Date: October 24, 1-2 PM ET (Zoom Webinar)
Cost: Free
*All registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following the session. The recording will be available for 60 days.
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What began as a blog in 2010 has grown into an environmental education charity that empowers youth to imagine and build a climate-resilient future. Through writing, workshops, and community gatherings, The Starfish Canada helps strengthen connections across the environmental sector, welcoming individuals from all disciplinary backgrounds. We envision a climate-resilient future shaped by all youth.
In this webinar, they’ll explore the origins of The Starfish, the evolution of our impact over the past 15 years, and how we’ve remained flexible and responsive to community needs as a capacity-building organization. They’ll share how our programs continue to engage new voices, center equity-deserving groups, and incorporate Indigenous guidance through the lens of Two-Eyed Seeing. You’ll hear firsthand from program participants and current staff as we dive into not just the numbers behind our work, but the stories that bring our mission to life.
The Climate Solutions Innovation Forum is a multi-year program that highlights newer innovative environmental nonprofits who share the story to inspire emerging leaders and/or to expose seasoned leaders to new ways of affecting change and reaching new audiences. CSIF shines a light on less traditional policy-oriented NGOs, youth led organizations as well as recently emerged culturally-focused ENGOs mostly at the fringes of the mainstream.
We thank the Ivey Foundation for their funding support of this series.
Our Presenters
Sylvie Stojanovski is Co-Executive Director of Operations & Administration and joined The Starfish Canada following years of active community involvement as a Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalist, Youth Environmental Leaders Learning Lab participant, and Youth Environmental Changemakers Summit delegate. As a community engagement specialist, creative and environmentalist at heart, she is passionate about using art and storytelling to imagine and build sustainable futures.
Dr. Sujane Kandasamy is Co-founder & Director of Learning & Development. A planetary health-focused knowledge translation scientist, she brings a deep passion for the intersections of societal issues and planetary well-being. Sujane plays an integral role in shaping our education programs and works directly with youth through hands-on biology and biodiversity workshops. She also trains educators to inspire leadership and communication in the classroom.
Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
Cost: Free
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