EDI Project Led By Green Communities Canada Gets Support From the Government of Canada

With support from the fund, we are happy to announce a new project that will enable 20 of GCC’s member organizations to advance their commitment to EDI and reconciliation through a shared, facilitated action development and implementation process. This initiative will help us embed EDI into the community climate action work happening in nine of Canada’s 10 largest cities — where 70 per cent of the national population resides! 

“We believe that climate action must honour, mobilize, and build the knowledge and capacity found within communities and should be rooted in an environmental justice framework,” says Brianna Salmon, GCC’s Executive Director. “We understand the climate crisis is also a crisis of inequity and disparity, and through this project we commit to working alongside our members to advance a collective and strategic project that embeds equity more deeply in our work and contributes to reconciliation through action.” 

The project will support four key processes — equity, diversity and inclusion strategy creation within participating organizations, group training, network-wide resource development, and collective accountability monitoring. 

Green Communities Canada will provide support throughout these processes, including formal workshops, regular coaching, the facilitation of peer-to-peer learning, and the development of a supportive resource library.  

This project has three primary objectives: 

1. Establish or Deepen EDI and Reconciliation Strategies for 20 organizations: These strategies will be shaped by the goals, capacity, and activities of each organization. For most, they will provide an important starting point and include specific actions and measurable outcomes.
2. Develop EDI and Reconciliation Training Program and Resource Library on GCC’s Project Portal: These resources will support ongoing learning, implementation, and action and will be maintained by GCC.
3. Define Collective EDI and Reconciliation Accountability and Reporting Framework: This framework will enable collective impact reporting to promote accountability across the network and within the communities we serve.

This initiative will help to build the capacity and competency each organization needs to act towards reconciliation and greater equity. This will in turn support changes in the structure of our organizations and help us develop and deliver programs with an equity-embedded lens.