Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Project Report
6 Insights and Recommendations
The environmental scan offers an electronic snapshot in time on what is available across the BC post-secondary landscape with respect to AR and AH capacity building. Several insights were gleaned through the process as well as recommendations on how to close the gaps in the availability of resources that support AR and AH work.
Meaningful Change
PSIs have been mandated by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training to follow five principles of which lasting and meaningful reconciliation as well as equity and anti-racism have been highlighted as important areas for institutions to engage in. However, not all PSIs are at an equitable level of building capacity across their institution and community.
From the environmental scan, there is a range of readiness for AR and AH work: some institutions have established offices dedicated to anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion; others have mandated specific roles or created taskforces within the institution to build and implement an overarching strategy, while many institutions do not have the online presence of such. In juxtaposition, some institutions offered events, workshops and one-off conferences related to anti-racism, while other institutions showed no presence of these or any resources on their public-facing sites. Additionally, institutions pointed to external avenues for education, such as videos through LinkedIn Learning, training through the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI)[1], open educational resources, as well as password-protected access to an internal repository of resources that are only accessible to individuals affiliated with the institution.
Overall, institutions included in the environmental scan had public statements issued by senior leadership regarding commitments to ending systemic racism, violence and discrimination and a call to action and solidarity. Given the reliance of public-facing resources as part of the methodology in this scan, this begs the question: How are institutions creating a clear roadmap towards anti-racism and anti-hate?
The following recommendations address the above question:
Recommendation 1: Further Research
Developing an in-depth understanding of how AR and AH work is being approached across BC PSIs would provide a clearer picture. Further exploration with BC PSIs is needed to arrive at more comprehensive conclusions. This exploration should include consultations, surveys and the collection of qualitative and quantitative data from institutions, including roles or offices directly tasked with advancing AR, AH and EDI efforts as well as an exploration of steps taken to date to educate, train and provide ongoing support to faculty, staff, and students. Consultation could include units such as offices focused on EDI, human resources offices, as well as taskforces that have been struck by PSIs.
Recommendation 2: Evaluation of Impact
Resources, trainin