Supporting Inclusive Communities

A summary of EFCL projects

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The City of Edmonton funded EFCL’s Anti-Racism Project through its Anti-Racism Community Safety fund.

This one-year project brought together three BIPOC organizations along with the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues in ways that create dialogue and learning in Community League spaces.

Our partners are Ribbon Rouge, Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and Sisters Dialogue. Four Community Leagues hosted these events, to great success: Strathcona Community League, The Meadows Community League, Alberta Avenue Community League, and Wihkwentowin Community League (formly Oliver Community League).

This is a list of the work each of these partners did with four participating Community Leagues across Edmonton.

• Ribbon Rouge: arts based workshops
• Bent Arrow: medicine wheel/Treaty 6 education
• Sisters Dialogue: inclusion workshops

Read more about this project.

Recognizing a gap in allyship and inclusion resources rooted in a community context, the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) began this journey of working with Community partners and Edmonton’s Community Leagues to create a series of courses entitled Supporting Inclusive Communities.

This 5-part series of courses support those interested in community building, particularly Edmonton’s Community League Members, to consider all the ways they can be allies to the neighbours they serve.

The Safewalk Pilot project was ran in collaboration with Sisters Dialogue in 2022 (read our case study here). That work sought to build support and safety for racialized, visibly Muslim women in northeast Edmonton – in response to violence, racism, and Islamophobic attacks in our city. Our aim was to increase a sense of community safety and wellbeing through building relationships between Community Leagues, community members and Muslim women.

What resulted was a Sunday morning walking group, a regular park meeting and a weekly Moms and Kids playground program through the South Clareview Community League. This program successfully engaged more than 20 Muslim women and their children each week through August 2022.

From the success of this August playground program, the South Clareview Community League offered their hall once a month, and with the support of SafeWalk and Sisters Dialogue, the first two Women’s Gatherings were held in October and November. These events saw more than 40 women attend. In October, Mauritanian, Palestinian and Iraqi women shared food and talked about their culture. The second event featured Somali food and had reading of a local Somali author’s children’s book and a presentation from the Hoyo Collective, an organization that supports African mothers.

Community Leagues are unique to Edmonton and can be a great asset to the clients you support. Leagues provide opportunities for community connection, skill-building, recreational activities and more. If you are new to working with Community Leagues, we recommend attending our free Community Leagues 101 presentations. We go over Leagues, how to get involved, and why you should join a League. For details about upcoming sessions, email us at leaguesupport@efcl.org

We have also developed a version of this presentation for newcomer and English Language Learner populations. If your organization serves either group and would be interested in having the EFCL present to your clients/students, email us at leaguesupport@efcl.org. There is no cost for us to present.

Come together for a virtual monthly meetup with League Members and neighbours to talk about how Community Leagues can become better allies to the variety of identities and communities that make our city vibrant. The following principles guide our discussions.  Discussions were 1.5-hour monthly gatherings happens.

Now the Inclusion Cafes are integrated within the EFCL Mentorship Program of events for Leagues.

Tipi Teachings was a program developed and run through a grant from Canadian Heritage from 2019 to 2021. This grant enabled capacity-building within the leadership of the Community Leagues and the EFCL to become familiar with Indigenous protocol, practice and culture.

The EFCL worked with several Community Leagues to offer activities in the spirit of truth and reconciliation. The goal to alleviate barriers by learning how to support First Nations people and beat prejudice in our communities.

Programming included:

• tipi raising
• learning from elders
• networking with First Nations people in the community
• sharing food
• discussions and events in partnership with Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society

As part of an effort to create a safe space for the LGBTQ community amongst the Community Leagues, EFCL took on a student to develop helpful resources for Leagues. An explanation and the development of the project can be found here (A Show of Support document).

Resources included:

• a statement and a series of posters were created that could be displayed in community halls, denoting that the Community League and its hall are safe and respectful of the LGBTQ community.
• Creating more LGBTQ+ inclusive programs resource, to help address both gaps in knowledge that may exist for those running programs, and barriers that exist for those participating in programs, this resource was designed to help educate and instruct on how to make programs more inclusive for the LGBTQ+ community.
• A pride flag matching game.
• Pronouns in EFCL email signatures.
• A Liaison to the LGBTQ+ Community board position document
• Creating more LGBTQ+ inclusive programs resource

Other, smaller and/or on-going projects:

• Translation of our “Welcome to Community Leagues” brochures into multiple languages
• Partnerships with newcomer organizations
• Integrating diversity and inclusion work into Community League programs and operations
• Developed a series of social media graphics that reaches newcomers
• Celebrating League initiatives on social media and in our newsletter articles