EDII: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity is expanding to I-IDEAS: Indigeneity, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Social justice at CHEO
CHEO’s Office of Equity and Access has been renamed as the Office of I-IDEAS, which stands for Indigeneity, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Social justice. This change reflects the Office’s broad mission and specific approach to each of the complementary concepts represented in the name. The Office will create, develop, and implement an I-IDEAS strategy that brings progressive outcomes and positive experiences for Indigenous, diverse and minoritized children, youth, families, learners, staff, and medical staff.
To find out more, please click on the following:
| Our Vision & Mission |
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Our Vision To realize the “best life for all” by:
Our Mission To create, develop, and implement an I-IDEAS strategy that results in progressive outcomes and equitable experiences for all. |
| Our Challenges & Solutions |
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Our Challenges Many groups and individuals in our society continue to experience the impacts of colonialism, power imbalances and systemic and personalized discrimination. This results in workplace and health inequities. Our Solutions CHEO listens to these experiences from people who work here and those who come here for care as well as our partners. We collect data, identify issues, and come up with system-level solutions to address workplace and health inequities. |
| Our Services |
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The Office of I-IDEAS provides direction and support for:
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Our History |
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The EDII Task force was created in 2021 and made up of staff, medical staff, volunteers and youth/family advisors across CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute and the CHEO Foundation. The EDII Steering Committee was part of CHEO’s larger EDII Task Force and guided work across our three organizations to address inequities and put forward recommendations for change. The EDII Task Force worked in close collaboration with existing committees, groups, and circles across our three organizations, including:
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Our I-IDEAS Strategic Goals |
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We have five strategic goals guiding our work across CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute and the CHEO Foundation. Each strategic goal has a working group helping to implement recommendations and activities in their area. Our five strategic goals are:
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Meet the Director
Sheila James, Director, Office of I-IDEAS
Sheila James is the inaugural Director of the Office of I-IDEAS. She brings over twenty years of experience as an equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) leader and specialist in federal and municipal governments.
She is executive director of a sole proprietorship DEVI (Diverse, Equitable, Vital, and Innovative) Consultation and Strategies, providing EDI advice to national and provincial cultural agencies. Sheila has a Master of Fine Arts from University of British Columbia and is a candidate for an LLM at Osgoode Law School, York University.
Prior to joining CHEO, Sheila served as the Senior Strategic Advisor, Equity, at the Canada Council for the Arts where she managed the Equity Office for ten years. She led the development of ground-breaking policies and million-dollar targeted funding programs that greatly contributed to the diversification of Canada’s cultural landscape. More recently she worked at the City of Ottawa leading organizational wide equity initiatives including data driven strategic hiring processes towards achieving the City’s workforce demographic targets.
Sheila is an award-winning author and videographer whose work focuses on stories from marginalized perspectives. She has presented extensively on equitable practices and diverse participation in government, unions, universities, and not-for-profit sectors.
Sheila’s mandate is to implement recommendations from the Equity Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity (EDII) Task Force’s Roadmap for Change and further considerations and to build the Office of I-IDEAS.
Sheila brings a feminist, queer and racialized perspective to her work as she strives to influence and motivates cross-sectoral teams to collaborate, excel and achieve equity and diversity goals towards greater social justice.