Community of Practice for equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

Would you like to help build community inclusion at UM and help to further develop our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) best practices and skills? Then here’s some great news! A new UM Community of Practice for EDI is being created.

Facilitated by Jackie Gruber, Director, EDI, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and Valerie Williams, EDI Facilitator, Human Resources, the Community of Practice will meet for monthly, hour-long discussions.

The meetings will explore EDI best practices, invite guest speakers for specific topics of interest, and facilitate group discussion around difficult cases and adding skills. 

The group is being formed with the purpose of:

• Providing you with further training and experience to help you increase your skills and confidence in advocating for EDI;
• Empowering you to be an information source for your departments and communities about upcoming EDI events and campus & community resources; and
• Having a voice in future development of EDI Initiatives on campus.

EDI facilitator Val Williams says, “Our vision is to bring together UM employees and students to form a community of practice around EDI on campus.”

Our initial meeting will be scheduled for May 2021 (date to be determined) with all of you who are interested in being part of this Community of Practice. We will use the discussion at this meeting to guide our planning for monthly meetings to start in September. 

We look forward to meeting with you in May!

Our commitment

UM is firmly committed to ensuring equity, diversity and inclusion for all of our community members.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) is a strategy, linked to all five institutional priorities identified in Taking Our Place, the University’s Strategic Plan:

• Inspiring Minds through innovative and quality teaching
• Driving Discovery and Insight through excellence in research, scholarly work and other creative activities
• Creating Pathways to Indigenous Achievement
• Building Community that creates an outstanding learning and working environment
• Forging Connections to foster high impact community engagement that build on the advantages of a diverse and inclusive workplace

If you are interested in being part of the EDI Community of Practice, please email Val Williams at valerie.williams@umanitoba.ca