“If we love one another, God lives in us.” (1 John 4:12)

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board is committed to addressing and dismantling all forms of injustices that impact students and staff through establishing a culture of respect and belonging that fosters safe and inclusive learning environments. "We All Belong” forms the foundation of inclusivity here at the DPCDSB. As a Catholic community we work to ensure that learning spaces are accepting and that the dignity of the human person is always centred by fostering genuine trusting relationships with all students, staff, family, and community members, guided by a sense of mutual respect.

We Are Called To Love, the 2024 Catholic Education Week theme reminded us that all God’s children are loved unconditionally. Our faith calls us to celebrate, love and respect one another as we are all wonderfully made in the image and likeness of God.

The DPCDSB continues to be dedicated to identifying and eliminating barriers and systemic forms of injustices that impact student well-being, learning and achievement through ensuring that all are welcomed, included, and valued.

This section highlights programs and initiatives planned through the Equity and Indigenous Education Department that have been developed to support the achievement and well-being of students and staff within the DPCDSB. These initiatives have been created and designed with input from key stakeholders across the DPCDSB community. These programs actualize the Catholic Board Improvement Learning Cycle, Policy 34: Indigenous Education, the Strategic Plan to Dismantle Anti-Black Racism, the Province of Ontario’s Anti-Racism Strategic Plan, and Ontario’s Equity Action Plan.

Capacity Building for System Leaders and Principals and Vice-Principals:

System leaders participated in a learning opportunity with anti-racist educator, author and spoken word artist Khodi Dill to explore important considerations when selecting and approaching texts with an anti-oppressive lens. This talk emphasized the importance of uplifting under-heard stories.

Administrators and senior executives were invited to participate in professional development opportunities focused on Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy. The goal was to address and respond to existing disparities by prioritizing resources, programs, and teaching approaches that improve student achievement. This approach aims to tackle systemic racial inequities using an anti-oppressive framework that seeks to decolonize educational spaces.

Capacity Building for Educators:

Mentoring for Racialized Candidates for Leadership Positions: Within this programming, all staff of the board that identify as Black and Racialized have the opportunity to meet with the Superintendent of Equity and Indigenous Education and Superintendent of Human Resources and Employee Relations to learn about the process and pathways towards leadership in various areas of the board.

Catholic Equity Leads: Every school has a Catholic Equity Lead. The focus of this role is to build and sustain capacity, support student achievement, and improve support for students within our schools and communities, thereby promoting the well-being of all students. Catholic Equity Leads for the 2023-2024 school year, engaged in a presenter series led by Dr. Andrew B. Campbell about ways in which educators can gain tools that allow them to confront racism, examine systemic barriers, and explore pedagogy that fosters an anti-oppressive practice with a focus on anti-Black racism.

Keynote Presenter Engagements: Teacher librarians, consultants, coordinators and itinerant teachers participated in a learning opportunity with anti-racist educator, author and spoken word artist Khodi Dill to explore important considerations when selecting and approaching texts with an anti-oppressive lens. This talk emphasized the importance of uplifting under-heard stories.

Equity Virtual Presenter Series: Educators engaged in yearlong Equity Virtual Presenter Series surrounding building capacity with the following presenters and topics:

• Rabia Khokar: From Kindness to Anti-Racism: Centering Identity and Critical Consciousness for Critical Teaching
• Elly Gotz: Anti-Semitism
• Alpha Education: Anti-Asian Racism The Myth of the Model Minority

Learning Table Series: The Learning Table Series is offered throughout the school year as an informal and relaxed virtual workshop to participate in impactful discussions with members from the Equity team and other board colleagues on topics surrounding best practices in equity and social justice.

Resource Development

SharePoint Site for Equitable and Inclusive Education Resources: The Equitable and Inclusive Education SharePoint site provides resources to support all forms of equity within the DPCDSB. This site provides equity and diversity briefings, resource links to lesson plans and articles on equitable and inclusive education, anti-racism education, and pedagogical practices. The site is designed to increase awareness and knowledge of issues and initiatives related to equitable and inclusive education, and support the Catholic Board Improvement Learning Cycle.

Black Futures Speakers Series: Black Futures Speakers Series is a digital resource created to ensure that the stories, contributions and achievements of individuals within the Black community are highlighted and shared. Through this speaker series, individuals share their personal stories and insights on the realities of anti-Black racism, Black identity and its intersections, education, politics, mental health and well-being, constructs of beauty, social justice and activism, Black Canadian history, and other timely topics. To support the 2023-2024 Catholic Education Week Theme of “We Are Called to Love” the Black History Month theme for 2024 was “Sustaining Black Joy Through Responding to the Enduring Call to Love”, the following individuals were interviewed to share their stories:

• Brandon English
• Nancy Falaise
• Rachel Adjei
• Sophia Jackson

Student Programming

Black History Month 2024: Every February, Canadians participate in Black History Month events and celebrations that honour the legacy of Black people in Canada and their communities. The 2024 theme for Black History Month was Sustaining Black Joy Through Responding to the Enduring Call to Love. As such, the events planned for February 2024 were rooted in the virtue of love. System programming educators were invited in February and beyond to lead students through an intentional celebration of the rich history, contributions and achievements of Black communities. Learning engagements included workshops/read alouds with the following:

• Khodi Dill
• Rachel Adjei
• Yolanda T. Marshall

Nia Centre for the Arts: Secondary students across the DPCDSB had an opportunity to participate in a three-part workshop with Nia Centre for students to learn about Black arts, culture and tradition, while building their knowledge of the historic and current contributions of Black Canadians. This three-part webinars series, A Look Back, A Look Within and A Look Ahead, allowed students and teachers to expand their knowledge of Black History from a Canadian context, and deepen their understanding of the role art has played to confront injustices, systemic racism and amplify the voices and stories of Black people and community across generations. Through these webinars, students and teachers gained insight into past and present leaders/changemakers who have helped to shape and transform Black identity and learn how they can use art to be the future changemakers of tomorrow. These webinars centre storytelling and help students foster a healthy identity and expand on the ideas of Black joy, resistance and futures through the arts, while encouraging student imagination.

Graduation Coaches for Black Students: The Graduation Coach for Black Students Programming supported two secondary schools along with ongoing support for sustaining affinity spaces within schools and servicing over 200 students with advocacy, social, emotional and identity affirming support and pathways to post-secondary. The Graduation Coaches offered board-wide consultations and curated culturally responsive programming. The Graduation Coach program facilitated programming to secondary students’ system wide, facilitated an opportunity for students to attend mentorship programs focusing on post-secondary education, delivered a three-week elementary program discussing topics such as microaggressions, privilege, allyship, identity, and bias to elementary schools and partnered with various post-secondary schools to provide mentorship and STEAM programming onsite at a local university. Coaches also created leadership opportunities for two Black identifying students from each secondary school to represent student voice as part of the BCAC student council of over 50 students. The BCAC council attended three workshops throughout the year, bringing the work back to their larger school bodies.

Author Virtual Read Aloud Series: The author series seeks to highlight the underheard story and offer a counter narrative. Bringing students stories of brilliance, genius and joy through a virtual read aloud. The 2023-2024 author series included stories from:

• Anoosha Syed
• Khodi Dill
• Yolanda T. Marshall

Collaboration with Community

Black Community Advisory Council: The DPCDSB Black Community Advisory Council (BCAC) met regularly throughout the school year to discuss and advise on how best to support the achievement and well-being of Black students. For the 2023-2024 school year the council came together to finalize a council terms of reference, update and revise the Strategic Plan to Dismantle Anti-Black Racism and advise on DPCDSB census findings and support with culturally relevant and responsive resource recommendations.

Christmas Community Engagement: The Black Community Advisory Council hosted its first annual Christmas event. Families and community members were invited to join the community for crafts, treats and a read-aloud with local author Yolanda T. Marshall. Community members gathered for an evening to celebrate the joy of the season.

Indigenous Education Initiatives

Indigenous Education Council

The DPCDSB Indigenous Education Council (IEC) met regularly throughout the year to offer parent/guardian and community input on the Board Action Plan for Indigenous Education, in addition to providing an advocacy role for parents/guardians and the community. The council continued to support and inform the following programming:

Anishinaabemowin Language Programs

Our night school secondary program (Levels 3 and 4) continues to be a success and now has students from numerous school boards enrolled in our language program. Our Saturday language nest continues to provide Anishinaabemowin language learning for young learners along with their caregivers. This language nest is modelled after the world-renowned Te Reo Maori language nest programs in New Zealand.

Indigenous Grad Coach/Liaison Program

Indigenous community members worked alongside board Indigenous Education consultants to provide mentoring and guidance to Indigenous students in both elementary and secondary schools. They also assisted with community outreach, family supports and cultural events throughout the year.

Supporting Indigenous Students

Indigenous programs included in school presentations such as Inuit games, Onkwehonwe games, Metis education, Treaty education as well as cultural presentations of the Anishinaabek and Haudenosaunee. DPCDSB ran a successful sweet water program in the new traditional teaching lodge at Silvercreek Outdoor Education Centre. Students in Grades 5 and 6 were immersed in cultural practices related to the harvesting of sweet water and learning how to boil this into maple syrup while understanding the deeper connection to the land and cycles in nature. Teachers were supported with connecting mathematics and science through this program. Secondary students participated in a summer program on the land up north at Niimkii Aazhibikoong where they built a birch bark canoe and travelled north to Grassy Narrows to participate in the Sun Dance ceremony. Also, this year, secondary Indigenous students travelled to Aotearoa (New Zealand) where they were immersed in Moari language and culture programs and engaged with their youth to investigate ways to bring this learning back to Canada as a way to revitalize our Indigenous languages and cultures here.

Supporting All Students

Over 50,000 students participated in our Visiting Knowledge Keepers Program where K-12 classes engaged in numerous presentations on a variety of topics connected to learning about Indigenous Peoples’ histories, contributions and knowledge systems. Secondary schools that offer any of the First Nations, Metis and Inuit Studies courses are supported throughout the year to ensure that curriculum delivery aligns with our Indigenous Education policy. Supports include guest speakers from the Indigenous community to provide cultural knowledge and first-hand accounts related to Indigenous peoples, histories, and contemporary realities. Eleven secondary schools signed up to participate in Book Club Program for English classes. Teachers received several professional development opportunities throughout the year and schools were provided with a suite of Indigenous authored books as a way to promote student choice and agency with respect to reading.

Supporting Educators

Numerous professional development sessions took place throughout the year for the following: four-part series for secondary English teachers, two-part series for Grades 1 and 2 teachers (new curriculum), four-part series for secondary art teachers, sessions for settlement workers and Indigenous Studies teachers. The additional qualification courses continue to be the best professional development provided for educators in order to adequately equip them in furthering their understanding of colonialism and how to ensure Indigenous rights and human rights are protected in schools and classrooms.

Community Engagement

DPCDSB continues to partner with the Indigenous Educators at the Peel District School Board to provide regular community events for students and families who identify as Indigenous. These events provide cultural opportunities and educational sessions throughout the year.