How to Be An Ally: Indigenous Women’s Realities

This is an introductory workshop to talking about indigenous women’s realities and moving past stereotypes and changing perspectives. It also aims to build partnerships between Indigenous and mainstream service providers and organizations that can facilitate the provision of wrap-around, holistic supports for Indigenous children and families. This workshop will provide insights on how mainstream agencies can build capacity within their work to understand issues faced by Indigenous families, how to work with families’ Indigenous communities outside Toronto when a family has recently moved to the city, and the importance of outreach and asset mapping.

Speaker: Denise Booth McLeod

Denise Booth (McLeod) is Anishnawbe (Ojibway) and her ancestral lands are Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation on the North Shore of Lake Huron. She has worked closely with urban Indigenous community in Toronto as the Cultural Coordinator at the Native Canadian Cultural Centre, Urban Indigenous Family Violence Prevention and Culture Coordinator at the Native Women’s Resource Centre, and is currently the Indigenous & Community Engagement Coordinator at Toronto Birth Centre. She is also the co-founder of Ode’Min Giizis Indigenous Full Spectrum Doula Training program and is an instructor at the George Brown College’s Assaulted Women and Children’s Counselor and Advocate program.

Denise began her career in front line social service work in the United Kingdom working with people with intellectual disabilities. She now dedicates her time and efforts to her passion: preserving the cultures and traditions of Indigenous/Anishnawbe peoples and is committed to creating positive spaces that break down stereotypes and barriers where Indigenous peoples can be proud to self-identify. Denise is the Vice President of Street Haven at the Crossroads Board of Directors and Aboriginal Legal Services Community Council. Denise is also a proud member of Manifest Destiny’s Child Comedy Collective.

What is “How to be an Ally”?

As more and more of us confront the fact that the world is not equitable for all, it is crucial for us to understand what our role is in supporting one another and together, figure out the systems and society that work for everybody.

One step that we’re taking at the Centre for Social Innovation is partnering with incredible equity trainers to draw on their lived experiences and professional practice building bridges between communities to share their thoughts on how someone could be their ally. This is followed by a facilitated Q&A discussion in smaller groups.

Tickets

…………………………………………

About the cost and accessibility

The cost was a hard piece for us because we want this to be accessible to everybody, but we also wanted to honour the time of our facilitators and attach fair value to their work and ours.The cost of tickets is still reflecting a discount from both parties, but we’re comfortable with this if it means more people can attend.

If you find the cost prohibitive, we are offering 5 bursaries for each session on a first come, first serve basis. You do not need to a provide an explanation and we trust that these bursaries will go to people who really require them. For anyone requiring bursary or other accommodation (i.e. tokens, child minding), please email Shilbee (shilbee@socialinnovation.ca). We’re constantly learning and exploring different ways to live up to our value of creating healthy cultures and we’re always open to feedback!

…………………………………………

To check out future How to be an Ally workshops: https://socialinnovation.org/how-to-be-an-ally/