43

REPORT TO THE 2015 ANNUAL MEETING ON 

ETFO’S EQUITY AND WOMEN’S PROGRAMS

provides ETFO Positive Space resources and other materials to locals to distribute at their community 
Pride events. Locals can access LGBTQ funding through the provincial office to help cover some of the 
costs of their participation in local Pride events.

“POSSIBILITIES”: ADDRESSING POVERTY ISSUES IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

ETFO continues to provide professional learning to members highlighting practical strategies to 
address the academic and non-academic needs of students and their families experiencing poverty. 
This interactive workshop features first-hand examples of school-based innovations and initiatives 
from ETFO’s Poverty and Education Project, highlighting assumptions and biases around poverty, sharing 
literature links and creative educational approaches.

ETFO’s poverty work was featured recently in a research monograph written by Dr. Darlene Ciuffetelli 
Parker from Brock University entitled “Poverty and Schooling: Where Mindset Meets Practice.” The 
monograph highlights successful school-based strategies for addressing inequities often associated 
with poverty that range from enhancing teacher awareness, to community partnerships, to changes 
in professional practice.

PRIDE TORONTO

ETFO is a proud sponsor of the Annual AIDS Candlelight Vigil, held annually to honour, remember and 
celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS, and to recognize and honour those affected by and 
living with HIV/AIDS. ETFO members and staff march in both the Dyke March and the Pride Parade. ETFO 
members proudly carry our banner and ETFO Pride flags. We also have a booth in the Pride Streetfair, 
where our members volunteer to hand out ETFO materials (e.g., Positive Space resources) and answer 
questions from the public.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY CHAIRS TRAINING

Over 40 Social Justice and Equity Chairs participated in a full-day session at Fall Leadership 2014, 
developing their meeting and workshop facilitation skills and learning from a panel of colleagues who 
talked about their experiences in the same role. They worked on scenarios that required them to 
develop strategies to deal with different types of behaviours facilitators encounter when presenting a 
workshop. The chairs also participated in the Re-Thinking White Privilege workshop. 

STATUS OF WOMEN CHAIRS TRAINING WP 

1. Leadership 2014

Participants received and reviewed the Status of Women Resources document, shared 
questions and successes and learned about incentive and funding programs available 
for local work. In addition, the Re-Thinking White Privilege workshop was given and a 
presentation from the Canadian Women’s Health Network highlighted how the effects of 
alcohol on women and girls are very different from the effects on men.

2. March 2015

Local Status Chairs were presented with A Timeline: The Labour Movement, the Women’s 
Movement and ETFO, a workshop on community activism, and discussion of ETFO’s role at the 
UN’s Commission on the Status of Women.