Climate Change is Not the Change We Want! Community Connection Dialogue Between Changemakers and Youth Leaders for Inclusive Social Transformation
Event Overview
The target year for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is less than a decade away. By 2030, the global collective will have some reckoning to do on how much progress the world has made on environmental and social inequities. Which advancements have made a positive impact on people’s lives? Where is progress slow or stalled? What ambitious, bold and accountable priorities can be implemented to accelerate transformation? The pandemic has reversed progress on all Sustainable Development Goals according to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, the latest official UN reports that monitor progress. Interlinked crises - the global pandemic, climate change, nature loss, conflicts and social injustices have led to cascading food insecurity, housing insecurity and forced migration, etc. These social shocks are worsened by gender and racial inequities. Reinvigorating progress toward global goals requires comprehensive and collaborative action for change.
To respond to this challenge, this community connection dialogue organized by CIFAL York’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee will bring to the table professionals and community youth voices from Humber River - Black Creek Youth Council. Practitioners will represent a wide range of sectors, including women & tech; public health and nursing; housing and social equity; secondary education; post-secondary education. The objective is to debate and co-design the foundation for radical collaboration to accelerate the implementation of the UN SDGs by 2030. This dialogue is premised on the knowledge that social transformation needs radical collaboration between a diverse range of voices, disciplines, and sectors. The event will create a living lab for identifying priorities and making recommendations for impactful short term implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion as a core value and accelerator of social transformation . This event seeks to build new bridges between the university and society and between professional change makers and youth leaders with cross-sectionalities of women, LGBTQIA+, black and Indigenous voices through radical collaboration and changemaking. It will exemplify the contribution of community dialogues and living labs to knowledge creation within the humanities and social sciences.
Date: May 29, 2023
Time: 9:30AM-11:30AM EDT (Toronto Time)
Location: Schulich School of Business, Seymour Schulich Auditorium W141
Programme Leaders:
Dr. Idil Boran
Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York university
Associate Director, CIFAL York
Julia Satov
Co-Chair & Strategic Advisor, EDI Committee, CIFAL York & UNITAR
Panelists:
Dr. Dawn R. Bazely
Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, York University
Dr. Nick Mulé
Professor, School of Social Work and School of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
Lee Truong
Public Health Nurse, Durham Region Health Department
Amanpreet Chonkrian
City of Toronto Councillor Outreach Assistant
Dr. Joseph J. Smith
TDSB Vice Principal
Emily Rowe
Senior Manager, Social Enterprise, Blue Door
Matias de Dovitiis
TDSB Trustee, Ward 4, Humber River - Black Creek
Youth Organizations and Community Participants:
Generation Chosen is a non-profit organization devoted to interrupting intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty in lower-income communities.
Our program caters to the needs of racialized, marginalized and disenfranchised inner-city youth by focusing on 4 key areas, which we believe, fundamentally catalyze holistic human development:
- Mental Health
- Emotional Intelligence
- Education
- Civic Engagement
At Generation Chosen we seek to inculcate five key virtues that we think overwhelmingly contribute to the emotional and mental health of any subject. These virtues are made manifest in all of our programming, and constitute the very matrix of our organization:
- Humility
- Integrity
- Courage
- Boldness
- Perspective
Humber River - Black Creek Youth Council
The Humber River - Black Creek Youth Council is dedicated to youth advocacy and creating meaningful changes within the community. We foster civic engagement by creating leadership opportunities for our youth and building positive connections through meetings and community events. We focus on educating youth on political processes and politics. This is accomplished by educating youth on the responsibilities of different levels of government and demonstrating how political actions impact people's lives. In addition to introducing youth to the political processes, we provide them with volunteer and job opportunities. The council offers membership on life skills and personal skills that youth can use and carry with them as they continue to progress in life.
Social Justice & Equity Student Group
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