"Equity in Practice" Panel

The Systems Change Team at Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) invites you to join a live, in person, “Equity in Practice” Panel in conjunction with Collingwood Days 2022. The panel will be moderated by Maria dela Cruz, with openting by Tess Emnet Mengesha and panel guests Lydia Luk, Leila Trickey and Jaz Whitford.

This in-person dialogue will take place on Thursday, July 21, 2022, from 6-8pm PST at the CNH Main House, 5288 Joyce Street in Renfrew Collingwood, on the unceded homelands and territories of the Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nations. Dinner will be provided.

Systems Change brings communities together by taking action to solve the root causes of complex social problems. This means challenging ideas, beliefs, and behaviours of individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions. Through Systems Change, neighbours have the power to advocate and lead justice in the communities and places they care about and live in.

Equity-driven Systems Change calls for fair and just processes that are participatory, data-driven and produce measurable results over time which promote shifts in community trends, perspectives, policies and mental models to build healthy and resilient communities.

Participants will be limited to 25. Dinner will be provided.

Equity Panel Agenda

6:00pm: Dinner

6:30pm: Equity in Practice Panel

7:00pm: Q & A

7:15pm: Equity Dialogue

7:45pm: Close

Who are we?

Tess Emnet Mengesha

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Lydia Luk

Lydia is recognized for their work in the community by Xtra West twice, first as a Leader of the Future and the second time as one of Vancouver’s Top 30 Under 30, Celebrated BC’s Brightest Queers and and has been nominated twice for the Pride Legacy Awards for creating Safe Spaces in Community and Outstanding Youth Work. Most recently acted as project management for the Sexual and Gender Diversity Health Equity Collaborative (aka HEC)

Lydia has been involved with community organizing and peer-led education for 20 years working with youth, seniors, people with disabilities, newcomers, refugees, sexually and gender diverse folks across BC. As a person who lives in intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and class, Lydia brings their enthusiasm for intersectional community development and experience in community mobilization, engagement with social justice.

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Leila Trickey

Leila Trickey is the President of CNH’s Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of Single Mothers’ Alliance for Gender and Economic Justice. She sits on CNH’s Anti-Racism and Equity Committee (AR&E) and formerly on RISE Community Health Centre’s Advisory Committee. Leila is committed to transformative change through intersectional research methodologies, policy advocacy, and equitable community and health practices. She is currently a Community Engagement Specialist with United Way British Columbia and the loving mother of Sahel.

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Jaz Whitford

jaz is a mixed secwe̓pemc and scottish interdisciplinary artist who embodies anti-professionalism & anti-colonialism as a way to move toward a future where indigenous knowledge and ways of being are not only respected but valued & revered. using a range of materials, forms and mediums they work to investigate and express their lived experience and understanding of spirituality, resistance, ancestral connections, and community care.

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Maria dela Cruz

Maria dela Cruz (siya/she/they) is a Systems Change Community Developer with CNH; a trauma informed, decolonizing, anti-oppression, certified executive coach and facilitator; a peacemaking circle practitioner, a founding member of the Fierce Filipinx Femmes Ancestral Circle (FFFAC), formerly the Vice President of the Board of Directors of WAVAW, and the recent Vice President of her housing cooperative, on the unceded sacred ancestral homelands and territories of the Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) First Nations.

Maria leads anti-racism initiatives in community, works with organizations to decolonize their processes and practices, facilitates community consultations, and provides sliding scale or pro bono coaching and leadership empowerment to folx and youth in transition.