In 2016, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began a public interest inquiry into Indigenous and racialized children’s and youth’s involvement with Ontario’s child welfare system. In their 2018 report, Interrupted Childhoods: Over-representation of Indigenous and Black Children in Ontario Child Welfare, the OHRC found that Black and Indigenous children were disproportionately admitted into care by many of Ontario’s Children’s Aid Societies (CASs). In connection with the Institute of Islamic Studies’ research on Muslim children’s and families’ involvement with Ontario’s CASs, Dr. Sharifa Patel will moderate a discussion with Jehad Aliweiwi of Laidlaw Foundation and Vania Patrick-Drakes of One Vision One Voice on the current state of Ontario’s child welfare system. This discussion will explore and bring together Aliweiwi’s and Patrick-Drakes’ knowledge and experience working to support children and youth in Ontario. The conversation will focus on the shifts in policy and decision-making and the development of services and programming that have been implemented since the release of the OHRC’s 2018 report. We will examine the CAS’s, OACAS’s, and Ontario’s programming and policy changes that have worked and the systemic issues that still need to be addressed, and the ways that the Laidlaw Foundation and One Vision One Voice intervene to improve the lives of racialized children, youth, and families in Ontario.
Bio:
Vania Patrick-Drakes
Vania Patrick-Drakes is a social science researcher and mental health professional. She has over 10 years of direct service work with children, youth and families in the Caribbean, where she advocated for inclusivity and greater attention to mental health.
In 2021, Vania joined the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies as Program Analyst with One Vision One Voice, where she supports the program’s multi-faceted strategy to address the disparities and disproportionalities affecting Black children, youth and families interacting with Ontario’s child welfare system. Vania also supports organizations across various sectors with their anti-racism, anti-oppression strategies via knowledge-sharing sessions, organizational analyses and recommendations.
Vania holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in Cognitive Science and Neuroscience from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science degree with Distinction in Counselling Psychology from the UWI Cave Hill campus. She also holds a certificate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from Cornell University. Vania is currently completing a PhD in Social Policy.
Jehad Aliweiwi
Jehad Aliweiwi has been the CEO of Laidaw since 2014, before that he was the executive director of Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, a multi-service organization based in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park community. He serves in several Boards including FCJ Refugee Centre and the Arab Community Centre of Toronto.
Sharifa Patel
Sharifa Patel is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Islamic Studies’ Structural Islamophobia Research Lab at the University of Toronto. She holds a PhD in English and Cultural Studies and an MA in Gender Studies and Feminist Research from McMaster University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto. Her broader research focuses on the effects of Canadian policies on Muslim families. Her current research project uses quantitative and qualitative methods to explore Muslim children’s and families’ involvement with Ontario’s child welfare system.
Date: November 19, 2024 | Time: 4:00 to 5:00 PM | Location: Zoom Register Here Description: In 2016, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) began a public interest inquiry into Indigenous and racialized children’s and youth’s involvement with Ontario’s child welfare system. In their 2018 report, Interrupted Childhoods: Over-representation of Indigenous and Black Children in Ontario Child Welfare, the OHRC found that Black […]
The Structural Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) Fellowship The Structural Islamophobia Research Lab (SIRL) – at the Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS), University of Toronto – supports the best and brightest minds committed to examining institutionally entrenched modes of Islamophobia that defy simplistic analyses and require creative research methods. This page will list three SiRL post-doc […]
The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) is excited to share two new reports that came out of the Advisory Committee on Charitable Sectors (ACCR), of which Professor Anver Emon (Director, IIS) was a member from 2022 to 2024.
