About Us

	Dr. Margaret Brigham Dean of Equity 416-289-5000, x2083 Progress, B2-12A Email | Bio | Map		Dr. Eva Aboagye Senior Researcher 416-289-5000, x3376 Progress, B2-12C Email | Bio | Map		Aida Haroun Equity & Compliance Manager 416-289-5000, x3438 Progress, B2-12D Email | Bio | Map

Centennial College is a recognised leader in global citizenship, social justice, and equity education. The College places a strong emphasis on ensuring its relevance in these areas and, in 2009, established the Institute for Global Citizenship & Equity as an avenue for ensuring that it continues to achieve this goal.

The Institute for Global Citizenship and Equity (IGCE) was a natural evolution in the College’s commitment to global citizenship, social justice, and equity, which has enabled the College to more visibly embed these principles into all of its activities. The Institute is a meaningful and important articulation of the prominence that the College has in these areas.

Under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Brigham (Dean), Dr. Eva Aboagye (Senior Researcher), and Aida Haroun (Equity and Compliance Manager) and their dynamic team, the Institute has evolved into a rich resource for staff, faculty, and students as well as an active contributor to global citizenship, social justice, and equity discourse.

The Institute’s Team

The IGCE provides a clustering of energy and resources on global citizenship and equity from which faculty, staff, students, and the community can use to work together in pursuit of new and ongoing projects that explore issues of global citizenship, social justice, and equity.

The Institute collaborates with schools and departments at the College to offer activities that advance global citizenship, equity, social justice, and systemic change. By bringing together research and activities related to global citizenship, equity, and social justice education at the College, the Institute strives to provide opportunities for the members of the College community to work within their communities and/or globally towards social justice. The IGCE enables the College community to move from a philosophical approach to global citizenship to social action.

The goals of the Institute are:

1. To inspire in people the desire to use their education for the benefit of their local, national, and global community;
2. To encourage the development of global citizens who recognize the interdependence of all people and the need for all people to work toward universal social justice and equity.

In order to do meet it's goals, the Institute serves college-wide functions in three key areas:

1. Promotion of global citizenship research and scholarship.  Accomplished through an annual human rights conference, a social action fund, and two scholarly publications. The Global Citizen Digest magazine facilitates an emerging college-based learning community, and the Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education (peer-reviewed online academic journal) creates a forum for international research, theory, and post-colonial narratives. Both publications engage the faculty, staff, and students in research and writing on global citizenship themes.
2. Coordination of policy-level compliance work.  Activity involves initiating systems to monitor the presence of structural and behavioral barriers for students and employees. Human rights efforts involve special programs for persons with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities, and women. Employment equity activity includes a self-identification survey, a systems analysis and equity plans. Non-discrimination components include an annual accessibility plan for AODA implementation, an AODA facilities audit, and advising on complaints and accommodation issues.
3. Implementation of institutional commitments to diversity and human rights. Pursued through committees and collaborations with the Academic Schools, Centers of Excellence, International Education, Continuing Education, and Student Services.  Regulatory obligations stem from the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Federal Contractor Compliance program, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, and Collective Agreements. Others involve corporate statements of commitment such as the Statement of Diversity, Organizational Learning Framework, the Aboriginal Strategy, the Multi-Year Accountability Agreement, and the Framework for Equity and Inclusion at Centennial College.

Two main frameworks will guide the work of the Institute:

• The Inclusive Table - represents the commitment to reach out, bring people in and make them comfortable.
• Connecting The Dots - represents our processes to get people engaged about local and global issues.