Reflection & Celebration as 2020-21 CLDP Wraps Up
Saturday April 10 marked the last learning session for the 2020-21 Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP). This year’s cohort joined us for the final session to connect and conclude our learning journey over the past 6 months. Our morning discussions centred around learning reflections, with a focus on the connection imperative in supporting one another on the work that has been done, and ways in which these learnings can be embedded into a leadership practice.
Our final day together as a cohort before Graduation was filled with appreciation. I was struck by the sense of accomplishment and support for each other; for what’s been learned and gained over these months together; the sense of personal expansion and enthusiasm to put these skills into action.
After our virtual lunch together, we were delighted to have three guest BIPOC leaders in our community for interactive round table conversations on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) hosted by Leadership Victoria facilitator Nooreen Preusser from Royal Roads.
We were supported by 3 key community leaders. This included Ron Rice, Executive Director of BC Friendship Centre; Kareece Whittle-Brown, Director of Operations & Project Management at Here in Canada; and Devesh Bharadwaj, CEO of Pani Energy
Our guest leaders shared with us what EDI means to each of them. Like many organizations, Leadership Victoria continues to work toward a better understanding and implementation of inclusion practices and the development of inclusive leadership. Using break out rooms we created three groups to share time brainstorming with each one of our leaders for engaging discussions around EDI in our community.
Nooreen prompted our discussions with 2 questions:
1) As conversations around EDI evolve, what are the specific goals for EDI in Victoria right now?
2) What are the tools and/or activities that further these goals?
These intimate discussions provided an opportunity for open exploration on inclusion from an individual perspective and in Greater Victoria.
We wrapped up the roundtable as a cohort to discuss highlights, key learnings and challenged ourselves on we can take our dialog to action - each of us developing our own concrete actions steps and committing to these specific steps in order to help advance EDI in our own leadership going forward.
We like to extend our sincere gratitude to this year's CLDP cohort for today's reflection and celebration around this year's personal growth and for bringing their best selves to the program these last 6 month. We'd also like to thank Nooreen Preusser for facilitating the afternoon roundtable and to our leaders Ron Rice, Kareece Whittle-Brown, and Devesh Bharadwaj, for facilitating these inspiring roundtable discussions.
Learn more about our annual Community Leadership Development Program and how you can get involved by clicking here.