Kingston Employment & Youth Services Inc.

Published purpose

This 30-month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19 through systemic change. Kingston Employment & Youth Services Inc. will achieve this by addressing systemic barriers faced by women who are racialized, Indigenous, immigrants, refugees, and living with disabilities within workplaces and the workforce in Kingston, Gananoque, Leeds & Grenville and the region, thereby improving their economic security and prosperity. It will (i) elevate the voices and authority of immigrant, racialized and Indigenous women and women with disabilities by recruiting, training and employing a cohort of Inclusion Coaches (ii) develop and refine tools, including the Workplace Inclusion Charter that employers and workplaces can implement towards equitable inclusion of under-represented women in the workforce (iii) engage 35 regional employers in a process to identify barriers to inclusion and success of under-represented women in their workplaces and determine actions (iv) collaborate with those employers and the Inclusion Coaches and (i) implement systemic (policy or practice) changes at the workplace level. Evaluation of the impact of the charter implementation at the employer level and overall project evaluation will be conducted. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices, supporting positive distribution of resources, developing networks and collaborations and changing norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. This project will engage the City of Kingston (project promotion, community engagement & connections to other municipalities) and St Lawrence College (evaluation).