During Anti-Racism Awareness Week in BC, May 26 to June 1, 2025, the CFE announced to our public list our new four-year project and our new Racial Equity Projects Lead staffing developments.
Our Announcement
We know that racial inequity is not a result of individual differences, but of inequitable systems that perpetuate discrimination and exclusion.
Jessie Sunner, B.C. parliamentary secretary for anti-racism initiatives says “Racism, whether overt or subtle, systemic or interpersonal, continues to harm individuals and communities throughout our province. It affects access to education, health care, employment and justice. It erodes trust in systems and in one’s sense of belonging.”
Racial Equity at the Centre of Our Work
At the Centre for Family Equity, we are dedicated to eliminating family poverty in BC. We understand that poverty is rooted in overlapping forms of discrimination— racism, colonialism, ableism, heteronormativity, sexism, and classism all perpetuate structural inequities affecting families. This is why we adopt a racial equity lens, disability justice lens, and gender equality lens to all our work.
In 2025, with support from a generous funder, we launched our Racial Equity Advisory Committee to inform and guide the CFE’s work to address racial equity for low-income Black, racialized, and Indigenous families in BC. This Committee, made up of our membership, also informs the development of the CFE’s anti-racism framework, approach, and impact both internally and externally.
Our vision is a BC where all families thrive – with access to quality jobs, equitable systems and services, health equity, and strong social security. BC's public systems and services should work for all families—not just a few. For many years, we have been hearing from many of the families in our membership about the pervasive racism in BC’s public schools – whether at the playground or in the curriculum. When our children and families face racism in the school system, they are unable to flourish, learn, play, and thrive.
Our New Supported Work to Address Racial Equity
Kindergarten to Grade 12 Without Racism: Families Lead the Way
This racism must end. That is why we are announcing “Kindergarten to Grade 12 Without Racism: Families Lead the Way", our new, parent and caregiver-led project to address systemic racism in multiple areas of BC’s public education system.
Led by Indigenous and racialized parents and caregivers in our core membership and beyond, our project will engage families across the province to share experiences and gather data on the impact of racism in schools. We will mobilize evidence-based, parent-led policy and legislative change to transform BC’s School Act and BC’s Anti-Racism Act. The Ministry of Education and Childcare has launched a K-12 Anti-Racism Action Plan and our work aims to coalesce with progress being made through our deeply intersectional approach, engaging families impacted by both racism and poverty in BC.
Together, we will work to end racism in BC’s public schools through community-driven research, advocacy, and law reform that centres the voices of Indigenous, Black, newcomer migrant, and racialized families with lived experience.
How Can I Get Involved?
We invite parents and caregivers with lived experience of racism in the K-12 system to join us in this important work to end racism in BC’s public schools. This four-year project is funded by the Law Foundation of BC and runs from 2025 to 2029.
Over the next four years, there will be many opportunities to participate in this project as we create a powerful network of parents, families and caregivers taking action to ensure every child and youth can learn in an environment free from the harm of racism. There will also be compensated surveys, focus groups, and interviews coming out this year!
If you are a parent or caregiver directly impacted by racism in our K-12 system and interested in our first compensated opportunity as a K-12 Anti-Racism Project Peer Engagement Lead, don’t forget to apply by June 10!
To view the role description please click here.
The application deadline has now passed. Thank you to all those who applied for the role.
We need your strong anti-racist voice and we look forward to hearing from you! Please join us to impact real change and meet other families with similar experiences!
Who Is Leading the CFE’s Racial Equity Work?
We are excited to announce that Harsha Walia has joined our team and will be leading the CFE's work in the area of racial equity, including the K-12 Without Racism: Families Lead the Way project!
Harsha (she/her) is an immigrant settler on unceded Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) lands. She has worked in frontline and leadership roles in the anti-violence and gender equity sector for twenty years. She has also been active in feminist, anti-racist, migrant justice, abolitionist, and anti-colonial movements for the past two decades. Trained in the law, Harsha has made numerous presentations provincially, federally, and internationally on justice issues. Harsha is also the award-winning author of several books, and the co-author of many community-engaged reports such as Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration, Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women in Vancouver Downtown Eastside, and Colour of Violence: Race, Gender & Anti-Violence Services.
We welcome Harsha and her experience and passion for justice for marginalized communities to the Centre for Family Equity team.
For more information, you can contact: Harsha: harshaw@centreforequity.ca
To support this crucial work right away during Anti-Racism Awareness Week please click here to make a donation to the Centre for Family Equity and receive a tax receipt. We are seeking more support to make this project happen! We express gratitude to all our existing K-12 Without Racism project partners and allies and those who come forward to support our work to address poverty and racial equity in BC.