“We’re all in this together,” one of the great lessons of the pandemic, is equally applicable to healing racism. Racism, too, is not healed until we’re all healed. There are no islands of safety and no “us and them”. Healing racism requires us to come together just as much as the public health challenges we've faced.
It was over a year ago, in January 2021, that the Victoria Multifaith Society and the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy, along with 2 advisory groups, started the journey towards creating the Learning Anti-Racism Toolkit. We met regularly with people in Victoria and around the province, and were privileged to have people from a wide variety of backgrounds, professions and ages, to advise us at every step of the process.
It was a totally engrossing, creative and challenging process to put the Toolkit together in a way that would be interesting and beneficial for a wide variety of groups. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be fun, but it definitely was! Gratifying, too (as in breathing a sigh of relief), when the Toolkit went through 22 reviewers during these last months, producing not only the last edits but overwhelmingly positive and encouraging comments.
And now we have that long-awaited Launch Date! On Tuesday 29 March, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. online, the event “Introduction to Learning Anti-Racism” will provide an overview of the Toolkit and model the first of its eight workshops, The Human Family.
In keeping with a participative philosophy, a selection of pre-workshop materials is sent with registration. These include links to online resources that range from TED talks to TV shows to articles and videos, curated to provide knowledge and insight into the subject. They’re presented "buffet style" to allow for different learning styles and time constraints. People take as much as they can, bringing thoughts and questions to a discussion where everyone is learning, including the facilitator.
And speaking of facilitators, we hope that the Introduction will inspire people to start their own groups to do some or all of the workshops. There’s a facilitator’s guide for those who are willing to take on that role and give it a go, or seek external help from others.
The Toolkit includes:
- Sessions on anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism and anti-Asian racism
- Step-by-step instructions
- Links to online resources
- Facilitator's guidelines and a glossary
All of these workshops are designed for learning through insight, empathy, and listening, and for finding ways to create an increasingly inclusive province and country where everyone belongs, all can contribute and all are considered worthy of kindness and respect.
To register and receive the Zoom link and Pre-Workshop Materials, please RSVP with Eventbrite. We welcome everyone interested in this important issue to spread the word.
If you are unable to attend the event but would like to receive a free copy of the Toolkit & Facilitator’s Guide, please .
We’re grateful to the 91原创 Foundation and the BC Multiculturalism Branch, for their funding, encouragement and support for this project.
Sheila Flood is the E.D. of the Victoria Multifaith Society and member of the Bahá’í community.
You can read more articles on our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking, HERE: /blogs/spiritually-speaking
