Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto Community Foundation

About this organization

Mission

Harmony Movement was founded with a mandate to promote harmony and equity in Canada. Our mission is to advocate equity, diversity and inclusion by educating and empowering youth to become leaders for social change. We recognize the importance of diversity education for students, educators, community organizations, and individuals. Our interactive and innovative programs confront prejudice and teach the value of embracing and respecting differences. 

In 2011-2012, Harmony Movement facilitated over a hundred diversity and equity programs in school boards, community organizations and service providers throughout GTA and southwestern Ontario. We work closely with Toronto youth, especially in priority neighbourhoods, to spread the message of diversity and inclusion.

Harmony Movement works extensively with such Toronto-based community organizations and social services agencies as YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, Peel Children's Aid Society, Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services, and Scarborough Arts as well as with the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and the City of Toronto Community Crisis Response Program, to deliver and facilitate community workshops targeted at empowering youth.

History of Organization

Harmony Movement was founded in 1994 to combat prejudices and discrimination and to confront the "us vs. them" attitude that was prevalent in Canada at that time.

In 1997, Harmony Movement mounted the Them = Us: Photographic Journeys Across Our Cultural Boundaries exhibition and partnered with over eighty local and regional organizations on a national tour that reached over 75 communities in all ten provinces. Toronto venues included the Galleria at BCE Place and the ROM, among others. The exhibit continues to travel, most recently with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

In 1998, Harmony Movement received the Award of Distinction from Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

In 2000, Harmony Movement pioneered the use of multimedia resources to supplement curriculum materials to assist educators in promoting diversity and dealing with cross-cultural issues in their classrooms. Developed with the University of Toronto, our Exploring Harmony educational resource kit has been adopted by schools and universities across Canada, including the Toronto District School Board.

Since 2007, our organization has delivered over 600 diversity education initiatives in schools and community across Ontario.

Accolades and Accomplishments

In the past several years, Harmony Movement has continued to grow and expand its impact in innovative ways across Ontario, and most recently internationally.

Every year we reach over 7,000 youth in schools and communities in the GTA and southwestern Ontario.

In 2012, Harmony Movement was the Ontario Trillium Foundation CEO Award winner for the three-year collaborative initiative "Community Diversity Leadership Project" in the Peel region.

With recent funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education, we have been able to support student success by developing an educator's equity toolkit and training program for teachers to create safe and accepting school environments. In 2012-2013 we will continue delivering equity workshops for teachers across Ontario, including in Paris, Stratford, Ottawa, Timmins and Kingston.

A newly formed partnership with Students Crossing Borders has allowed us to explore the meaning of youth leadership, empowerment and engagement in Kingston, Jamaica.

Fall 2012, Harmony Movement will be co-presenting the Community Stories Program for the 10th annual Regent Park Film Festival (Nov. 7-10, 2012). We are also proud to have two youth-made films from the Change Through Equity Program be accepted to be a part of the 2012 Regent Park Film Festival.

Programs

>Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP)

Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP) is an 8-week or 4-week extra-curricular leadership training program that challenges youth to recognize and strengthen their leadership skills, while positively affecting social and attitudinal change in their school and community.  Program themes include: Safe and Accepting Schools and Communities, Health and Well-Being, Equity Through History, Environmental Justice, Heterosexism and Homophobia and Gender Bender.

Harmony Workshops are highly interactive and energetic workshops that lead participants to understand how their own identity affects their attitudes and behaviours towards specific groups. Workshop themes include: Diversity and Equity 101, Gender Bender, Media and Me, Equity Through History, Beyond Borders, Environmental Justice, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, Cultural Competency, Team Building Across Differences, Challenging Homophobia and Heterosexism, and Conflict Resolution.

Educator Equity Training is a 1-day professional development workshop for educators and administrators who share the goal of developing more equitable and inclusive classrooms and schools. This workshop supports Ontario Ministry of Education’s Equity and Inclusive Strategy and will introduce participants to the principles of the provincial strategy using the Educator’s Equity Toolkit developed by the Harmony Movement.

Conferences and Retreats

This includes one or two-day where youth and/or educators come together for plenary and breakout sessions designed to fit the needs of the organization or school.

Special Projects

Special projects include initiatives funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and other partnerships. These community-based projects help to advance equity and diversity in creative ways, and develop unique engagement and advocacy strategies collaboratively to make change.

Harmony Awards & Scholarship

Our Harmony Awards are presented annually to individuals and organizations who made significant contributions in the promotion of harmony and equity. We award ten June Callwood Harmony Scholarships each year to university-bound students who are active and exemplary in combating discrimination and fighting for social justice in our society. 

Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP)

The Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP) is a four-week or eight-week extra-curricular leadership course that challenges youth to recognize and strengthen their leadership skills while developing a healthy and positive social and attitudinal change in their schools and communities. Youth are made aware of the impact of prejudice and discrimination in their lives and are encouraged to develop personal strategies to address these issues.

This program, offered at both the elementary and secondary school levels, is an opportunity for both teachers and students to gain respect for others from diverse backgrounds, understand the complexities surrounding issues of inclusive schooling, and critically analyze the stereotypical aspects of youth culture as presented in the media. Developing a strong sense of identity and understanding of self re also core elements of the program.

Each Diversity Leadership Certificate Program (DLCP) consists one-hour or two-hour sessions plus a final project of presenting diversity workshops to classes or school assemblies at the same school or at feeder schools.

Program themes include: Safe and Accepting Schools and Communities, Health and Well-Being, Equity Through History, Environmental Justice, Heterosexism and Homophobia and Gender Bender.

Funding and Program Partners

Government Funding: Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Ministry of Education
Corporate sponsors: Partners in Harmony (RBC, CIBC, TD Bank, BMO, Scotiabank, OPSEU, CAW-Canada)
Education Partners: Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Durham District School Board, Durham Catholic District School Board, Peel District School Board, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, Avon Maitland District School Board, District School Board of Niagara, Halton Catholic District School Board, Halton District School Board, Niagara Catholic District School Board, Ottawa Catholic District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Provincial Schools, Upper Canada District School Board, Upper Grand District School Board, Wellington Catholic District School Board, York Catholic District School Board, York Region District School Board

Program Impact

Each year, the DLCP programs provides direct diversity, equity and inclusion training to over 300 youth in schools in the City of Toronto, and a secondary impact of approximately 9,000 youth. The DLCP program has encouraged young people to engage in courageous conversations, advocate on issues of diversity and inclusion at a school and community level, and has empowered youth to make meaningful social change. 

Toronto's Vital Signs® indicator(s) addressed by Program

"Toronto youth face barriers to accessing safe and welcoming public space."(

(Toronto's Vital Signs 2011)

The DLCP program strives to enourage the importance of diversity and inclusion in order to strengthen our collective sense of belonging in all spaces. 

Participant Vignette

"The Harmony Movement program is dynamic, very interactive and very effective. The impact of Harmony Movement on our school learning environment and community has been an exceptionally positive one!"
- Michael Tagliaferri, Principal, Guardian Angels Catholic Elementary School