If you have any inquiries, please contact jeremy@sustainabilitynetwork.ca.
*All recordings are available for 60 days.
*Registrants will be granted access to course materials and recordings for 60 days after each session.
Our Disability Inclusion Lab provides brave spaces for ENGO staff to share experiences, resources, and best practices to foster workplaces that are welcoming and affirming for people with disabilities and neurodiverse people. This Community of Practice consists of six, two-hour sessions held weekly.
Our Disability Inclusion Lab offers ENGO staff the opportunity to:
The Disability Inclusion Lab is for ENGO staff who are interested in exploring disability inclusion strategies with your colleagues and taking those learnings back to your organization. Whether your organization is at early or advanced stages of disability inclusion, expect to engage in real talk with an intimate group of your peers in a brave, virtual, facilitated space. This isn’t a lecture-style course: this is a Community of Practice where attendees are expected to actively participate, share experiences and resources, and lean into the challenging conversations that foster true change.
Who should attend from your organization? While we believe that all staff have a role to play in disability inclusion, consider sending staff whose job roles related directly to HR, People and Culture, and/or JEDI. You are welcome to send more than one staff member. Previous attendees have found that sending staff from different levels and job roles allows the organization to get the full inclusion picture.
As this program is designed for ENGO staff, it may not provide the most impactful experience for ENGO Board members, ENGO volunteers, or people from grassroots (volunteer-run) ENGOs. People from non-ENGO, non-profit sectors are welcome to join us, keeping in mind that the content has been designed with the ENGO sector in mind.
The Disability Inclusion Lab for organizations that want to learn how to use disability inclusion principles to improve their organization’s disability confidence: becoming comfortable and competent in managing a workforce that includes workers with disabilities and recognizing the significant talents that people with disabilities bring to the workplace. We will also introduce the concept of neurodiversity inclusion. Expect to actively examine your own assumptions, explore strategies specific to policies, processes, and culture, and share experiences and resources with your peers. All participants automatically become part of our burgeoning JEDI Alumni Network, designed to keep up the learning momentum and deepen peer networks.
This initial session is focussed on building trust and safety in the group and getting to know each other. We will take an in-depth look at the concepts of privilege and psychological safety, discuss why it is essential to organizational disability inclusion initiatives, and explore how ableism in the larger world and our workplaces factors in.
Neurodiversity is a relatively new (but increasingly popular) topic in workplace inclusion. Neurodivergence refers to having a style of neurocognitive functioning that is significantly different from what is considered “typical” (i.e. neurotypical) by societal standards. That is, thinking, behaving, or learning differently than these standards. This includes conditions such as ADHD, autism, OCD, dyslexia, and more. We will explore the many presentations of neurodivergence, before discussing questions such as: do disability inclusion principles also apply to neurodivergent people? What common workplace barriers may neurodivergent people face, and what inclusion strategies can we consider?
People with disabilities face a wide variety of barriers in the workplace – and it goes well beyond making your workplace accessible to wheelchair users. In this session we will explore barriers that are transitional (barriers to accessing the work environment) and environmental (barriers found within the work environment), with a focus on strategies to shift attitudinal barriers: differential treatment and discrimination in the work environment.
Organizations often focus their disability inclusion efforts on the recruitment and hiring process. But this is only the start of the employment journey. What happens after the person is hired? We will explore how to tackle key barriers and implement disability inclusion principles at all stages of the employment cycle, including recruitment, hiring, onboarding, retention, promotion and career development, performance management, and job exit.
Mentorship may get all the attention, but it can only do so much on its own. Especially in a sector that currently has very low representation of people with disabilities. We will discuss the differences between allyship, mentorship, and sponsorship, and how to use your voice and privilege to uplift people with disabilities. We will explore how allyship and sponsorship can support mentorship efforts, as well as bring standalone benefits.
In the final session, we bring everything together with a solid work plan designed to set you up for success to take your learnings back to your organization and discuss how to work towards disability confidence. Leave with concrete ideas on how to help your organization recognize the value of individuals with disabilities, create an environment where employees feel comfortable disclosing their disability if they choose, promote awareness to reduce biases, and support leaders to champion inclusion at all levels of the organization.
Anna-Liza Badaloo (she/her) of Anemochory Consulting is a facilitator, un-learner, and inclusive communicator. Viewing JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) through the lens of empathy, her decolonized, intersectional approach helps organizations build capacity by implementing communities of practice, trainings, and empathy-driven frameworks designed to foster organizational justice. By centering equity-deserving communities, she helps organizations understand how colonial structures impact organizational health.
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