The Coalition for Racial Equity in Education is in partnership with Urban Alliance on Race Relations and is funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The project builds the capacity of Muslim-identifying high school students and parents with advocacy skills to have their voices heard in decision-making spaces on school boards.
Goal: The goal of this project is to combat racism and Islamophobia in Ontario’s education system through community capacity building and advocating for systemic changes in policies at school boards.
From 2020 to 2022 CASSA worked directly with the Peel District School Board and Toronto District School Board to advocate for an Anti-Islamophobia board-wide strategy. We gained tremendous success in October 2021 when the Peel District School Board became the first school board in Canada to pass a motion to establish a comprehensive Anti-Islamophobia strategy. TDSB is not there yet, but we are confident with the new Trustees just elected to the board, we can get this done!
The Equity in Education project has successfully wrapped up its consultation phase with the DDSB. Over the summer, we conducted workshops with students, parents, and staff, gaining valuable insights into their perspectives and feelings about their Muslim identity.
Throughout this process, organizations such as NCCM and MEND collaborated closely with us. With the consultations now complete, we have entered the writing phase of the strategy. NCCM is currently leading the drafting process, and we are looking forward to releasing the strategy soon.
We are currently recruiting parents and high school students from HDSB, OCDSB, UGDSB, and WRDSB to work with us through this next phase of the campaign!