OCIC Upcoming Forum Invitation – Inclusion & Participation For All

The Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC) will be hosting a forum under the theme “Inclusion and Participation for All: Building Diverse and Engaged Communities for Social Change” this coming Friday. They have been very kind to invite members of our local WUSC Committee to attend and we would like to show our support.

Ontario Council for International Cooperation
Spring 2009 Peterborough-Northumberland Regional Forum

Location: Peterborough, ON
Date: Friday, March 27th, 2009
Time: 10:30am – 4:30pm

Details of Forum

• The year 2015 was meant to mark the eradication of poverty. While groups and organizations continue to work at engaging the public on local and global justice issues, it is now apparent that the Millennium Development Goals set out by world leaders in 2000 will not be achieved. Increased and sustained public support for international cooperation is essential to creating the change we would like to see in the world.
• This forum will present opportunities to increase and deepen understandings of and approaches to global education and public engagement through a lens of inclusion. It will address challenges to just and equal participation, and will look critically at the role of power dynamics in social justice organizing. Through this lens, the forum will provide opportunities to examine and reassess the roles that groups and organizations can play in addressing social justice issues and creating effective social change.

Details of Speakers

• Uzma Shakir – a community-based researcher, advocate and activist. Her work focuses on issues of race, erosion of civil liberties and critical multiculturalism.
• Amai Kuda – a singer/songwriter, community activist and the mother of a young child. Through parenthood, community work and art, Amai is a vehicle for creation and for change.
• Penny Hartin – the current Chief Executive Officer of the World Blind Union, an organization which works on behalf of blind and visually impaired persons in some 170 countries around the world.

For full details and more information on how to register, visit www.ocic.on.ca or contact Kris at public.engagement@ocic.on.ca or 416-972-6303. Registration forms and subsidy applications are available.