July 28, 2021
” It was very important, for example, for us to name and work with the distinction between Indigenous Rights and the struggles of racialized groups in Vancouver, in an accurate and responsible way.”
— Dr. Handel Kashope Wright
Equity Framework: City of Vancouver
The City of Vancouver has taken a significant step forward in acknowledging and upholding the rights and dignity of all people, addressing historic and current systemic injustice, and reducing harm by adopting its first-ever Equity Framework. The Equity Framework will help the City of Vancouver approach every aspect of its operations with a sharper and more nuanced equity lens.
Equity Framework: UBC Faculty of Education
Over the past two years, several people closely collaborated in the development of the Equity Framework, including Dr. Mumbi Maina, who helped lead the City of Vancouver’s unanimously approved Equity Framework, and Dr. Handel Kashope Wright, who provided sustained, extensive advice on the Equity Framework.
Dr. Mumbi Maina
Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC Faculty of Education
Social Planner, Social Policy and Projects Division, City of Vancouver
Dr. Maina is part of a research team working to imagine how Canadian cities can catalyze transformative innovation in tackling colonialism, inequities and the climate crisis. Her doctoral research examined the roles of various groups, including historically marginalized groups, in the enactment of sustainability in higher education policy and practice. She was the first Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow in the Sustainability Group in the City of Vancouver and, in her current role as a Social Planner at the City of Vancouver, Dr. Mumbi has collaboratively worked towards organizational transformation through the development of the Equity Framework. Her previous work focused on grassroots social and environmental justice organizing, anti-racist education, and cross-cultural collaboration with immigrant and other communities across North America.
Dr. Handel Kashope Wright
Professor, UBC Faculty of Education
Director, Centre for Culture, Identity and Education, UBC Faculty of Education
Senior Advisor to the President on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence, UBC
Senior Research Associate, School of Communication, University of Johannesburg
Co-Editor, African and Diasporic Cultural Studies Book Series, University of Toronto Press
Associate Editor, Critical Arts
Dr. Wright’s work focuses on continental and diasporic African cultural studies, critical multiculturalism, anti-racist education, qualitative research, and cultural studies of education. His current research examines post multiculturalism, youth identity, and belonging in the Canadian context. Dr. Wright serves on the City of Vancouver’s Black History Month Event Planning Committee. He also serves as an advisor to the Executive of the community group, Sierra Leoneans in British Columbia and the UBC student group, Africa Awareness.
To learn more, visit the City of Vancouver’s Equity Framework page.
