Burlington Inclusivity Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:
Date:
Time:
-
Location:
3800 Constable Henshaw Blvd. (Halton Regional Police Services)

1.
Members Present:

Brian Wrixon (Chair), Kate Dunn, Kumkum Bhandari (Burlington Public Library), Eric Schwab, Maroun Naser, Ron Baliko (BAAC), Stephen Siomra (Halton Police), Girish Parekh, Rana Al Semaani, Roy La Chappelle

2.
Others Present:

Donna Kell (Manager of Communications), Jeff Crowder (Communications Advisor), Jennifer Spence (Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program), Peggy Wright (Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program), Scott Gowan (Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program), Yohana Otite (Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion), Layla Abdulrahim-Moore (Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council), Georgie Gartside (Clerk)

3.
Regrets:

Doug Martin, Farah Butt, Councillor Blair Lancaster, Mary Lou Tanner (Deputy City Manager)

4.
Declarations of Interest:

None.

5.
Approval of Minutes:

6.
Delegation(s):

6.1
Jennifer Spence, Welcome to Burlington, Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Project

Jennifer Spence, Peggy Wright and Scott Gowan shared information about a Welcome to Burlington project they are working on for the City's Mohawk Future Ready Leadership Program. Jennifer said the project focuses on newcomers to Burlington and advised that 23.6% of Burlington residents are immigrants. The team will be looking at how the city provides support and services to newcomers. There are four project deliverables:

  • create an engagement plan for internal and external stakeholders;
  • create an internal communication plan for city staff to make them aware of the project and what it means to the city;
  • recommendations, practical tools and next steps; and
  • one welcoming activation event.

 

The Welcome to Burlington team would like to collaborate with BIAC moving forward and learn about who else they should be connecting with in the community.

Some areas of collaboration:

  • outreach to newcomers; focus groups; survey questions
  • welcoming activation event

6.2
Yohana Otite, Executive Director, Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion

Yohana and Layla provided a presentation about the Hamilton For All campaign (www.hamiltonforall.ca).

The campaign was launched on Nov. 28, 2017 and the first phase was about celebrating diversity; inspiring Hamilton residents to connect with and welcome newcomers to reduce myths and misconceptions.

The #ForAll movement is part of a collective movement. It started in Toronto (#TorontoForAll) and in Ajax (#AjaxForAll). Both Toronto and Ajax partnered with the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) and the campaigns addressed racism, xenophobia, islamophobia and other issues.

Why HamiltonForAll:

  • Hamilton is the highest city for reported hate crimes in Canada
  • Hamilton is 25% immigrants

Details of the campaign:

  • $5,000 to start the campaign
  • digital campaign only to begin with due to limited funding
  • website was created with 9 digital posters for people to download, along with an online tool of 5 actions that people could do to make a difference
  • asked for local ambassadors with diverse representation to promote the campaign
  • ambassadors went to schools and other community organizations
  • after the program rolled out, the City of Hamilton supported it and provided funding which allows additional promotion on buses and bus shelters
  • Hamilton Spectator has been a partner since the beginning and has been providing ongoing coverage
  • other media have picked up on the campaign and promoted it
  • social media has been great to expand the campaign
  • many other partners in the community helped to support the campaign

 

Yohana and Layla also advised that a Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre recently opened in partnership with McMaster and the City of Hamilton. This is a pilot project for 3 years with a research component.

7.
Regular Items:

7.1
Communication Plan

Donna Kell and Jeff Crowder from the city's communications office were in attendance to talk to the committee about the best way to move forward with their work plan. The committee would like to focus on the following items:

  • an inclusivity award within Burlington's Best
  • social media
  • attendance at events
  • BIAC brochure
  • survey of culture organizations

The committee agreed to collaborate with the Welcome to Burlington Mohawk Team on their project instead of doing a separate survey of culture organizations.

On motion, the committee approved participating in a workshop with city communication staff in order to create a communications plan. 

ACTION: Georgie to set up a workshop date prior to the next BIAC meeting.

7.2
Attendance at upcoming events

Kite Festival - Sunday, June 3
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Brant Hills Community Centre and Park

Roy and Ron will attend.

8.
Other Business:

None.

9.
Adjournment: 11:02 a.m.

No Item Selected