October 1, 2020 

Woodview is working hard to build an inclusive culture and environment where clients, staff, and partners can feel safe.  Woodview endeavours to remove barriers for the children, youth, adults and families that we serve. We recognize Canada’s colonial history of systemic racism and the inequality that racialized people have felt. It is important to understand our historical past, in order to unlearn and re learn a more inclusive way of engaging with everyone.

What we’re doing about it

Woodview has been working diligently to cultivate a culture of equity, diversity and inclusion. In 2018 we established a staff Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. During this time the EDI committee has reviewed our policies/procedures and practices to work towards breaking down barriers to inclusivity. Other steps we have taken is to deliver EDI training to staff, launched a new website that is AODA compliant and is easily translatable. We continue to engage with our community partner agencies and we are working on building stronger relationships with our multicultural community partners.

We’re still learning

We are mindful of areas that we need improvement on and we are committed to continue our learning. We realize that because of unconscious bias someone could unintentionally discriminate against another person. It is good practice to bring biases, assumptions etc. into conscious awareness, so we don’t inadvertently cause offense. In saying this, we need to be kind to ourselves and others during these unintentional moments, and recognize that this is how we learn and grow.

We value feedback

We are a client-centered agency and welcome input from the children, youth, adults, and families we work with so that we can continue to improve our understanding of their needs. We are actively involved in Client and Youth Engagement and value input from all. As a Woodview family, we are committed to listening, validating, acknowledging, and learning from all peoples in our communities.