Universal Design
Universal Design (UD) calls for the removal of barriers to support everyone, not only people with disabilities. It can be applied to a variety of contexts, including learning and the workplace.
Affinity Spaces
An affinity group is a community of peers that offers support, guidance, resources, and mentorship to its members, who identify as like-minded with the group. Affinity groups are particularly valuable as they provide a sense of belonging, community, and collective empowerment to members of historically, systemically, and perpetually marginalized groups.
Polarization
According to Courageous Dialogues: Moving Beyond Polarization project, “Polarization is a complex social dynamic that occurs when an issue that involves many different people, concerns and opinions is reduced to two opposing sides— ‘for or against’ or ‘us vs them.'” Learn more
Restorative Justice and Transformative Justice
Restorative and transformative justice approaches are most commonly applied in criminal justice reform, but they have also been applied to academic and healthcare institutions to help units navigate how to address differences, disagreements, conflicts, and harm. Learn more
Unconscious Biases
Unconscious (implicit) biases are pre-judgments or mental shortcuts we make about others. We all harbor beliefs about members of various social and identity groups. Learn more
Calling in
Calling in is an approach aimed at encouraging someone to change their problematic or harmful behavior by inviting them into a conversation with the goal of listening and building mutual understanding. Learn more
Anti-racism
Anti-racism is the practice of identifying, challenging, preventing, eliminating and changing the values, structures, policies, programs, practices and behaviours that perpetuate racism between individuals and within systems. Anti-racism is characterized by taking action against racism; it is distinct from simply having a disposition of being “not racist.” Learn more
Bystander Effect
Also known as Bystander Apathy, is a phenomenon in which the presence of other people discourages individuals from intervening in an emergency, against a bully, during an assault, or when some other injustice is being committed. The greater the number of bystanders present in the situation, the less likely that any one of them will provide help to a person in distress, as each individual feels like they bear less responsibility for intervening. Learn more
Allyship
Allyship is a life-long process of working to advance inclusion through intentional, positive, and conscious actions within one’s sphere of influence. A person who takes action, listens to, builds trust with, advocates for, and amplifies the voices of marginalized people and groups may be recognized as an ally. As a label, the term “ally” cannot be self-applied; one can only become an ally by having their efforts recognized as such by the marginalized person(s) they strive to uplift. Learn more
Intersectionality
Intersectionality is the recognition that social identities or categorizations (such as race, class, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity) create overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Learn more