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The SDG: Good Health and Well-Being promotes good health for all ages, and focuses on having every child witness their 5th birthday, reduce the number of mental illness, end epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases, reduce the number of deaths and universal access to sexual and reproductive health services.

We thought that this SDG relates to our diverse classrooms, because we don’t know what are students go through outside our classrooms, as each student comes from a different culture, background and family. As educators, I believe it is important for us are aware of our students in giving them a safe environment that allows them to bring up any uncomfortable situations they may be going through. I believe this can help us make sure their health and well-being is in check.

The article, “RBC FLCC Stories | Community health and happiness in Eskasoni First Nation” discusses how a youth leader is working toward providing support for community health and personal hygiene practices by providing care packages for elders and families in the Eskasoni first Nations community. This is because local families are often forced to choose between food and hygiene products - due to budgeting and financing.

Within our classrooms and school community, having breakfast club for students, accessible hygiene products, and speakers come to present on diseases and mental illnesses can be ways to incorporate this SDG

Link: https://communityfoundations.ca/rbc-flcc-stories-community-health-and-happiness-in-eskasoni-first-nation/

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This story is a part of our RBC Future Launch Community Challenge (RBC FLCC) series, showcasing how youth are giving back and inspiring change by leading projects to address their communities' needs.
Eskasoni First Nation, in Eastern Cape Breton Island, is the largest Mi'kmaq community in the world. Deeply rooted in the Mi'kmaq culture, the Eskasoni community has a proud history of supporting its young people.

With the support of the RBC Future Launch Community Challenge, Community Foundations of Canada, the Ulnooweg Indigenous Communities Foundation and the Eskasoni Band Council, youth leader Bree Menge is ready to reciprocate that support, and give back to the community through her project Our Eskasoni Cares.

"This break we all received to be with our families, as per mandatory lockdown, has recharged us all on what is truly important: family and community," said Menge.

Project leader Bree Menge with her children enjoying the sunflower fields in Eskasoni First Nation

Through Our Eskasoni Cares, Menge is working to provide support for community health and personal hygiene practices. As explained by Menge, local families are often forced to choose between food and hygiene products when it comes to budgeting and financial planning. Food is at the top of the financial priority list, as feeding their family is critical, but hygiene sometimes gets missed.

"Our goal is to inform our community about the importance of hygiene," said Menge. The original aim of Our Eskasoni Cares was to host a series of workshops where participants could learn about good personal hygiene practices and put together bundles of personal care products to give to community members in need.

Now, those care packages are being delivered to elders and other individuals in the Eskasoni community. Amid the physical distancing precautions of the pandemic, the drop-off process has been tough, especially when completing an act and providing a gift that is inherently compassionate and affectionate.

"As Mi'kmaw people we are naturally affectionate through gestures, whether it be a simple handshake or a hug," said Menge. "Offering our packages and not being able to do a gesture was very different and in a way it was saddening, but we know what we did was perfect timing given our new normal."

Stronger communities are built together

Menge is proud of the project, and is honoured to have played a role in keeping the community safe amid the virus. COVID-19 has helped the community of Eskasoni, much like many communities around the world, discover some of the most positive and progressive things in their community, as well as some of the challenges that will need to be addressed for a healthy and sustainable future.

"We have seen that we are not as prepared as we should be when it comes to the needs of addressing mental health [issues], as we have seen a rise in anxiety amongst our youth," said Menge. But she believes in the power of her community to make changes for the better.

"Together, with the proper mindset, we can achieve and succeed through a pandemic as long as we work together, for each other, with each other."

To learn more about this project and Eskasoni First Nation, visit their Facebook page.

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RBC FLCC Stories | Community health and happiness in Eskasoni First Nation - Community Foundations of Canada

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This story is a part of our RBC Future Launch Community Challenge (RBC FLCC) series, showcasing how youth are giving back and inspiring change by leading projects to address their communities' needs. Eskasoni First Nation, in Eastern Cape Breton Island, is the largest Mi'kmaq community in the world.

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This journal looks at systemic and institutional racism in response to the death George Floyd last year. It focuses on the hesitation people have to address issues of social justice. Although the article doesn’t make specific reference to schools, we know racism in schools does exist. When faced with diverse learners, it’s important to unpack our biases, power, and privileges as we have discussed in this course.

“The challenge of systemic racism is not one we will tackle through grants. It’s one that requires us to take a look in the mirror (figuratively and literally – we might notice something), to look inward, and to ask ourselves some tough questions”

Although making an effort to increase funding to black-led organizations and building deeper connections with BIPOC communities are both important in our schools, the journal suggests understanding ourselves and our positionality is most vital to reducing inequalities.

Teaching for diverse learners requires implementing strategies such as DI and UDL to ensure all students needs are met. In doing so, we can give student equal access to the learning. Additionally, with diverse learners come diverse experiences. Ensuring that educators are implementing bias free progressive discipline and CRRP to allow students to see themselves in the content being learned and provide a safe space.

https://communityfoundations.ca/are-we-looking-in-the-mirror/

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An open letter to community foundations

It's been almost three weeks since the death of George Floyd in the United States; three weeks that have seen persistent protests and demonstrations take place around the world demanding an end to systemic racism and a fundamental reform of the systems and institutions within which it is entrenched. In Canada, the shooting deaths of Chantal Moore and Rodney Levi are staunch reminders that, despite the narrative we so often hear, systemic and institutional racism is far from a uniquely American reality.

As these calls are being made across the country, my colleague Andrea Dicks and I have been having conversations almost daily with community foundation leaders, many reaching out to ask questions like "what do we do?" or "how do we respond?"

As we've been exploring these questions over the past three weeks as a network, it's painfully obvious that the questions aren't new, nor is a recognition of the issues that prompt them.

In 2017, during Canada's sesquicentennial, we hosted the Belong 2017 Conference, an event at which many of you were in attendance. It was my fifth community foundation conference and first as CEO of Community Foundations of Canada. As a part of that event, I moderated a panel called " Vital Conversations on Belonging " with Desmond Cole, Senator Ratna Omidvar and Natan Obed, a panel widely identified as the most provocative and disruptive of that conference, and perhaps of any of the previous four conferences I attended. Allow me to summarize a few key points provided by the panel.

Desmond Cole shared stories about the adverse treatment of Black and brown migrant workers in Canada, and criticized Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson for his response to the killing of Abdirahman Abdi by the Ottawa Police Services, almost a year earlier.

Senator Omidvar, talked about how charities use people of colour to tokenize their Boards, in particular Boards surround themselves with people "like" themselves. And "like" gets in the way of inclusion.

Natan Obed identified how power and privilege has been used to further disenfranchise and marginalise Indigenous peoples across Canada.

In the weeks and months that followed, this sentiment was shared again and again by community foundation leaders and board members. One speaker in particular, Desmond Cole, was said to have caused many to feel particularly uncomfortable with a few going so far as to question our creating the space for his perspectives on institutional and systemic racism in Canada, especially during our 150 th year as a country - a year for celebration! The feedback was exclusively from one demographic (white people)...at a conference called "Belong".

For many in our network, Belong 2017 helped frame a critical conversation about equality, justice, truth and reconciliation that is being carried forward by many BIPOC staff, board members, leaders and allies across our network. These conversations in many ways question core assumptions about philanthropy and have played an important role in centring diverse voices and shifting power and resources in response to pervasive inequality in our communities.

Belong 2017 was also the start of a different, quieter series of conversations with many in our network urging me, as the new CEO, to refrain from embracing "activism" and taking on issues of social justice, human rights, and inequality. These types of topics, I was told, may upset donors or inhibit our ability to attract new endowments. Many politely identified that CFC seemed to be stepping into these new spaces now that they have a CEO of colour. A few even asked me what my white male co-leader (at the time) thought of all this? Surely, he would see things differently. Hmm, not quite!

As a rookie leader, it felt right at the time to be cautious, to listen and to meet people where they were. Today, I realize I lacked the fortitude then to take on an establishment that I am a part of, one that veils the hegemonic ideology of endowment-based philanthropy with capital accumulating incentives with the brand of community; an establishment that can value donors over the lived experience of community members; a philanthropy that leaves people behind.

At the conclusion of Belong 2017, the majority of our movement had no response for Desmond Cole's call to action except one of minimization, deflection and criticism. We treated him as an overzealous activist with an agenda. We claimed moral high ground in asserting that "we are the community foundation movement; we are neutral; we know our communities better than any and embrace inclusiveness and belonging. We are good." Clearly, we did not know our communities well enough. If we did, we would have affirmed Desmond Cole as speaking the truth; we might have done more to act over the past three years, and; we might have had more to say over the past three weeks.

Today, I can confidently say to those critics, there is plenty of work to be done. Systemic and institutional racism is alive in Canadian philanthropy. As a person of colour, it has been part of my experience in this sector and it's something I continue to witness and experience daily.

During my extensive travels across Canada, I often find myself in conversation with Board Chairs, CEOs and Executive Directors from the community foundation movement. In many cases, I am the only BIPOC person at the table. This observation takes place in a movement claiming to represent the most diverse set of communities on the planet. It takes me back to Senator Ratna Omidvar's reflection about "like" getting in the way of inclusion.

In our most recent conversations with community foundation leaders, many signaled actions like increasing granting to Black-led organizations, building deeper relationships with BIPOC communities and using our voice to show solidarity to the unique issues facing racialized Canadians. These are all important responses and we should pursue each and every one.

But they are also actions that reflect only what we choose to do now in community, not who we are and where we come from as a network. The challenge of systemic racism is not one we will tackle through grants. It's one that requires us to take a look in the mirror (figuratively and literally - we might notice something), to look inward, and to ask ourselves some tough questions:

Why have we been apprehensive to embrace social justice?

Why do we go silent when asked about our own power and privilege?

Why do we fail to acknowledge how our own business model perpetuates inequality?

Why did we ignore Desmond Cole?

Our last few conferences, through the efforts and leadership of BIPOC individuals and allies across our extended network, have aimed to provide space for young, Indigenous and diverse voices from across Canada to explore these questions with us. Many of you have embraced the discomfort and provocative voices as points of inflection for personal and institutional change. Others have asked me to bring back the "white guys in blue suits".

We can no longer follow the established norms of donor primacy, over emphasis on endowment growth or comforting our Board of Directors as an excuse for the status quo. We must step into the space of understanding who we are and how we are perpetuating racism in Canada through our own actions and behaviours.

Before we make any public leadership claim about racial tolerance or embracing diversity, we must first look in the mirror and ask those questions of ourselves, our board members, our donors and our leaders. This is work we're taking seriously at CFC, and it's work we intend to do alongside all of you in the days, weeks and months ahead. With belonging at the core of our purpose, it is imperative that we listen, act, and evolve now. Anything less and we're complicit.
Post updated on June 17, 2020

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Are we looking in the mirror? - Community Foundations of Canada

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It's been almost three weeks since the death of George Floyd in the United States; three weeks that have seen persistent protests and demonstrations take place around the world demanding an end to systemic racism and a fundamental reform of the systems and institutions within which it is entrenched.

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Iqbal Wehliye: Step 2/3 - Quality Education

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Iqbal Wehliye: Step 2/3 - Quality Education

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Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

- It is important to explain to students that they are so fortunate to be among the children/youth that have a chance to go to school everyday. There are a lot of reasons why youth and kids drop out of education. Conflict and natural disasters have disrupted the education of 75 million children. There are 168 million child labor workers aged 5 to 17, which unfortunately leads them to drop out of schools.

- A journal in the Community Foundations of Canada titled "New Year's Equity Resolutions" encourages us to take a different approach when creating our list of New Year's Resolutions this upcoming year. As we focus on fostering inclusive and equitable spaces in our classroom it is important to take concrete steps to shift power and strengthen community.

- A fun consolidation lesson we can implement into diverse classrooms before the holiday break would be to have students create a list of equity resolutions that will help them cultivate empathy and equity in the new year. This will help both students and teacher acknowledge the biases they bring into new spaces (unknowingly/ knowingly) and help them develop strategies that reinforce an open and honest dialogue where the power and responsibility is shared.

Link: https://communityfoundations.ca/new-years-equity-resolutions/

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Some SDG's that relate to diverse classrooms.

#10 “Reduced Inequalities”: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

#4: "Quality Education": Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

#3: "Good Health and Well-being": Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

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Step 1 :Read about the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and tell us which ones you think relate to our diverse classrooms. 

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Step 1 :Read about the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and tell us which ones you think relate to our diverse classrooms. 

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Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation

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In 2015, the United Nations (UN) member countries adopted a set of universal goals with the intention of shifting the world toward a more sustainable and resilient path by the year 2030. The new sustainable development agenda identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which target economic,…

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Step 2: Read about the Community Foundations of Canada. Scroll down and as a group read some of the journals that interest you so you can explain  the SDG to the rest of the class 

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Step 2: Read about the Community Foundations of Canada. Scroll down and as a group read some of the journals that interest you so you can explain  the SDG to the rest of the class 

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June 2017: A shock wave reverberates across the country. According to the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 14, Canada ranks 25th of 41 countries when it comes to children's well-being. And the picture gets even worse when you take a closer look at the details: 31st in relation to the suicide rate, 33rd concerning neonatal mortality, and 37th in terms of food security...

A grim birthday present: 2017 marked the country's 150th birthday.

Innocenti 14 confirmed many citizens' and organizations' observations, including those of the Foundation of Greater Montréal (FGM). Urgent action was needed. But what could be done?

At the time, the FGM was in the process of revamping the structure of Vital Signs of Greater Montréal, its biennial flagship publication for evaluating the health of Montréal's communities. What approach would more effectively identify local issues and challenges? How could these issues be tackled in the context of Canada's 150th and Montréal's 375th birthdays?

Rather than dwell on the past, the FGM decided to focus on the future, making the well-being of children the central theme of the 2017 issue. It was modelled on the Innocenti Report Card, which integrated and adapted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in its assessment of the well-being of children.

"We have been accused of being against a lot of things: against homelessness, against pollution, against hunger," explains Gauthier. "People were telling us: 'But what are you FOR?' The Sustainable Development Goals have become this affirmative answer to our efforts to improve the situation. We are for zero hunger, we are for healthy diets, we are for a sustainable environment, we are for quality education. We are for everything contained in the Sustainable Development Goals."

Other advantages: comparative analyses. Based on the same method used in the Innocenti report cards, Vital Signs can now situate Greater Montréal on a Canada-wide scale, which also makes it possible to closely monitor the further development of the situation. We are right at the heart of the definition of sustainable development.

The well-being of children in Montreal emerged as one of the top local priorities.

Goals Shaped by Local Realities

January 2018: The FGM's Board of Directors adopted a SDG-oriented approach in its 2018-2021 strategic plan, which was deployed with immediate effect across all the organization's activities, including its programs. According to Gauthier, the idea to join a planet-wide movement with shared goals also produced a "very stimulating" effect on the Board of Directors as well as all of the FGM's staff.

Shared goals indeed; however, of varying degrees and in accordance with local realities. One example: The rate of food insecurity among families with children in the Greater Montréal area is among the highest in Canada: 11% against 8% country-wide. "This came as a shock to us and to the entire community. It became evident once we began to dig deeper into this issue."

The FGM brought together all relevant stakeholders-governments, municipalities, health organizations, food banks, foundations, etc.-to focus on Montréal's Zero Hunger Initiative. Based on an ecosystemic approach, an actual map showing the issue's prevalence across the territory was elaborated. An overview of Phase 1 of this initiative, Métaportrait des publications portant sur la sécurité alimentaire à Montréal depuis 2006 [available in French only], was published in October 2018.

Input from local organizations helps to inform the FGM's SDG strategy.

Collective Impact

The publication of the overview is only the first stage in a concrete process being conducted by what Gauthier describes as a task force. "We want to be able to pinpoint the most pressing issues and undertake collective action and resource allocations to address them."

In the same spirit of partnership, the FGM has taken a seat around the table together with eight other foundations active in Greater Montréal in connection with Collective Impact, a Centraide initiative. The project, with over $21 million in funding from partner foundations, aims to reduce the effects of poverty by enhancing skills development in local communities.

Regarding its own community action projects, the FGM likewise has integrated five Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into its Community Initiatives Program. To be eligible for selection, a project must satisfy at least one of these SDG.

"We find ourselves implicated in mutually supportive work on a Canada-wide and international scale. It is very stimulating to work this way, to join in the push for real change on our planet."

Does this set an example to be emulated by other foundations and community organizations? "It isn't too complicated to take one or two or three goals and to say we are going to work on them in accordance with the concerns in our communities," Gauthier points out, referring, among other things, to the wealth of available documentary resources.

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Sustainable Development Goals: Making Sure That None of Montréal's Children Go Hungry - Community Foundations of Canada

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June 2017: A shock wave reverberates across the country. According to the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 14, Canada ranks 25th of 41 countries when it comes to children's well-being. And the picture gets even worse when you take a closer look at the details: 31st in relation to the suicide rate, 33rd concerning neonatal mortality, and 37th in terms of food security...

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Step 3: Learn more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Choose another link from the  Community Foundations Canada such as  1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals  2 Waterloo Global Science Initiative 3 Young Person’s Guide to Changing the World 4 The Planet & the 17 Goals (Comic Book) 5 My Peg  6 London Community Foundation (Vital Signs and the SDGs) 7 Canadian Index of Wellbeing –  Mapping to the SDGsWGSI Generation SDG BlueprintUN  10SDG Knowledge Platforms and tell us how we might use this resource in our diverse classrooms, 

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Step 3: Learn more about the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Choose another link from the  Community Foundations Canada such as  1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals  2 Waterloo Global Science Initiative 3 Young Person’s Guide to Changing the World 4 The Planet & the 17 Goals (Comic Book) 5 My Peg  6 London Community Foundation (Vital Signs and the SDGs) 7 Canadian Index of Wellbeing –  Mapping to the SDGsWGSI Generation SDG BlueprintUN  10SDG Knowledge Platforms and tell us how we might use this resource in our diverse classrooms, 

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Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - Cambridge & North Dumfries Community Foundation

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In 2015, the United Nations (UN) member countries adopted a set of universal goals with the intention of shifting the world toward a more sustainable and resilient path by the year 2030. The new sustainable development agenda identifies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which target economic,…

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)