It’s not only a question of embracing diversity, but it’s about seeing the strength and the beauty in diversity. – Silvia Patella

With words like tolerance, integration, inclusion and equal opportunity part of our day-to-day vocabulary at school and in the workplace, as a society we have evolved and innovated to bring together diverse abilities and perspectives. Even so, there is still so much ground to break when it comes to educating people of all ages about the advantages of diversity in our schools, centres, workplaces and in society at large.

With the collaboration of various local partners such as Fondation Aide à la Jeunesse, Regard9 and Essor—and co-organized by Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board’s Special Needs Advisory Committee (SEAC), the start of 2021 marked SWLSB’s first annual Embracing Diversity Conference. The large-scale virtual event took place on two different dates last January, with one conference organized specifically for professionals, teachers, educators and staff, and the other a free conference for all SWLSB families.

Silvia Patella, Assistant Director of Pedagogical Services at SWLSB, credits the dedicated team and partners for the event’s success. Hundreds of SWLSB staff members, external education centres and families benefited from the expertise of the conference presenters. “We always talk about celebrating diversity and learning from it, but in order to do that, people need tools and tangible, concrete strategies,” says Patella. “It was important for us to let parents know that they’re not on an island. Everyone brings a piece of the puzzle and we can learn from each other.”

The conference workshops for SWLSB employees and partners included a wide range of topics such as best practices in inclusive education, social emotional learning, navigating ASD challenges and dealing with stressful circumstances. The conference for SWLSB families was organized so that families with children from different age groups could still benefit from workshops that were categorized as elementary school or high school, such as the “ASD and Routines” conference. Mental health, social emotional learning and the importance of play in a child’s development rounded out the conference topics. A special presentation by Éducazoo at the end of the day was much appreciated by parents and their children.

Having partnered in the past with Fondation Aide à la Jeunesse and getting involved with similar conferences in the French-speaking sector, Patella and the team at SWLSB began planning for an English language equivalent back in 2019, and the first event would have taken place as an in-person event in March of 2020. Due to the pandemic public health restrictions at that time, the conference was postponed. The team then went back to the drawing table to conceive of a brand-new virtual format (with all its own respective moving parts), and thanks to the hard work and dedication of the team and partners, the first Embracing Diversity conference last January was a resounding success.

“The challenge was to give the virtual version of the event that human aspect and perspective to the presentations,” says Patella. “We were fortunate to have such excellent presenters that we were able to do that.” Patella explains that participants had access to an IT help line if they were experiencing any technological issues, which helped the event run smoothly, even with hundreds of participants at a given time.

Patella says that they are already planning for next year’s conference, and the goal is to make it bigger and better. “We want to now go beyond embracing diversity. We want to take it to the next level.”

SWLSB’s mission centers around three key words: engage, build and achieve. If we engage our professionals, families and students, we can build a better future and achieve the goal of going beyond embracing differences. “We have a social responsibility to do so. Embracing diversity is embracing all learners,” says Patella.

Visit embracingdiversity.ca to find out more.