On November 28, the Junior League of Toronto’s (JLT) Community & Learning Committee ran a panel with speakers from @dailybreadto , @scarboroughwomenscentre , and the @cityofto Youth Development Unit. These panelists discussed pressing social issues affecting Toronto and how we at the JLT can be a catalyst for positive action. The highly informative conversation, peppered with questions from JLT members, covered a wide range of issues, including the impact of COVID-19, and highlighted the need for affordable housing and basic support.

The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, but justice. JLT members were challenged to take action by committing to writing to their elected representatives to enact a poverty reduction strategy. If you’d like to join the challenge, use the Daily Bread Food Bank’s tool to send letters to your elected representatives at all levels of government: https://www.dailybread.ca/takeaction/

The JLT’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee, with support from its Training Team held an engaging session with @angela_sterritt , award-winning investigative journalist, and host of Land Back, a six-part CBC British Columbia original podcast. This free virtual event was held Tuesday, January 24 from 630-8 pm on Zoom.

Angela hosted an interactive session designed to help us understand what meaningful land acknowledgments are and why they are imperative to truth and reconciliation. Based on discussions with federal and provincial ministers and Indigenous leaders, Angela also talked about land rights, treaty obligations, and land reparations happening today. This presentation also shared how we can build meaningful relationships with Indigenous people in our own communities.

 HONOURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH ONE OF CANADA’S TOP 100 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN, EMILY MILLS

The Junior League of Toronto’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee, in partnership with its Training Committee, was honoured to celebrate Black History Month 2023 by hosting an engaging and educational virtual session with Emily Mills on Wednesday, February 22 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Founder and CEO of @howshehustles ,a networking platform for diverse women, Emily is among Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women and was included on Canada’s “100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women” list. She is a dynamic speaker, digital influencer and trailblazer, who has been amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Colour for over a decade.

Emily guided us through an interactive session where she will share her lived experience as a Black woman in leadership. Her platform, “How She Hustles,” has a digital following of 20,000+ diverse women and continues to disrupt the status quo in order to create a safe space for women’s financial and personal empowerment, community building, brand development, entrepreneurship, and allyship.