Updates from Greenwood’s Working Groups

5/22/2024

Greenwood’s Equity, Inclusion, Belonging Working Group (EIBWG) and Antisemitism Working Group (AWG) held their final meetings of the academic year earlier this month.

Both groups — made up of parents/guardians, staff, and board members – reflected on the year, the goals and accomplishments of the group, and what they want to continue in the next academic year.

“The EIBWG and AWG both met 5 times throughout the year and discussed several initiatives that have now been implemented at Greenwood,” said Heather Thomas, the group’s chair. “At our final meetings, we looked back at those achievements as well as looked forward to how we will proceed next year to continue this important work at Greenwood.”

The focuses of the AWG this year were to continue building community and supporting Greenwood’s Jewish community members, provide people with a place to connect and share how they are supporting their children, and share what the school is doing regarding antisemitism education. The group discussed topics such as:

How people are doing given the rise in antisemitism in Toronto and elsewhere;
Managing online hate;
Life on campus, supporting students to manage discrimination at postsecondary;
How to engage more people to understand what modern antisemitism looks like.

The group also chose to change the name of the AWG to better reflect the group’s goals. Next year, the group will be titled the United Against Antisemitism Working Group (UAAWG).

Some of the EIBWG’s initiatives this year included:

Building community, listening and learning from each other;
Discussing and sharing what Greenwood is doing regarding inclusion and belonging education (e.g. professional development for staff and students throughout the year, Lunaria training for staff and parent ambassadors, involvement in the Equity Through Education conference);
Putting forward suggestions for increasing inclusion and a sense of belonging at Greenwood (e.g. advocating for parent socials to be in accessible locations).

Ideas for next steps that have come out of EIBWG conversations include:

Continue to host speakers of visible diversity at Greenwood;
Increase marketing efforts focused on Greenwood’s differentiator programs (e.g. Adviser, progressive teaching approaches, Outdoor Education), include testimonials from students;
Track student, staff and admissions demographics in order to assess progress towards increasing visible diversity at Greenwood.

A huge thank you to all the parents/guardians, board members and staff who have participated in the AWG (UAAWG) and EIBWG this year. We will share dates and the ways to join the AWG (UAAWG) and EIBWG for the 2024-2025 school year in September.

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Greenwood College School

443 Mount Pleasant Road
Toronto, ON M4S 2L8
Tel: 416 482 9811

We acknowledge with gratitude the Ancestral lands upon which our main campus is situated. These lands are the Ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabek and the Wendake. The shared responsibility of this land is honoured in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty and we strive to care for the land, the waters, and all creatures in the spirit of peace. We are responsible for respecting and supporting the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. When away from this campus we vow to be respectful to the land by protecting and honouring it. We will create relationships with the people and the land we may visit by understanding the territories we enter and the nations who inhabit them.