About Us

EmpowerHer Diversity Hub (EHDH) Anti-Racism and Anti-oppression Policy

1. Purpose

EmpowerHer Diversity Hub (EHDH) is committed to fostering an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment across all areas of our work, including research, advocacy, capacity-building, and training. This policy affirms our commitment to actively confronting and dismantling racism, discrimination, and bias within our governance, programming, hiring practices, partnerships, and organizational culture.

EDHD is a community-based, capacity-building, and advocacy organization. We recognize that structural inequalities disproportionately impact marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and racialized women, gender-diverse individuals, migrant workers, and international students. We are committed to ensuring that their lived experiences are meaningfully represented and actively shape our decision-making processes, programs, and organizational priorities.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all Board Members, Staff, Volunteers, Contractors, and Partners associated with EHDH. It covers all organizational activities, including board governance, research activities, advocacy, capacity-building initiatives, training delivery, recruitment for volunteers and vendors, organizational operations, publications, educational sessions, and community engagement.

3. Principles

• Equity and Inclusion: We actively support diversity within our leadership, programs, and community partnerships. We ensure equitable opportunities for racialized and marginalized individuals to access leadership roles, funding opportunities, research, advocacy, training, and capacity-building initiatives.

• Zero Tolerance for Racism: Any form of racism, discrimination, or harassment is strictly prohibited. These include anti-Black Racism, anti-Indigenous discrimination, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Racialized and anti-immigrant biases and perspectives.
• Zero-tolerance to Oppression of all types: any form of oppression, discrimination, and harassment is strictly prohibited. These include sexism, gender-identity-based grounds, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, and any intersectional aspect of historically rooted oppression.

• Accountability and Continuous Improvement: We are committed to the ongoing assessment and improvement of our policies, practices, and organizational culture to eliminate systemic barriers and advance equity and inclusion.

• Representation and Voice: Leadership, Board membership, research teams, advocacy efforts, training initiatives, and decision-making processes will intentionally prioritize and center the voices and experiences of racialized women and gender-diverse individuals.

• Ethical Research Practices: We ensure that all research, advocacy campaigns, training sessions, and capacity-building efforts respect and include diverse, lived experiences.We are committed to avoiding practices that perpetuate ethno-racial, gender-based, or cultural biases.

4. Commitment to Action

• Training & Education:
  • Provide regular antiracism training for all staff, volunteers, and board members.
  • Provide regular anti-oppression training for all staff, volunteers, and board members.
  • Provide advocacy and capacity-building training for all staff, volunteers, and board members.
• Recruitment & Retention:
  • Implement equitable staff hiring and board recruitment practices
  • Create pathways for supporting underrepresented groups in accessing research opportunities.
• Funding & Collaboration:
  • Ensure equitable distribution of research funding
  • Prioritize partnerships with diverse communities and institutions.
• Data & Transparency:
  • Collect and analyze data on diversity and inclusion to assess and improve antiracist and anti-oppressive efforts at EDHD.
  • Create and refer to policies on Data Management and Ethical Data Collection.
  • Refer to Ontario Privacy Standards for Data collection and management through all community engagement initiatives.
  • Publish the annual EHDH activities report on the website.
• Accountability Mechanisms:
  • Establish clear reporting channels for incidents of racism and discrimination, with protection for whistleblowers and consequences for violations.
  • Establish a time frame for investigation and resolution, not to exceed 6 months from when the initial report is received, and the resolution document is provided to the Board.
  • Establish a process for supporting staff, volunteers and board members when they face racism, oppression, discrimination and harassment external to EHDH work.
• Community Engagement:
  • Work with marginalized communities to ensure their perspectives are voiced, recorded, and valued in research processes.
  • Identify the intersectional impact of racism and oppression on different communities that have been marginalized and minoritized due to their diverse identities.
  • Acknowledge the impact of intersectional oppression, especially on women and gender-diverse individuals, and adjust the engagement processes and timelines to ensure their inclusion.

5. Reporting and Resolution

• Any individual who experiences or witnesses racism or discrimination is encouraged to report it to the Board Executive.
• Reports will be reviewed confidentially, and appropriate action will be taken to address concerns promptly and transparently.
• The timeframe for responding to and resolving a report will not exceed 6 months or 5 Board meetings (whichever is completed first).

6. Review and Oversight

• The board executive and governance committee will review this policy every two years to ensure its effectiveness and relevance.
• Updates will reflect evolving best practices in antiracism, anti-oppression, and advancing intersectional approaches toward supporting diversity and inclusion.

7. Conclusion

• EmpowerHerDivesityHub is dedicated to eliminating racism and oppression and fostering an inclusive environment.
• As a collective, we also recognize that women and gender-diverse individuals experience deep-rooted and historical intersectional oppression that increases the trauma and furthers the impact on diminishing their fundamental human rights. We recognize that openly challenging and eliminating antiracism and intersectional anti-oppression and supporting reconciliation are ongoing commitments, and we pledge to uphold these principles in all our work.
• EmpowerHer Diversity Hub reaffirms that meaningful equity requires centering leadership among racialized women and gender-diverse individuals. Leadership structures must reflect lived experiences of systemic barriers and foster transformative change led by those historically excluded from decision-making spaces.