Published on Toronto.com
Written by Alice Chen
Efforts from a civic engagement organization to increase diversity in various board positions is being praised by experts and advocates.
A 2020 study by Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute found that in Toronto racialized individuals make up 51.4 per cent of the population but hold only 15.5 per cent of board positions.
In response to this disparity, CivicAction offers its BoardShift program, which matches racialized talent with non-profit, charitable, and public board opportunities. In addition to networking, the organization also runs governance board training and, for the board themselves, diversity tools and resources, and an ask for commitment to an inclusivity charter and governance best practices.
“Too many people feel far away from leadership tables or don’t know how to access them,” CivicAction CEO Leslie Woo said.
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“The more diverse the perspectives around the table, the more the quantum of impact, whether it’s in your balance sheet, the impact you’re having in the community, is significantly more,” Woo said.
“The challenges we face now in our cities, in business, in finance, health, the environment, they’re all very complicated, the solutions that we might have turned to in the past are not the ones that are going to take us forward, a monolithic way of thinking that isn’t progressing or constantly innovating, we won’t move forward,” Woo continued.