All webinars are exclusive for employees of our National & Regional Partners and take place on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 1 pm ET. For description details and registration, follow the accompanying links. Access details will be emailed to you closer to the date for which you registered.
Presenter: Amanda Spakowski (she/her), Diversity & Inclusion/Talent Acquisition Professional
Description: Employers often cite elusive “pipeline problems” as an excuse for their lack of diversity. But it’s often issues with talent acquisition processes, not a lack of LGBTQ2+ talent, that keep queer and trans job seekers out of the workforce. When it comes to inclusive selections and onboarding processes, little changes can often make a big difference. In this webinar, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist Amanda Spakowski will show the many ways employers can be inclusive of LGBTQ2+ talent throughout the selections and onboarding process and will demonstrate all of the little things that, put together, create a culture of belonging.
Presenter: Jade Pichette (they/them), Manager of Programs, Pride at Work Canada
Description: Inclusion is often driven by employees on their journey to create workplaces that are welcoming of everyone. The best employers understand that employee resource groups (ERGs), business resource groups (BRGs), affinity groups, and inclusion councils that leverage the lived experience of their employees from marginalized communities make their workplaces more inclusive. This webinar, presented by Pride at Work Canada Manager of Programs Jade Pichette, will focus on the life cycle of employee resource groups, strategic planning, event management, and best overall best practices for effective and inclusive ERGs.
Presenter: Yasmeen Persad (she/her), Trans Program Coordinator, The 519
Description: Whether they have been out for years or getting ready to transition in the workplace, there’s ample evidence to show that trans workers need more support to succeed in Canadian workplaces. This webinar, presented by experienced trans educator Yasmeen Persad, will provide concrete recommendations on how all workers can support trans colleagues, and advocate for more trans inclusive workplaces. Citing cases ruled on by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Persad will speak to how employers can not just meet their legal obligations, but go beyond accommodation to acting in allyship with trans communities.
Presenter: Sara Wolfe (she/her/they), Director, Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada
Description: During this presentation, Sara Wolfe will discuss the opportunities to decolonize approaches to inclusion and diversity efforts, and the lived realities of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ Indigenous people in employment and service delivery. Integrating decolonization approaches into gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation inclusion will be more effective in creating organizational change. Concrete examples of how to integrate Indigenous ways of knowing into action.
Presenter: Annie Pullen Sansfaçon (she/her) (Ph.D. Ethics, Social work, DeMontfort University, UK), Associate Professor at the University of Montreal‘s School of Social Work
Description: The concept of being an “ally” is now in common parlance. How can I be an ally for my colleagues who have a trans, nonbinary, gender creative, and genderfluid child or who are in the process of coming out? How can we better support and help them? How do I correct myself when I make a mistake? Join us for a presentation that will allow you to better understand the experiences of oppression and resistance of trans, nonbinary, gender creative, and genderfluid youth and their families and learn best practices to support them.
Presenter: Cicely Belle Blain (they/them), CEO, Cicely Blain Consulting
Description: In this session Black Lives Matter Vancouver co-founder and former organizer, Cicely Belle Blain will discuss the importance of intersectionality in movement building and equity, diversity and inclusion work. Black Lives Matter has long been a champion of liberating all marginalized people and offers poignant and powerful teachings on intersectional liberation. Let’s unpack how these tools and teachings can translate into our workplaces, communities and shared spaces.
Presenter: Jefferson Darrell (he/him), Founder, Breakfast Culture
Description: Diversity & Inclusion is not just a “nice-to-have.” It’s a “must-have” if an organization is to achieve the highest standard of recruitment, performance and retention for viable, sustainable growth. BREAKFAST CULTURE’s Diversity and Inclusion Audit is a comprehensive measurement and analysis process to understand where your organization lies and how to move it along the DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Continuum*. This is one of the first steps towards cultivating a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace culture. In this session you will learn about the DEI Continuum* and how Breakfast Culture uses current tools, including leading edge Employee Engagement Enterprise software and/or Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks (GDIB) to analyze where your organization currently resides on the DEI Continuum*.
*The Human Equity Advantage: Beyond Diversity to Talent Optimization, Wilson 2013
Presenter: Antoine Beaudoin Gentes (he/him) Chief Operating and Development Officer, Gender Creative Kids Canada
Description: The importance of developing an actual and clear image for a community organization or any project related to current issues. The organization’s French name, formerly “Enfants transgenres Canada,” was henceforth “Jeunes identités créatives” – their Development Director explains the process behind this change. After a collaborative internal reflection process around the objective of finding a name that would better embody the organization’s renewal and its revisited mission: “Jeunes identités créatives” presented itself and organically settled inside the hearts of the teams. Is your brand or business truly authentic to your core values? To give life to an organization, we must constantly work to strengthen and develop it.
Presenter: Kai Scott (he/him), President, and Hélène Frohard-Dourlent (they/she), Senior Strategist, TransFocus Consulting
Description: Do you want to hear from companies that are doing the in-depth work to support greater inclusion of gender diversity among employees and customers? You may wonder: What’s it like to do this work? What can I learn from these companies’ insights and ‘aha’ moments during implementation? What are the unique considerations, like cultural and systems factors as well as French translation? Join us for this candid and intimate fireside chat between Bell Canada and TransFocus Consulting to delve into these questions and more. You’ll leave having a more realistic idea of what is involved and what to expect to prepare for or affirm your company’s journey.
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