Viccor Iyilade Jr. (left) and Jerry Firth (right) sign the Lethbridge Diversity & inclusion Charter. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Dozens of groups sign on to Lethbridge Diversity & Inclusion Charter

Nov 14, 2019 | 4:05 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Governments, businesses, and organizations across the city are showing their formal commitment to ensuring everyone can feel safe, welcome, and included.

The Lethbridge Diversity and Inclusion Alliance (LDIA) held the signing of their newly-minted Lethbridge Diversity & Inclusion Charter after months of preparations.

LDIA Co-Chair Jerry Firth says the charter might mean different things to different people, but it does have a broad message.

“It is a statement for people to say that this is a vision that they’re prepared to endorse and sign on to say that, ‘I want to take a call to action and take things more meaningfully and seriously about what inclusion and diversity means for me and for my community and what are those things I’m going to do to stand up if I acknowledge or recognize racism or discrimination in my community?'”

The commitments in the charter are as follows:

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• Integrate values and practices of equity and inclusion into our personal, work, and community lives
• Increase community awareness and understanding of matters related to all intersectional forms of discrimination, (in)equity and social inclusion/exclusion through education
• Recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that stand against all forms of discrimination and social exclusion
• Advocate for processes to identify, document, and address the issues of safety, discrimination, and social exclusion
• Bring best practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion into our personal, work, and community lives
• Create opportunities for diverse people to come together in safe spaces that foster mutual understanding, respect, and growth
• Contribute in any way to address all intersectional forms of discrimination and social exclusion with the goal of eliminating them from our community

Tyler Gschaid, Lethbridge Pridefest Secretary, says this was an important thing for them to be part of.

“I think it’s important for organizations like Lethbridge Pridefest to show that we are helping to support a safe and welcoming community. One of the things Lethbridge Pridefest does is, we want safe and welcoming, to show diversity for gender and sexual diversity. I think it’s important for people to show that they’re welcoming.”

Firth adds that they are working on a public engagement plan to get more people and organizations on board.

However, LDIA Co-Chair Viccor Iyilade Jr. says the charter needs to be more than something that a business merely puts on display for “optics”.

“It’s about you understanding the importance of you signing it and, you know, the moment you sign it, you’re saying like, this space, this organization, this business believes in inclusion and diversity. If you’re saying that, you know, when people come into your stores – visible minorities or Indigenous folks, you’re not giving them the side-eye and following them around the store.”

Once LDIA has opened it up for more groups to sign on to the charter, Firth says he wants to work with each organization first to ensure they fully understand the importance of it and what doing so will mean.