• Enhance human resources programs through accommodation planning and diversity strategies
• Execute Employment Systems reviews to identify and eliminate diversity barriers in workplace (using data analysis, focus groups and review of employment policies and practices)
• Lead Special Projects or initiatives to promote change and develop a climate of support for diversity based on organizational readiness
• Support organizations required to comply with the Federal Contractors Program

Fees to be negotiated on a project by project basis.

So often we hear diversity, equity and cultural competence discussed as though they are the same things. Are they? They are not.

A diversity program is the ‘tool box’ used for integrating diverse practices into your core business. Leveraging diversity is not only the right thing to do, it makes good business sense if you do it right.

Equity is a social justice framework or perspective established through a history of advocacy, case law and sometimes legislation. This framework proves that treating people differently to achieve equal or fair outcomes is justified in a civilized society.

Cultural competence is a skill, or one of the tools that allow an organization to foster inclusion and create a welcoming environment for diverse communities. This skill is required by all staff to create an organizational climate that values diversity. In other words, cultural competence gives you the ability to welcome a staff person, a volunteer, client or donor for who they are rather than subtly or overtly exclude them because they are different than you. A Cultural community extends beyond race to ability, sexual orientation and different ways of knowing and perceiving the world.

While some diversity practitioners across Ontario agree that cultural competence is sometimes used to describe diversity, many agree that it does not eliminate the need for diversity initiatives that operate out of a social justice/equity framework.

Sage Diversity Management will work with your organization to ensure that your diversity program never leaves the impression that it contributes to:

Job ghettoizing · A ‘quick fix’ for equity based issues · Reverse discrimination or the oppression of ‘mainstream’ communities · The exclusion of ‘mainstream’ communities · A conspiracy · A stereotyping that leads to racial or cultural profiling · The patronization of staff/volunteers learning to develop cultural competence skills · The arrogance of those who manage diversity or teach cultural competence · The only solution for injustice or discrimination · The exclusion of able bodied males who celebrate Christmas · The exclusion of lesbian women/gay men who require fair access to promotion or benefits · The exclusion of educated people of colour who observe Ramadan or cultural celebrations requiring a discretionary day · The exclusion of the disabled Aboriginal person who lives off-reserve

Our approach will be relevant. Relevant because it recognizes that in urban centres like Toronto and the GTA there are a multiplicity of cultures represented demographically. As a whole these cultural groups outweigh any dominant community.

Our approach will have integrity because it increases ones personal responsibility for valuing diversity so as to integrate it into core business while creating a welcoming environment for both current and future clients as well as staff or volunteers who are uniquely diverse.

Our approach will utilize organizational change strategies to stretch individual staff, management and volunteers to understand diversity and use the skill of cultural competence to engage and include versus disengage and exclude.

As the pendulum of social justice moves towards inclusion in Canadian Society we as members of society must be careful, to create a ‘safe space’ for each one of us as colleagues in the workplace to improve core business.