Three steps to push for #NeverAgain

Step 1. Lead with Empathy. As knowledge keepers have gently reminded the YWCA membership, there can be no reconciliation without Truth first.

YWCA Canada recommends using existing educational resources to provide a way for you to educate your non-Indigenous staff, (while not imposing on Indigenous colleagues to relive racial trauma). Using a trauma-informed approach, asking Indigenous colleagues, program participants, friends, and family to relive genocide, can perpetuate harm.

Luckily, there are many excellent online resources from YWCA colleagues that support learning. You can watch, read, engage or listen to the following resources.

Go Beyond Orange Squares:

Supporting truth and reconciliation cannot happen overnight and requires long-term thoughtful, empathetic, and intentional trust-building in your community.

  1. Ask First Nations, Metis, or Inuit youth in your community, to take over social media feed for the week to amplify Indigenous voices around gender-based violence. Indigenous activists are using storytelling, traditional teachings, and technology to use their voice. Your local YWCA can use your social media audience to support artists such as:
  2. Assign Indigenous-led professional development as mandatory training for employees
  3. Procure local Indigenous-led suppliers and entrepreneurs in your community to support through purchasing (Are their local Indigenous caterers, IT firms, bookkeepers, artisans, care workers as part of procurement strategies)
  4. Identify 2-3 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation to implement in your shelter and group home programmes to support your Indigenous program participants
  5. Partner with Spirit Bear as a way to implement reconciliation in your childcare programming
  6. Partner with Shannen’s Dream to learn about how to create change led by youth, for youth (ideal for youth council, summer camp or afterschool programme) Shannen’s Dream, Serena Koostachin TEDXNickelCity
  7. Implement First Nations Principles of OCAP at your local MA
  8. Additional ideas can be found at INDIGENOUS ALLY TOOLKIT

Step 2. Review the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)’s calls to action as a team.

How do the TRC calls to action touch your day-to-day operations? If your YWCA has already started to work on some calls to action, how can you deepen this work?

Step 3. Level up and put the action in ReconciliAction

Need advice? Level up your work through peer support and access to coaches. By filling out this anonymous survey, YWCA Canada will connect your Member Association (MA) with customized support coaches via zoom.

This resource list is incomplete and will be updated throughout the year. Email suggestions for additions to raine@ywcacanada.ca.

Additional Resources

How Colonization Enables Gendered Violence Against Indigenous Women & Girls:
Chapter 1: There Is A Town In North Ontario
CBC Podcast: Home | Finding Cleo
CBC Investigations: Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women 
Indigenous Women and the Story of Canada
Restoring the Circle:  A training program to support Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ folks with lived experience of gender-based violence 

Reconciliation Curriculum Resources:
A timeline of residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
York University: Understanding the Land Acknowledgement & Indigenous Framework
Curricula for YWCA LINC and ESL: The Truth and Reconciliation Curriculum Guides – Project of Heart Ontario
Ordering educational resources for adults and by grade in English and French from TRC: https://archives.nctr.ca/index.php/Adults-teachers
The Scream: A lesson in Canadian history, courtesy of Kent Monkman

Capital Campaign and UX Design:
Stewart’s Publications

Living at the intersections
 The British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS) |
Breaking barriers: Unreserved marks Indigenous Disability Awareness Month
Disability as a Colonial Construct: The Missing Discourse of Culture in Conceptualizations of Disabled Indigenous Children
Honouring the Voices of Elders: Indigenous Perspectives of Disability in Education
Watch this video: What Does “Two-Spirit” Mean? | InQueery | them.
Review resources: Two-Spirit People of the First Nations
8 Things You Should Know About Two-Spirit People
Indigenous Peoples and Black People in Canada: Settlers or Allies?
Common Ground: An examination of similarities between Black and Aboriginal communities
Police Brutality in Canada: A Symptom of Structural Racism and Colonial Violence
Carceral Redlining: White Supremacy is a Weapon of Mass Incarceration for Indigenous and Black Peoples in Canada
Mixed Ancestry Indigenous Challenges

Advanced practice & decolonization resources:
Strong Helpers’ Teachings, Second Edition: The Value of Indigenous Knowledge in the Helping Professions
A Talk by Taiaiake Alfred: Research as Indigenous Resurgence
Paix, pouvoir et droiture: Un manifeste autochtone: Alfred, Taiaiake, Pageau, Caroline: 9782923926117: Books – Amazon.ca
The First Nations Principles of OCAP®
Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples
Nine action items to advance your organizations Indigenous relations
Decolonize your board

Interactive Map: Native-Land.ca
Report: United Nations – State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (SOWIP)
Report: Building Inclusion for Indigenous Peoples in Canadian Workplaces
Online Course: University of Alberta – Indigenous Canada
Resources: https://tryingtogether.org/community-resources/anti-racism-tools/
COco Toolbox: https://coco-net.org/toolbox/https://coco-net.org/boite-a-outils/?lang=fr
Bhasin Consulting Inc. E-guide: Cultivating Inclusion During Crisis, Including Working Remotely
Bhasin Consulting Inc. Webinar Recording: How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race

Solutions-Focused: State of Mind
Leading with Empathy: How to Be a Better Ally to Your Black Colleagues (Harvard Business Review)
Dear White People: Here Are 5 Uncomfortable Truths Black Colleagues Need You To Know (Forbes)
Understanding Ethics: If You Directly Benefit From Racism, Should You Be Profiting As An Anti-Racism Expert? (Forbes)
A data driven approach to addressing disparities in health care outcomes (HBR)
HR: How Employee Assistance Programs Can Help Your Whole Company Address Racism at Work

Anti-Black Racism –Tools & Resources
Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List
What Are Restorative Practices?
Racial Microaggressions Against Black Americans: Implications for Counseling
‘It’s a constant battle’: 20% of Canadians say they experience racism, survey reveals
Unmasking ‘racial micro aggressions’
‘Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks
Being a good, quiet and assimilated ‘model minority’ is making me angry | Masako Fukui
Performative Allyship Is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead)
DISMANTLING ANTI-BLACK BIAS IN DEMOCRATIC WORKPLACES: A TOOLKIT
Lopes, T. (2000). Dancing on Live Embers: Challenging Racism in Organizations. Between the Lines Publishing.
Resources for Ending Anti-Black Racism
‘Should you speak up or should you stay silent?’: The impact of everyday racism
ETFO White Privilege 

Sample Policy Documents & Co-Created Indigenous Frameworks:
City of Toronto and OCASI: Toronto For All: Confronting Anti-Black Racism Initiative Community Conversation Guide Framework
A BETTER WAY FORWARD: Ontario’s 3-Year Anti-Racism Strategic Plan
Ontario Human Rights Commission Provincial Plan: Anti-Black Racism Strategy