Orillia’s new equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) roundtable is seeking members to help make the city a more welcoming place.
Residents and local organizations are invited to take part in an open forum at the Orillia Public Library at 5 p.m. Nov. 30. Roundtable members will provide updates on research and consultation carried out earlier in the year, on top of their call for five to seven leaders from the community to join the roundtable.
In July, city council directed staff to work with Orillia’s marginalized groups to establish the roundtable, with the goal of supporting these communities while also informing the city’s strategies to combat racism and build a more inclusive and welcoming community.
Co-founders Tshweu Moleme and Alasoba Kelsy-Braide said they hope to find “passionate” community members to take part in the roundtable.
“We are going to be looking for leaders. We’re going to look for, really, anyone that can contribute to this group and make it successful,” Moleme told OrilliaMatters. “(We want to make) sure that anyone that’s feeling alone and not heard can know that they do have a place in this EDI group in Orillia that they can always go to, where they will be loved, where they will be heard and helped in finding the kind of solutions they need.”
Potential work for the roundtable includes education and awareness training, offering cultural festivals and events, suggesting policy changes, and more.
For example, Kelsy-Braide hopes to host Afro-Carribean cultural events in the city, and Moleme highlighted how a local Black History Month event made newcomers from Toronto feel a sense of community in Orillia.
The two also hope the roundtable will serve as a welcoming space for those in need.
Recounting their own experiences, they said smaller communities like Orillia can present difficulties for newcomers and marginalized groups.
Kelsey-Braide moved to Orillia five years ago.
“With two kids, and not knowing anybody, I struggled, but I just kept on telling myself … it’s going to be OK,” she said. “At the end of the day, I look back and I was blessed to get support from somebody that I didn't know.”
Moleme views Orillia as a “beautiful place to be,” but he said instances of racism and isolation do occur, and he hopes the roundtable can help address the issue.
“It’s happened to me, myself, a number of times,” he said.
He noted the growing number of students coming to town to study at Georgian College and Lakehead University.
“(With the) culture shock they’re battling, and then they run into racism, that creates a very serious situation,” he said.
“We want to be that place that you can go. We want them to be able to search online, looking for help and say, ‘OK, well, there is community here. There are people I can talk to," Moleme explained. "There is someone that’s going to help me if I feel alone and I need help.’ I think those are some of the things that the roundtable seeks to address.”
Kelsy-Braide pointed out Orillia is becoming an increasingly diverse community, and she hopes the roundtable’s work will lead to diverse groups of people, such as international students, choosing to stay and build lives here.
“(From) 2017 until now, I’ve seen tons of changes; I’ve seen a lot of people come into Orillia. We have Lakehead, we have Georgian College, and it’s bringing in new people,” she said.
“If we can make this place more friendly ... they won’t leave with those experiences they’ve gotten from college and universities. They’re going to get jobs (here). It’s going to increase a lot for us, not just finances, but different faces, different stores, that celebrate things that we don’t even expect to see," said Kelsy-Braide.
The roundtable comes as the result of a city working group created in 2021, with council representatives, which examined programs across 29 municipalities and surveyed the public.
With 119 survey respondents, the top four reasons listed for doing EDI work include addressing hate and discrimination in the community, making Orillia a more welcoming place, creating a sense of belonging for all residents, and influencing policy and procedure.
Unlike a council advisory committee, the roundtable will operate relatively independent of city council, although the two will work together to address issues in the city.
“Council has endorsed this group as their sounding board (and) also to have information flow back and forth,” said Jacqueline Surette, the city’s manager of culture. “I do expect, hopefully, to continue working with this group and bringing those things back and forth.”
More about the Nov. 30 open forum can be found here.
