Professional Development
How you can get involved?
The following training session was provided at the OCASI Professional Development Conference, October 17-19, 2007. This training will be offered again in February and March 2008 with the sponsorship of the City of Toronto.. Please visit the Settlement.Org/AtWork site for further information and Registration Forms.
Community Development Strategies to Prevent Family Violence
The purpose of the workshop is to enable participants to develop awareness of community development strategies that individuals and organizations can employ when working with women and families experiencing domestic violence. It is targeted at frontline workers and their managers so that organizations and individuals can begin to develop context-specific strategies that they could immediately employ as part of their ongoing violence prevention work.
The following learning outcomes will be achieved by the end of the day.
- Understand family violence as a community issue
- Enhance awareness of systemic barriers affecting immigrant and refugee women, particularly from racialized communities
- Understand varied approaches to community organizing on a continuum
- Learn ‘alternative’ ways of addressing family violence through community development mechanisms and strategies Inspire creativity with practical outcomes through the use of case studies
Facilitators
Andalee Adamali is the Program Manager at the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) and has been involved in research, planning, community development and engagement work for over 10 years. She is also the coordinator of CASSA's Planning Service Coalition, made up of South Asian service providers in the GTA who are working with South Asian families experiencing violence.
Angie Rupra, M.S.W., R.S.W., has worked in the social service sector providing both frontline service and community development work. Her experience includes working with Herizon House, the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians, the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto, and the Ministry of Attorney General. She is currently employed with Springtide Resources: Ending Violence against Women as the Community Outreach and Education Coordinator where she oversees both the Immigrant & Refugee Women’s Program and Volunteer Program.
Train The Trainer Manual: A Resource for Mobilizing Communities
Produced by the Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion, an OCASI partner in this project.
Although some of the references in this Manual are specific for Hamilton, most of the materials are not specific to that city. This comprehensive Manual addresses most of the issues relevant to this project, such as community participation and engagement, community development, social inclusion, working with volunteers, Human Rights, anti-racism and others.
Purpose of this Training Manual
This training manual is designed to serve as a key educational resource in the development and dissemination of models, guidelines and best practices for anti-racist change initiatives across all communities and sectors within Hamilton. Designed primarily as an introductory guide to community development, capacity building, civic inclusion and engagement, this manual will be utilized as a key educational tool for HCCI staff, affiliates, community members, youth and institutions. It will also help community members and institutions strengthen their capacity, practice inclusivity and diversity thereby creating a Hamilton free of racism and hate.
As an educational tool, this training manual targets community members and institutions who are interested in mobilizing others to action and implementing initiatives embedded with values of diversity, inclusion and anti-racism. It will provide them with the requisite knowledge and skills essential to effecting anti-racist changes within Hamilton. It will further increase public education and public awareness about issues of racism and systemic barriers, which limit access to resources and opportunities. In addition, this training manual will be implemented along with the ‘Ending Racism Tool-kit to help facilitate increased public education and public awareness. For those already possessing knowledge about the issues, this training manual provides a resource for reviewing and /or exploring and initiating community development and anti-racism change initiatives. Subsequently supplementing the efforts on institutional change by challenging systemic barriers and sharing resources with institutional and community partners.
By utilizing this training manual, HCCI staff and affiliates, community members, youth and institutions will be able to facilitate and assist in the development of strategies that facilitate full and active participation of youth, ethnic, religious, and cultural communities in Canadian society. This will help the community mobilizers, youth and institutions to develop an understanding of the different facets of racism and the power imbalances within our society. It will also empower the community members and institutions with tools to identify racism and develop appropriate strategies to address it. Finally, it will promote active dialogue among youth, community members and institutions and encourage them to engage and fully participate in the transformative processes within their various communities.
To access an extensive overview of the manual, please visit http://www.hcci.ca/pdfs/resource_pdf/Train_the_Trainer_Manual_A_Resource_for_Mobilizing_Communities_March2007.pdf.
The Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion has also prepared materials and a power point presentation for the following sessions. Contact May-Marie Nuyaba, Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion, e-mail mnuyaba@hcci.ca if you are interested in participating in future trainings or offering the training in your organization or community.
- Challenging and Overcoming Systemic Barriers - PPT format (211 KB)
- Understanding and Implementing Civic Inclusion and Engagement - PPT format (414 KB)
- Understanding Community - PPT format (183 KB)
- SISO Workshop Plan – Using an Anti-Racism Lens - PDF format (38 KB, 2 pages)
View other related training resources produced on Hamilton’s Centre for Civic Inclusion website.
Community Engagement & Networking for Change: Strategies to improve wages and working conditions for immigrant workers
The following training session was provided at the OCASI Professional Development Conference, October 17-19, 2007 by the Workers’ Action Centre.
The Workers’ Action Centre’s latest report “Working on the Edge” demonstrates the urgent need for improvements to wages and working conditions. With little enforcement of our basic rights, many immigrant workers face a lawless workplace everyday. How do we incorporate strategies into our work to ensure that our clients have basic information on their rights and are connected to the broader movement that is calling for improvements to labour legislation and policy?
Through discussion, popular education methods and case studies, facilitators will present an overview of the findings of this report that chronicles seven years of immigrant workers experiences. Participants will discuss practical community engagement strategies that as frontline workers or agencies serving immigrants can use to advocate for better wages and enforcement of basic laws.
If your organization is interested in capacity building sessions on themes such as workers rights, human rights, community engagement and other related issues or you want to know more about this organization please visit http://www.workersactioncentre.org
Count Me In! Tools for an Inclusive Ontario
Developed by the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse (OPC) as part of the project Developing a Social and Economic Inclusion Toolkit for Ontario Communities
Are you concerned about how individuals are included in our communities and how communities are included in society? Learn how to build the capacity of communities to be more inclusive with the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse’s Count Me In! Toolkit. Developed with intensive and rigorous community input, this leads you step to step to develop inclusive community programs. The toolkit is centred on the idea of inclusion –the feeling and reality of belonging- and translates it into understandable everyday terms. This widely applicable toolkit will challenge you to think in novel ways through the social determinants of health. This is a toolkit that can be used by community developer or by community groups on their own.
Download the English version of the toolkit on www.count-me-in.ca and the French version on www.jen-fais-partie.ca. You'll find the toolkit, a report on the phase II project, plus other work that OPC has done on inclusion.
The Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse (OPC) provided the two following sessions at the OCASI Professional Development Conference, October 17-19, 2007:
‘Count me in!’ A toolkit for Developing Inclusive Community Programs
Download a copy of their presentation - PDF format (435 KB, 26 pages).
Community Engagement as Health Promotion
Download a copy of their presentation - PDF format (287 KB, 21 pages).
If your organization is interested in these training sessions, please contact Subha Sankaran at s.sankaran@opc.on.ca or Peggy Schultz, p.schultz@opc.on.ca, Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse.