Dr. Wendy Cukier awarded EFCCC 2023 Martin Luther King Award
On Saturday, January 14, Dr. Wendy Cukier was awarded the Educational Foundation for Children’s Care Canada (external link) (EFCCC) 2023 Martin Luther King Award during the 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration presented by EFCCC and TD Bank.
Dr. Cukier, founder and academic director of the Diversity Institute (DI), thanked her late parents (external link) for inspiring her work on equity, diversity, inclusion and human rights.
“Whether it was battling antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia—my parents saw all of those as manifestations of fear and hate which were destructive,” Dr. Cukier said.
Dr. Cukier also spoke about how DI addresses (external link) the needs of diverse Canadians, takes action against anti-Black racism, and develops policies and best practices to advance equity and inclusion. This includes resources like the Diversity Assessment Tool (external link) , the What Works Toolkit (external link) , the Micropedia of Microaggressions (external link) and customized training programs. The DI is also an ecosystem partner in the Government of Canada’s 50 – 30 Challenge (external link) which calls organizations to aspire toward gender parity (50%) and more representation of equity-deserving groups (30%) on boards and in senior leadership.
Founded in 1999, DI promotes diversity and inclusion as the key to Canada’s competitiveness through action-oriented research that advances knowledge of the complex barriers facing equity-deserving groups including women and non-binary individuals, Black people and other racialized people, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. This includes DiversityLeads, the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (external link) , academic research for the Future Skills Centre (external link) and the innovative Advanced Digital and Professional Training program.
In a video greeting to participants, Dr. Mohamed Elmi, executive director of DI, underlined that education is one of the strongest drivers of social mobility in Canada. However, Canada’s education system has not served all children and youth equally, Dr. Elmi said, which has contributed to employment and wage gaps. He highlighted DI’s Study Buddy program as one innovative approach to closing these gaps by connecting students from equity-deserving communities and their families to no-cost tutoring support. The program, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, connects teacher candidates with Black, racialized and newcomer children and families to provide tutoring support to them. To date, the program has engaged 684 students from 451 families. Most of the participants represent racialized groups, newcomers, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, 2SLGBTQ+ people, and people living in rural and remote Northern areas.
The award was hosted by EFCCC, a charity that encourages Canadian students from low-income households to attain higher education with scholarships, bursaries, awards and other forms of assistance. They also provide care and education to children in need in the Caribbean.