Our Commitment to Anti-Racism

StepStones supports youth from foster care and the child welfare system with the knowledge that Black and Indigenous young people have been and are over-represented in these systems and structures across Ontario. We are committed to supporting all of the young people we work with, our volunteers, staff, and communities through education, action, and listening. Below is a brief summary of the work we are currently doing to support Black and Indigenous youth:

• StepStones has focused efforts on reducing barriers to the most marginalized children and youth in our community and specifically the over represented population of Black youth in the foster care system. 
• We work to reduce barriers by giving youth access to information and opportunities, mentors, housing support and subsidies, access to mental health supports and resources and support in education, employment and life skills.
• We conduct an annual review of data collected on race and outcomes and compare this data to ensure that youth who are racialized in our program achieve similar results and outcomes as non-racialized youth
• We strive for high Black and racialized representation among our staff, mentors and volunteers who support youth in their transition to adulthood and at our summer camp. 
• We promote diversity in our program delivery and workshop leaders reflect the diversity of the youth involved.
• StepStones volunteer recruitment efforts have focused on recruiting diverse volunteers and StepStones regularly recruits from Black focused organizations such as Jamaican Canadian Association, African Canadian Legal Clinic, First Fridays Meetup Black Toronto Social Group and targets recruitment explicitly stating that we are seeking out diverse, racialized, Black and LGBTQ2+ volunteers.
• StepStones has strong anti-discrimination, anti-racist, anti-oppressive policies and procedures and human resources policies and we ensure staff and volunteers know and understand these policies during the onboarding stage of employment and volunteering.
• We have a strong code of conduct that all staff, volunteers and youth must agree to and abide by which promotes inclusion and requires anti-racist, anti-discrimination and anti-oppressive practices.
• We conduct an annual review of our policies and procedures (Anti-Discrimination, Human Resources, Hiring, Volunteer & Staff Training/Manuals) to ensure there are no systems that contribute to anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism.
• We include additional anti-racism training for new Volunteers and Staff and existing Staff and Board Members take part in annual training in anti-racism and other social issues  
• We include the voices and representation of Black and Indigenous youth from foster care in our Youth Advocacy Council.
• Each child at StepStones camp participates in Social Justice programming which focuses on teaching children about equity and justice around the world and steps that they can do in their community to help.
• We have anti-racism literature for our office to be accessible to our youth and all individuals who visit our space. 
• We have stocked our children and youth reading library with books focusing on diverse women and girls who have had to overcome adversity.  These books have been used for education, reading clubs and to support youth in our program to understand issues related to anti-racism, Indigenous rights and history, culture, ant-oppression, LGBTQ2+ and women’s rights.  Each book takes anti-oppressive and anti-racist framework.  Each child in our summer program participates in reading one of these books each year. 
• We dedicate space on our platforms for recognizing Black-serving, Black-led, and Indigenous organizations.
• We have a list of specific services and resources for Black and Indigenous youth.
• We make efforts to buy local and buy items from community owners that represent the population that we support. 
• For 15 years, StepStones has done land recognitions, taught children about Indigenous foods and Indigenous history and consulted with local Indigenous leaders and elders in the community to ensure practices are approved at our summer camp location. 
• For the last 10 years StepStones has had a policy preventing the use of band aids on children and youth that were designed to match white skin 
• StepStones uses the evidence based approach to working with Black youth in our program including the following: 
  • 1) Using a strength & asset based approach
  • 2) Seeking out appropriate mentors 
  • 3) Having a “strong emphasis on agency, empowerment, and the overcoming of obstacles” to inspire hope 
  • 4) Providing supportive roles to speak about experiences 
  • 5) Providing a combination of mentors and tutors in program delivery
  • 6) Exploring and supporting  vocational and educational opportunities for youth
  • 7) Providing group mentoring. 
  • Reference

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Expanding Our Understanding

StepStones has compiled these educational, community, and youth resources to support and inform learning and understanding.