Cultural Diversity

Each person needs to know that their culture is important to others. In order for people to commit to working on diversity, every person needs to feel that they will be included and important. Whether the person is a Japanese-American, Asian, a fundamentalist Christian, or speaks with an accent, has a disability, is poor, or is wealthy--each person needs to feel welcomed in the effort to create a diverse community. Often people are afraid that recognizing differences will divide people from each other. However, learning about cultural differences can actually bring people closer together, because it can reveal important parts of each other’s lives. It can show us how much we have in common as human beings.  When presenting diversity issues you can say things like, "This is an excellent opportunity to build on the strengths that this organization has," or "There is no reason why we can't solve this problem together."

Building a team around us is the most effective way of creating institutional and community change around diversity issues. The Governor General of Canada officially declared June 21st to be National Aboriginal Day. Every year on this day Canadians come together to celebrate and learn more about Aboriginal peoples, their history and diverse cultures and the important contributions they have made to Canada.  Please click on the National Aboriginal Day link to read more.