Building Stronger Boards: A Study of the Diversity Settlement Organizations in Winnipeg

of this project and the generous financial support The opinions and recommendations in this of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research report, and any errors, are those of the author, Council of Canada through the Manitoba Research and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alliance grant, “Community-Driven Solutions to publishers or funders of this report. [...] He is currently the Executive Director of Aurora Family Therapy Centre and has previously served in several capacities including as Director of Policy at the Office of Canada’s Minister for Families, Children and Social Development, Executive Director of the Immigration Partnership Winnipeg (IPW) and as the Executive Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM). [...] The focus groups included participants with board experience and informal leadership experience, and the focus group questions were designed to gather perspectives on diversity-related topics and to explore the challenges, benefits, risks, and barriers as they relate to board diversity and the experiences of community leaders and board members. [...] That feeling of welcome, of being wanted, of being integrated, of being made part of the fabric of the society and not just the society at large but part of the decision-making part of the society is ...is invaluable.” “The idea is integration — strategic integration that makes people feel like they are not just living inside but are part of the reason why society is what it is.” Inclusion of boar. [...] Consistent with the existing literature (e.g., Diversity Institute, 2020; Myers et al., 2016), many newcomer and racialized board members shared experiences of being the one and only “minority” member on the board and reported experiences of tokenism, microaggres- sions, and feelings of insecurity and exclusion.