In 2022-2023, we partnered with the Abilities Centre to facilitate the Leading Equitable and Accessible Delivery (LEAD) Process, where we went through a comprehensive self-assessment and engaged a broad range of staff, students, families and community members to develop an improvement plan to work towards transformational organizational change in support of our ongoing efforts to be accessible for all.
The DCDSB's 2023-2026 Mental Health Strategy, Together for Mental Health: Everyone, Everyday, was launched and focuses on mental health within the context of our Catholic faith. DCDSB was the first school board in Ontario to introduce School Mental Health Ontario's Life Promotion/Suicide Prevention training for teachers and educational assistants. We partnered with community agencies to offer parent/guardian/caregiver workshops on a variety of mental health-related topics such as gaming, mood and anxiety. Additionally, we conducted invitational summer training sessions for our school Mental Health Champions with a focus on wellness strategies for classrooms and how to notice and respond to student mental health concerns.
The board engaged in system-level learning on important human rights concepts and principles with a view to building staff capacity to address systemic discrimination. Professional development for administrators and other board employees focused on developing competencies to identify and effectively confront different forms of discrimination that marginalized individuals experience. Training topics included historical or intergenerational trauma, understanding race, racism, different forms of discrimination, microaggression, guidelines on the use of racial slurs in schools, and ways to engage in race-based conversations. The goal of the training was to increase system understanding of human rights concepts and principles with a view to promoting inclusive, safe, welcoming learning and working environments.
As part of the board's Equity Action Plan, the inaugural Virtual Engagement Series for students in Grade 7-9 was established. Approximately 800 students from 18 elementary schools and two secondary schools participated in the learning series entitled Created in the Image of God: I Am because We Are (Ubuntu). Based in Afrocentric and Indigenous principles, students celebrated their unique identities and explored the power of words, feelings, and connection with others.
Guided by an equity learning plan that spanned the course of the year, all staff continued to learn how to be anti-racist. Monographs from School Mental Health Ontario compiled into the resource document, “What does racism have to do with me?” provided key information to support the mental health and well-being of Black and racialized students.
We invite you to learn more about our strategic goals and actions accomplished in our 2022-2023 Accountability Report.
2022-2023 Accountability Report
