SBA Programming and Events
- Office Closures
- Computer Lab Closure and Upgrade
- Monthly Lunch
- QT2SBIPOC Summer Social (with Ice Cream!)
- What’s Left? Countering the Alt Right
- Disorientation – Call for Volunteers
Community Events and Resources
- The Black Artist Market
- Resilience 150
- CWTP York is looking for Collective Members!
- Government Survey on Accessibility Standards in Education
- Proclaiming our Roots: An oral history project by and for mixed Black and Indigenous people
- Slut Walk Toronto: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 2-6 p.m.
- Anti-Oppression and Anti-Racism Workshop
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing BIPOC Space
Job Opportunities
- Volleyball Coordinator
- Photographer
SBA Programming and Events
Office Closures
Please note that the following closure dates and times for the SBA Centre:
- July 28th, 2017 – SBA will be closed
- August 7th, 2017 – University is closed; SBA is closed
- August 28th, 2017 – SBA is closed
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Computer Lab Closure and Upgrade
The SBA Computer Lab will be closed from August 1st to September 4th in order to completely upgrade our computers, adaptive and assistive softwares, and furnishings. During this period, members have access to both library services throughout the University of Toronto as well as the Toronto Public Library. The TPL offers CCTVs, print magnifiers, braille writers, Kurzweil, JAWS, Daisy Players, ZoomText, TTY telephone, and wheelchair accessible furniture. Please note that you will require a library card to access the library and its technology. For more information on specific libraries and their equipment, please visit: www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/accessibility/branch-equipment
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Monthly Lunch
Join Students for Barrier-Free Access for another monthly lunch this Monday July 31st, 2017 from 12:30 to 2:30pm! There will be vegan and gluten-free options available! We are located at 215 Huron Street, Room 924.
Please note that there is a all gender accessible washroom on the same floor and that this is a scent free event and space.
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QT2SBIPOC Summer Social (with Ice Cream!) – Please note location change!
Join Students for Barrier-free Access (SBA) and the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans* People of the University of Toronto (LGBTOUT) for a summer social for Queer, Trans and Two-Spirit, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (QT2SBIPOC).
We will have ice cream (including vegan and gluten free ice cream), fruit and exciting toppings, along with some other snacks. There will also be activities, including games, colouring and crafting.
Join us for the treats, stay for the amazing people!
Date: Friday July 28, 2017
Time: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Location: Room 208 (Main Activity Hall), MultiFaith Centre. The MultiFaith Centre is located at 569 Spadina Avenue. The accessible entrance to the building is off of Bancroft Avenue.
Please arrive to the event fragrance fee.
If you have any questions, or access needs please contact Nadia at sba.advocacycoordinator@gmail.com
Wheelchair accessible. Accessible and all-gender washroom located on the same floor as the event room.
***This is a QT2SBIPOC only space.***
**As always, we appreciate the support we receive from our white allies by respecting this space and by sharing this event information with their networks.**
[Image Description: Image is a photograph of multicoloured ice cream popsicles that are melting, on a black background]
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What’s Left? Countering the Alt Right
The Toronto Research and Action Community Exchange (TRACX) is a two part program started by Opirg Toronto to build space for student and community research on social and environmental justice issues. The first component is a research portion. Through this research we work to facilitate connections between campus resources and community organizations working for social change. Through the TRACX program, community organizations can develop research projects useful to their campaigns and long-term strategies while being matched with students interested in completing the research for credit.
This year’s symposium is tentatively titled “What’s Left? Coalition-Building and Countering the Alt-Right” and will be co-hosted by Opirg Toronto and Sba Centre along with the Toronto Research and Action Community Exchange collective. The symposium portion is organized to showcase research with a community organizing focus from students, non-students and community groups. We want to problematize and challenge perspectives on research, and build networks between socially-conscious students and grassroots community organizations to develop research proposals led by the community group’s needs and priorities. We hope you can join us in helping facilitate this process as we focus on how we resist fascism, racism and oppression in our relationships, in our workplaces, and in the institutions and systems that govern our daily lives.
This year’s symposium will include both a skills-based component for developing the practical tools for conducting and disseminating research, and a thematic set of panels, keynotes, group discussions and presentations on anti-fascist work in Toronto and its intersections with other movements. This symposium is motivated by a need to reflect on our understanding of anti-fascism in the era of Trump and what the practice of anti-fascist organizing looks like. How do we cultivate an understanding of what anti-fascism means, and how do we employ it in our organizing work? We will explore how it intersects with other movements (like anti-racist organizing, migrant justice work, trans rights, and disability justice work) and what the antifascist organizing of the future might look like. Students attending the symposium will be exposed to a variety of social and environmental justice causes in the city of Toronto and will be able to network with community organizations about their research interests in the areas that the community groups work in. Students and community members will also have an opportunity to learn more about issues in the communities surrounding the campus and learn how the resources of the University could be utilized to assist with community projects.
September 30 – October 1
University of Toronto
Find this event on facebook
ACCESSIBILITY
We are committed to providing ASL and captioning and are currently working on organizing other accessibility related logistics such as childcare and gender neutral accessible washrooms. Full details around accessibility will be posted along with the schedule
SCHEDULE TBA
The submissions period for panels, keynotes, and group discussion sessions opens June 1st, 2017 and closes August 1st, 2017
For inquiries around accessibility, schedules, how to propose a session and how to get involved (volunteer or join the organizing committee) email opirg.toronto@gmail.com
Are you interested in supporting us? If you appreciate our programming initiatives and have the capacity to do so, consider making a donation of any amount here: https://www.youcaring.com/tracxproject-793042
All donations, big and small are greatly appreciated!
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Disorientation Week – Call for Volunteers
DisOrientation is an alternative orientation week that educates students about social and environmental justice issues while fostering student activism and connecting campus and community issues. The full event lasts for a week and includes panels, workshops, performances and other events intended to expose students and community members to critical analysis, insight and research about a range of social and environmental justice campaigns. OPIRG Toronto is looking for volunteers and like minded
campus organizations
interested in collaborating
to help make the next DisO week our best one yet. Are you passionate about social and environmental justice? Are you interested in learning more about political campaigns happening here in Toronto and around the province? Are you involved with a student service or campus group thats looking to host social or environmental justice themed programming for the new school year? Looking to develop your organizing skills while getting involved in campus politics and/or community organizing? We want you!
Note:
This years DisOrientation Week will be structured and focused on hands on, arts, DIY, skillsharing and participatory workshops from September 18th – 22nd. We would encourage groups interested in proposing panels, keynotes and discussion spaces to instead submit or volunteer with the TRACX symposium happening the following week on September 30th and October 1st. For more information on the TRACX symposium email racheleopirgto@gmail.com.
Here are some specific roles for interested volunteers:
• Event Logistics
– Set-up and clean up at events
– Moderating and/or liaising with facilitators about workshop needs
• Outreach & Promotion
– Tabling at clubs day and outreach at campus events
– Distributing flyers at community events
– Postering on and off campus
– Assisting with publicizing Disorientation through online social media and listservs
– Assisting with coordinating class talks promoting Disorientation
• Media
– Liasing with any media interested in recording or writing about events
– Video or audio recording our events
– Photographing events for the Disorientation archives.
To get involved in organizing Disorientation 2017, please fill out the volunteer form here.
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Community Events and Resources
The Black Artist Market
The Black Artist Market was born out of a frustration with the anti-black racism in art spaces in Toronto. It was born out of a being exhausted by the struggle of trying to survive as a Black artist in Toronto. The Black Artist Market was born out of a yearning to see Black Artist in Toronto come together. Finally, it was born out a need to honour the brilliance of the Black Artist.
#BAMTO is a series of Black Artist Markets taking place in Toronto. The Black Artist Market is dedicated to Black Art in Toronto. Artists markets in Toronto rarely, if ever, prioritize the voices and art of those who, despite being the most marginalized contribute the most to culture. It can also be an extremely lonely and isolating as a Black Artist to be in spaces that allow us to participate, but do not prioritize or understand the Black Artist experience.
This event is the first of it’s kind! It will take a whole new spin on what artist markets can be. There will be a DJ spinning live at the event, the space is wheelchair accessible and a diverse set of vendors! This market will be interactive and specifically curated. It will be so much more than some folding tables and chairs.
The black artists that are part of this event blow me away with their gift of imagining and creating the world in brilliant ways.
In the upcoming weeks there will be a feature on each of the brilliant artist. So stay tuned! on Come out to support local Black Artists in our community!
Date: August 5th
Time: 7pm – 10pm
Location: D-Beatstro, 1292 Bloor Street West
*Cover: This market is Pay What You Can $ 5 – $15 and no one turned away due to lack of funds.
*The venue is wheelchair and mobility device accessible/
* You do not have to buy food at the cafe in order to come to the market.
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Resilience 150
Supporting Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to acknowledge and celebrate thousands of years of Indigenous resilience on this land
Young people are playing an important role in creating new possibilities for a decolonized and reconciled Canada. Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth are leading, co-creating and involved in intergenerational efforts to address the ongoing impacts of colonization and to build cross-cultural relationships based on mutual respect and understanding.
To give voice to alternative narratives and actions during this contentious year, we are offering micro-grants of up to $1000 to support projects and events created and/or co-created by young people that celebrate Indigenous resilience and resistance on this land. These grants will support opportunities for learning, reflection and relationship building that strengthen community efforts to ensure the stories, experiences, and priorities of Indigenous voices are not drowned out by fireworks and festivities in this year of Canada’s 150th birthday.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday, July 31st, 2017 by 5 pm
PopUp Grant Details
Resilience 150 grants will support events, field trips, workshops, action projects, intergenerational exchanges, arts-based initiatives and other activities that explore:
- The stories, histories and present day experiences of Indigenous peoples on the lands in your community
- The stories, histories and present day examples of Indigenous resilience and resistance on this land
- What is possible for the next 150 years
Eligibility:
Are you a youth-led group (young people between the ages of 15-29) led by and/or co-creating with Indigenous youth? (you can be an intergenerational group and have members older or younger than 15-29).
Are you based in Ontario?
Do you have a project or idea that will acknowledge and celebrate the thousands of years of Indigenous resilience on this land?
Would some funding/resources help you get this project going? Then apply for a Resilience 150 grant.
*Please note, you do not need to be a charity to apply. You can be a grassroots group and apply on your own or in partnership with another group.
How to apply:
Logon onto the application portal by clicking here.
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CWTP is Looking for New Collective Members!
The Centre for Women and Trans People at York University is seeking new Collective members from both York University and the larger Toronto community.
We actively prioritize the contributions that individuals from marginalized communities bring to our organization, and invite First Nations, Metis and Inuit people, black people, people of colour, members of racialized groups, Muslim people, two-spirited people, low-income people, queer people, trans people, sex workers, gender variant, gender fluid, and genderqueer people, working-class people, single parents, migrants, disabled and mad people, and members of the D/deaf community to apply.
Deadline to apply: Open until all positions are filled
The Collective
CWTP is governed by a volunteer feminist collective. The Collective is fully responsible for the smooth operation of CWTP and acts in accordance with its constitution, vision statement, mandate, collective agreement and other relevant centre policies. The Collective takes responsibility for staffing, policy, programming, services, development, budgeting, and other initiatives and operates within a non-hierarchical model of consensus decision-making. The Collective is especially looking for people with a demonstrated commitment to feminist, anti-oppressive politics (challenging cis-sexism, racism, anti-black racism, ableism, etc.) strong communication and leadership skills, and experience with non-profit organizations.
Collective Member Responsibilities
Be familiar with and act in accordance with the Centre’s constitution, vision statement, mandate, and other relevant centre policies as well as have a working knowledge of the Centre, itsoperations and resources
Be familiar with the Collective Agreement with CUPE 1281 and fulfill duties of the employer
Commit to collective membership for a minimum of one year
- Prepare for, attend, and contribute during Collective meetings 2-4 times per month.
- Complete annual mandatory Centre training sessions and Collective development workshops.
- Facilitate/lead 1 committee and participate in other committees (Hiring committees) and roles (such as Staff Liaison) as necessary. Standing committees include Library & Resources, Collective Development & Training, Programming & Outreach, Finance and Space Maintenance, Policy, Peer support, Trans Integration, or any other portfolio deemed necessary by the Collective.
- Hold office hours 2-3 hours twice week.
- Complete mandatory relevant training offered by the Centre, as outlined in the constitution
- Ensure that the Centre is a safer space for all members including staff
- Self-advocate within the consensus decision-making model
- Support the Centre’s space through two weekly office hours
- Attend weekly collective meetings. They shall be responsible for their own presence at meetings and in the event of their absence, conveying their regrets in a timely fashion.
- Organize two events or workshops, whether collectively or individually, on behalf of the organization for the fall and winter semesters
- Join local committees and/or coalitions on behalf of the Centre, to develop community relationships and help in an advisory capacity
Experiences:
Required:
- Minimum of 6 months working or volunteer experience in relevant organizations.
- A commitment to creating a welcoming and safer space for all of our members, one that is rooted in challenging settler colonial violence, racism, anti-black racism, xenophobia,islamophobia, anti-semitism, fatphobia, classism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, mysoginoir, transmysoginy, ableism and sanism, discrimination on the basis of religion/spirituality, and institutionalized oppression within the university setting and in the wider community.
Asset:
- Prior non-profit/ student based board experience
- Previous anti-oppression and trans* 101 training
How to Apply:
- Submit a written application form comprised of a completed Member Application Form, and a 1-page Statement of Intent.
- If the Collective accepts your initial application, you will be invited to attend an interview.
- The collective will invite all applicants successful in the interview process to attend 2 consecutive Collective meetings and to participate in Collective responsibilities for 1 month.
- After 2 meetings, you will review your experience and involvement with current collective members and mutually decide whether you may begin your full, 1-year term as a full Collective member.
Forms:
Collective Membership application form available HERE (WORD), PDF
- Printed forms are available at the Centre as well. (4700 Keele Street, 322 Student Centre, York University).
- Applicants can drop it off in person, or e-mail their application to cwtpyork@gmail.com
All information provided on this form will be accessible only to staff, and collective members for the purpose of recruiting collective members. Submitting an application does not guarantee your acceptance as a Collective Member.
Thanks for your interest!
For more information
cwtpyork@gmail.com
Please come by 4700 Keele Street, York University Room 322 Student Centre
or visit our website at http://cwtpyork.ca/announcements/
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Proclaiming our Roots: An oral history project by and for mixed Black and Indigenous people
This summer, we want to hear from you about what it means to be Black and Indigenous!
Please join us for a weekend to create personal videos that explore your unique identity. Equipment, supplies, food, transit, tech training and an $X honoraria will be provided.
All you have to do is come ready to share.
Study location: Toronto, Ontario
Dates: August 25 – 28th, 2017
Space is limited. We need your commitment to attend all 4 days.
Participation is voluntary.
Childcare subsidies are available.
For more information about this research project, please contact: Ciann Wilson, 519-884-0710 ext. 4911ciann.wilson@gmail.com
This research project is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and has been reviewed and approved by the Wilfrid Laurier University Research Ethics Board (REB #5239)
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Slut Walk Toronto: Saturday, August 12, 2017, 2-6 p.m.
In 2011 SlutWalk Toronto started a global movement against rape culture following an incident involving the Toronto Police Service instructing York University students not to dress provocatively to avoid victimization. Since then, SlutWalk has grown with solidarity actions in 60 cities across the world each year. This year SlutWalk Toronto is working with Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project and Silence is Violence to center sex workers rights in our struggle against rape culture and sexual violence.
On Thursday July 13th we invite you to join us for a community dinner and visioning meeting from 6-9pm at 526 Richmond Street East in downtown Toronto. We want to hear from community partners, SlutWalk participants and advocates as the need to keep pushing back against sexual violence, rape culture, stigmatizing attitudes, as well as systemic forms of oppression and violence is as prevalent as ever.
Together, we hope to establish space for people to share experience and learn from one another, strengthen individual and community capacity, and practice resistance to all forms of violence. We would like to engage in partnerships with other anti-oppression groups, community organizers, and social justice advocates to share resources and inform the upcoming SlutWalk 2017 march and rally scheduled for August 12th at Barbara Hall Park.
Please join us for a meal and visioning session to discuss SlutWalk 2017, your vision for a fantastic event and how we can make this year’s action as thoughtful and inclusive as possible! If you cannot make the dinner and would like to connect to see how our initiatives might complement one another, contact us at: slutwalk.yyz@gmail.com, Facebook, or Twitter.
Please also visit these links for more information about Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Worker Action Project and Silence is Violence UofT
Strength and solidarity,
SlutWalk TO Volunteer Team
Note:
**We encourage a scent-free environment and ask that participants refrain from using scented products before coming to the space.
**We will be able to provide childcare if you let us know in advance by email: slutwalk.yyz@gmail.com
**If you have any specific accessibility needs or dietary requirements please email: slutwalk.yyz@gmail.com and we will do our best to offer accommodations.–
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Anti-Oppression and Anti-Racism Workshop
This workshop for artists explores the language, theories and practices of anti-oppression in depth. Institutional, community based and organizational strategies for building equity and unlearning oppression are central to the content and objectives of the workshop. Creative, technical and collaborative models for building equity and liberation will be explored. Group activities, case studies and discussion are critical tools to apply the learnings of this workshop.
When: August 9th, 2017
Where: 180 Shaw Street (Artscape Youngspace)
Cost: FREE
Participants will have access to a plethora of digital and print resources to continue their learning journey beyond the scope of the session.
Presented in Partnership with Generator, and b current performing arts
Facilitator Rania El Mugammar
Part of the SummerWorks Intensive Leadership Program (S.L.I.P.), a series of public events that explore how we can remove barriers and dismantle systems of oppression through artistic practice.
ACCESS
All SummerWorks venues are physically accessible, and many events offer accessible options such as ASL Interpretation, Relaxed Performances, and free or discounted tickets. For more info on accessibility at SummerWorks, visit summerworks.ca/access
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DEAF & HARD OF HEARING
BIPOC: BLACK, INDIGENOUS & PEOPLE OF COLOUR
Unite to share experiences and learn skills to enhance your life.
Springtide
Resources
@SPRINGTIDE_VAW
Location: 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 220 (Floor 2R)
(Spadina & Queen St. West) M5T 2C7
Email to register or for more info: info@springtideresources.org
Be heard!
Be inspired!
Become our
own advocates.
A SPACE JUST FOR US
Proudly brought to you by:
Springtide Resources, Alterna Community Fund and the LGBTQ Youth Initiative with generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
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Job Opportunities
Volleyball Coordinator – UTGSU
We are looking to hire a friendly, energetic, and experienced Volleyball Coordinator to run our volleyball league for the upcoming academic year. Interested in being considered for the position? We will be accepting applications (resume and cover letter) until Monday, July 31, 2017. For a full list of duties, qualifications, pay and additional information, view the: UTGSU Volleyball Coordinator Job Description.
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Photographer – UTGSU
Do you have experience taking professional photographs with natural light? We’re hiring a photographer to take photos at our Fall Orientation. If you’re interested in applying, please refer to the job posting: Hiring Photographer for UTGSU Fall Orientation. The deadline to apply is Thursday, August 10, 2017.
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Students for Barrier-Free Access 