Sivetha Sivaram
Outreach Coordinator
Currently pursuing Master’s degree in Human Security and Peace-building
TCCCA Past and Ongoing Work
Throughout Tamil History Month, which is in January, we host weekly events incorporating Tamil History, Culture, Language, Arts and our theme for this year is Tamilicious: Tamil Food in the Past, Present and Future which also happens to be the 15th annual THM. Our focus is to educate members of the community specifically collaborating with school boards, students and Tamil Student Associations through our events such as Tamil Vizha and Tamil Heritage Month Reception highlighting our 40 Under 40 Leaders and Tamil Youth Fellowship in the past. We hosted weekly career development based youth sessions to provide learning and networking opportunities for high school students on career opportunities on various themes within Tamils in Business. This provided students with an opportunity to build connections with leaders in the community that they resembled and connected with, and provided a platform to listen to diverse educational experiences that are much more different than the textbook stereotypes they may have been exposed to. We collaborated with school boards in their Tamil History Month initiatives. We are currently working with high schools to bring in speakers and host virtual sessions similar to our youth sessions. It’s greatly beneficial that we are able to bring in diverse voices to work with schools with high tamil student populations as they make important postsecondary and career choices. We have also facilitated THM themed workshops for elementary students based on trades and commerce in the past, present and future.
Youth Sessions
We are hosting weekly sessions with roughly 20 youth working on our Equity in Education project. Our youth are now using skills from previous workshops and taking the lead on workshop series.
Collaborative Work
We partner with multiple community partners to exchange knowledge and celebrate our diversity. We have monthly youth sessions with BCS for our students to interact and learn together. We recently united for a very informative IMLD event.
Parents
We have a continuous call-out for Tamil parent volunteers so that we are able to efficiently fill in gaps within our parents group as they arise.
Data Collection
A survey was created to ask about THM activities executed by school boards. We collated the survey results from last year's TGEW survey to incorporate into one of the letters that was sent out to the school boards. These letters are to inform and educate school boards about the Tamil Genocide Education Week Act so they can make proactive education changes and hold discussions around the Tamil Genocide which is integral to creating identity-affirming, safe spaces for Tamil youth. We continuously publish data collected from Tamil students in the GTA about how TGEW And THM events were implemented in their schools and school boards. This is to understand the strengths and weaknesses as outlined by students in each school board and work to ensure school boards are able to improve for the following years activities. We also hold our own TGEW events for youth, so that all our youth have access to these events and safe spaces.
Future Work
Campaign
During the month of May, we will be advocating for school boards to take actively participate in Tamil Genocide Remembrance Month and Tamil Genocide Education Week to make a trauma informed approach for Tamil students.
Continuing Youth Sessions
We will be continuing our sessions with our volunteer team working on the activities for the campaign until the end of June.
Our plans include reaching out to OTEN for support. (Ontario Tamil Educators Network), we have formed a network of 100 teachers and education workers who we will be closely working with in this initiative.
In terms of capacity building we will be working closely with each school board to provide professional development opportunities. In the past we have sent resources and tools to schools and school boards for THM and TGEW and we are currently working on a resource package to send out to boards.
For Stakeholder Engagement we invite senior stakeholders and trustees every six months and plan to have our next one soon so that we can understand how to better support them throughout the month of May.
Additionally for knowledge exchange a request a York, Durham and Peel Tamil Community Roundtable will be sent out in April or early May.
Last but, not least our plans for data collection is currently through A TGEW Feedback Survey which will go out regarding educational activities executed by school boards. Our goal is to mobilize youth and parents to fight and advocate for themselves within the school systems this includes developing our youths abilities to help write petitions and surveys while also doing the groundwork to ensure Tamils are represented in the school system.
