June 2021 Newsletter

Neethan Shan, Executive Director

"We are pleased to welcome Youth Fellowship Coordinators and a Research Projects Coordinator joining us at UARR for the summer through summer employment programs and opportunities. As we continue to grow our team and expand the scope of our projects, we rely on the support from each and every one of you.

We are very excited to share with you some details on our current programs and upcoming events. Preparations are underway for our academic conference, which focuses on racism related issues within education systems. Our Youth Fellowship programs are allowing youth to build valuable skills and networks for a range of political, public policy and government related opportunities. We are also continuing to support various organizations serving marginalized communities across Toronto to function through the challenges brought by the pandemic. We have completed a project that provided support to thirty racial equity focussed grassroots organizations in Scarborough to increase their capacity to do online programming. Please continue reading for more information about our projects and events."

Advocating for Equity in the Education System

Join us for this year's Academic Conference "Back to Basics"!

This event is a space to disseminate, analyze and present the learnings we have encountered thus far, related to racial equity in education. We hope to provide tools/roadmaps for parents and students to navigate equity related issues within the Ontario school boards. Sessions will include information on issues such as diverse hiring, impacts of COVID-19, and legal rights within the school system. Various sessions are focused on developing particular skills, such as policy writing workshops.

The conference will be held from Monday, June 14th to Friday, June 18th, 2021, with two sessions daily. Check out our website to stay informed on updates: cree-uarr.nationbuilder.com

Dates: June 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th

Morning Session: 10:00 AM

Afternoon Session: 2:00 PM

Establishing a Voice for Youth in Politics

The Black Youth Fellowship (BYF), Filipino Youth Fellowship (FYF), Tamil Youth Fellowship (TYF), and Muslim Youth Fellowship (MYF) seeks to place highly motivated, passionate and hard-working young individuals on a fast track to success. Our Muslim Youth Fellowship Coordinators are working hard to commence communications, recruitment and training coordination. Planning is underway on methods of increasing engagement and preparing workshops for future fellows.

The Filipino Youth Fellowship invites you to join us in celebrating Filipino history and futures as a community, and welcome our new fellows into this incredible program. Happening before Kapwa Fest, the Launch event will host City officials, community leaders, and the 5 fellows who will be our first FYF cohort! Follow @filyouthfellowship for updates on FYF.

June 18th, 5 PM EST

BYF is a professional and leadership development program focusing on building the next generation of Black public service workers. A final employment training session in coordination with CABR will be held during the 12th week of the Black Youth Fellowship Program. You are cordially invited to the Black Youth Fellowship graduation on Thursday, June 24th! Thank you for your support in helping the first cohort of the BYF in becoming the professional and leadership development program that we intended it to be, and in building the next generation of Black public service leaders. Follow @blackyouthfellowship for updates on BYF.

June 24th, 6 PM - 8 PM EST

The Tamil Youth Fellowship (TYF) is focused on bringing in young Tamil people with unique perspectives and lived experiences to build meaningful programs and policies that are responsive to the needs of our community. June will be a busy month for TYF as our fellows finish up their training and start their City of Toronto placements. The fellows will be learning about City Hall at the next orientation/training session and the importance of self-care and mental wellbeing at the last session. They will be placed with a Toronto City Councillor mid-June and will complete 12 weeks at City Hall. To stay up to date with what we are doing at TYF, please follow our instagram @tamilyouthfellowship.