea of bringing Redemption House of Recovery to the October meeting for a presentation. The organization helps men who are struggling with addictions to find a new start. P. DaSilva will reach out to DRPS with possible presentation ideas for the September meeting Moved by P. Gunti; seconded by V. Wong. That the Diversity Advisory Committee meeting be adjourned at 9:09 pm. Carried Next Meeting September 12, 2024, at 7 pm via Teams