Branksome Hall Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Audit Report

BRANKSOME HALL DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION AUDIT REPORT:

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND ACTION PLAN 2023

The Branksome Hall Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

In this audit, we set out to determine benchmarking data on the internal state of DEI within the organization. Important progress in our school community has been made alongside this research. We are proud of our work and fully dedicated to continuous improvement as we embark together on the implementation of our initial action plan.

The Branksome Hall Board of Governors and leadership team are committed to ensuring that Branksome Hall is an inclusive community, where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. To that end, we have moved forward with a transparent self-examination of where we were and where we wanted to go as a school. The Board and school leadership are confident these measures, which are consistent with our strategic priorities, will benefit our students and our entire community, and will help to maintain Branksome as a leading organization.

DEI work always leaves room for growth, and this audit gives us the opportunity to foster positive change within our community, while inspiring this movement within other educational institutions. In sharing Anima Leadership’s findings and recommendations, we invite you to join us as we continue to make progress and identify ways to enhance the Branksome Hall experience for all.

Land Acknowledgement

We wish to acknowledge this land on which Branksome operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the HuronWendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and go to school on this land.

We would like to thank the Branksome Hall community for participating in this study.

Audit is a comprehensive study conducted across our community over the course of the last two years. Our vision, mission and values have underpinned this work, along with our longstanding commitment to being a leading girls’ school.

Messages from Branksome Hall Leadership

A Message from Our Chair of the Board

Inclusiveness is a core value at Branksome Hall and our work on DEI is a strategic priority. We strive to make progress, acknowledge areas where we can do better and find ways to make that happen. We want all students and employees to be treated with dignity, fairness and respect, creating an educational environment where all feel they belong.

As a leading, internationally minded girls’ school dedicated to preparing our students to thrive in a changing world, we are not standing still. Building on the findings and recommendations highlighted here, Branksome Hall is extending its commitment to innovation in the education landscape and continuing to evolve and to build a diverse, inclusive and equitable community for all. As a Board of Governors, we have improved our own diversity in the past two years, completed DEI learning, committed to creating an inclusive board environment, and confirmed the importance of DEI in the school’s strategic priorities.

2023 has already been an exciting and pivotal year for Branksome Hall. In addition to embarking on the strategy refresh effort, the Branksome community will now have an opportunity to collectively engage to shape our action planning going forward. On behalf of myself and the Board, we thank everyone for their commitment and we are excited about the opportunities ahead.

A Message from Our Principal and Head, Research & DEI

As a community of lifelong learners, Branksome Hall is dedicated to being a diverse, equitable and inclusive community guided by humility, compassion and ingenuity.

In 2020, we initiated our DEI journey, and one of the key steps we took was to launch a comprehensive audit of Branksome community members’ experiences and organizational practices. To embark on a proactive DEI assessment of this scale was significant for Branksome Hall, yet active learning requires a willingness to listen and to make change in order to progress. Anima Leadership, our third-party DEI auditor, noted that by committing to a review of this magnitude, Branksome Hall was breaking new ground with the comprehensive scope of this project, yielding an incredible wealth of quantitative and qualitative data that can inform strategic directions for years to come.

We, alongside our senior leadership team, recognize that true change comes with a whole-school view to the work that allows us to see the big picture as to how actions, partnership and choices can support growth across the school. The submission of Anima’s findings and recommendations present an important opportunity for us to understand our gaps and inform our efforts to improve. Rather than a checklist of immediate to-do’s, the following findings present the opportunity to re-evaluate and hone our DEI priorities, and in turn, translate them into a long-term action plan. We have been making changes every day alongside this audit and we look forward to sharing with you what is already in play and what we seek to build. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone in our community for sharing your stories and taking part in open and honest conversations. Recognizing DEI is a shared responsibility, your trust and engagement brings strength and clarity to our efforts.

We are pleased to invite you to review the audit findings and continue to walk with us, sharing your thoughts and staying involved as we take steps to respond to these recommendations and shape our path forward together.

Karen L. Jurjevich Principal Mona Malone Chair, Branksome Hall Board of Governors

Mira Gambhir Head, Research and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Preface: A Message from Anima Leadership

It is our pleasure to partner with Branksome Hall leadership in sharing a summary of key findings and recommendations from the original DEI audit report submitted to the school in the fall 2022.

With decades of experience in the field of DEI, our team at Anima Leadership believes that the Branksome Hall community should be proud to have concluded such an ambitious systems review of DEI at the school. To our knowledge, no school in the independent or public sector has undertaken such a thorough inquiry into its organization or community before. It is a sector-defining initiative, to say the least!

Our audit work addressed several segments of the climate at Branksome Hall:

• Student and Alum Experiences, comprised of three independent audits:

- Students’ experiences from Grades 7-12

- Students’ experiences from JK-Grade 6 completed by parents

- Alums’ experiences

• Employee Experiences

• As well as key organizational practices, an audit of Branksome Hall’s systems including human resources, admissions, and marketing and communications.

In alignment with the Anima approach, the DEI audit utilized a strengths-based framework. We named what Branksome Hall was already doing well in its DEI practices before identifying gaps and opportunities in policies and practices so the school could strategically target its efforts. The recommendations were generated from a combination of survey results, focus groups, interviews, observations and document review. We then compared the data against best practices research and used Anima’s DEI expertise as the filter to make meaning, synthesize and prioritize issues.

The final product was really 5-reports-in-1. Given the sheer volume of data, it was therefore necessary, from an

accessibility and readability perspective, for Branksome Hall to create this summary and action plan—a valuable process, in and of itself, in gaining a deeper understanding of audit findings. This process was fully supported by the Anima team.

What is important to put into context is that audits are a relatively new phenomenon in the field of DEI, with most organizations never having conducted one. While there is limited directly comparable data from the independent school sector specifically, we do know that many of the issues identified are common to organizations across all sectors.

The audit findings were classified into several notable themes to help Branksome Hall leadership and the community understand the research results and determine how to prioritize as well as best address the key issues identified. Our team made a number of recommendations that have the potential to shape the school’s directions for many years to come.

It is important to understand that our recommendations are based on DEI best practices research and knowledge. These recommendations are not meant to be an action plan, but better understood as goals to achieve through the development of goal-specific processes in collaboration with key stakeholders across the community.

Our Anima team suggested the following broad-based implementation steps:

1. Communicate, process and prioritize recommendations, identifying key goals the school wants to achieve in what order and why.

2. Develop goal-specific action plans with metrics and timelines, determining what supports and resources are needed.

3. Seek input from Branksome stakeholders and update as part of the overall DEI process already underway.

4. Measure progress regularly to assess successes and challenges in implementing recommendations, and adjust accordingly.

Branksome Hall DEI Audit

Conducted by Anima Leadership

A COMPASSIONATE APPROACH TO RACIAL JUSTICE

We encouraged Branksome Hall to review the audit findings and prioritize recommendations with such a view, identifying short-term and longer-term issues and developing action plans accordingly. The leadership team has done so with this summary and action plan in various ways.

We look forward to meeting members of the community at our presentations this Spring, at which time we will join members of Branksome Hall leadership to go deeper into the data and address any questions you may have about the audit, findings and recommendations.

We at Anima Leadership wish the Branksome Hall leadership and community the greatest success as it continues its journey to make the school diverse, equitable and inclusive to all.

It has been a very rewarding experience working with you.

Sincerely,

21 MONTHS were spent working on the project

10 RESEARCHERS worked on the DEI audit team

16 FOCUS GROUPS were held with community members

196 Surveys Completed 73% Response Rate

GRADES

7 -

Shakil Choudhury Chief Visionary Officer and Project Lead Anima Leadership

623 Surveys Completed 83% Response Rate

EMPLOYEES 188 Surveys Completed 9% Response Rate

ALUMS

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Branksome Hall: Our Commitment

This is challenging work that requires significant time and investment. Throughout this process, we are committed to engaging multiple perspectives from our community, critically challenging assumptions, and taking empathetic, informed and responsible action in our school, our partnerships and in the world.

Over the last three years, Branksome Hall has embarked on sector-defining work that enables a systematic approach to school change in which all areas of the school are engaged in a DEI review and planning for changes at the same time. By approaching these changes simultaneously, rather than in a siloed fashion, we encourage collaboration that enables the initiatives we undertake to benefit multiple areas of the school at once.

As part of our milestones for 2022–23, as demonstrated by our 2022 DEI Report Card, we have initiated a parallel effort alongside the audit to advance our work on several important DEI initiatives, including, but not limited to:

• Days and Dates of Significance 2022–23 calendar

• School-Wide Use of Language Policy to Prevent Harm and Support Student Learning

• Guidelines for gender inclusion at Branksome Hall

• Naming school practices in DEI at K-12 curriculum nights

• Review of curriculum in the Modern Languages and Physical and Health Education Departments.

Branksome Hall is part of a growing number of schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada, the United States, and the world at large that have enacted programs as well as commitments to fostering change in the DEI space. We are embarking on this journey in the wake of global movements that require us to take a systems view to how minority communities experience belonging and inclusion. While Branksome Hall isn’t alone in this work, we initiated this audit without any benchmarks for comparison.

It is important to note that the DEI audit data was collected during the pandemic and therefore results may reflect students’ experiences of that time. In looking at the Branksome Hall findings, it is helpful and important to examine the broader Canadian and international context. We know from this work that, in a scholastic environment, Canadian students often feel left out. This generation of students is reporting experiences of loneliness and lack of belonging at record levels following the pandemic.

With this in mind, we invite all members of our community to read through this summary of the audit findings, explore Anima’s recommendations for how we can address systemic barriers to DEI within our community, and come to the community presentations hosted by Anima and school leaders to learn more and ask your questions.

Our Approach to the Audit with Anima Leadership

Branksome Hall engaged an external auditor, Anima Leadership, to conduct a DEI audit through a series of comprehensive measurements that focused on school climate and the experiences of marginalized students and employees. School climate describes the overall quality of the environment, including shared beliefs and values, relationships and social interactions, in addition to physical and emotional safety. The Chandaria Research Centre has recently released a research brief explaining how the school approached measurement of DEI in more detail.

Branksome Hall requested a detailed analysis of three areas:

1. Student experience (including parents/guardians of Junior School students, Grades 7-12 students, and alums),

2. Employee experience, and

3. Organizational practices.

Community members were surveyed between May 2021 and February 2022. Focus groups were held between October

2021 and January 2022. Participants’ identities were protected so that Branksome Hall would not know who participated. The focus groups provided a safe and confidential space for students, employees, parents/guardians and alums to express their thoughts on what Branksome Hall was doing well and where it needed to focus its efforts.

The audit was structured in a way that enabled us to hear from minority community members from many perspectives and different backgrounds. These included engaging students, parents/guardians, alums and employees who could speak to the Black experience, other racialized minorities, the LGBTQ2S+ community and allies through community sessions.

In accordance with our stated commitments and best practices, we are sharing this overview of the audit findings within our community so that these results may inform and advance many important conversations over the coming academic year and beyond.

Branksome Hall is committed to fostering a school community where diversity, equity and inclusion permeate our institutional culture, guide our actions, and are reflected in our students’ and employees’ lived experiences.

Student and Alum Experiences: Summary of Findings 2

In this section, we highlight key findings from the student survey (for students in Grades 7 to 12), the parent/guardian survey (for students in JK to Grade 6), the alum survey, and related focus groups.

JK - Grade 6 Demographics

Completed by Parents/Guardians

* Total may not add up to 100%, as respondents could pick multiple options.

White 55%

Prefer Not To Answer 1%

Black 2% Indigenous 1%

Southeast Asian 3%

Middle Eastern 4%

Racial Group Not Listed 5%

South Asian 15%

16% of students were multi-racial

East Asian 32%

1% “Not so well off”

47% “Well off or very well off”

WEALTH RELIGION*

Indigenous Spirituality 1%

Sikh 1%

Atheist 2% Jains 1%

Humanist 2%

Hindu 2%

Buddhist 3%

Muslim 5%

Jewish 5%

Spiritual But Not Religious 9%

43% “Average”

9% “Prefer not to answer”

99% IDENTIFIED AS GIRLS

16% had a learning disability

23% Christian

18% Catholic

18% Agnostic

17% Not Religious

A wide variety of religions were practiced by respondents. Various religious minorities were represented but no group larger than (5%).

Grades 7-12 Demographics

Completed by Students**

* Total may not add up to 100%, as respondents could pick multiple options. **Totals include 29 Grade 12 respondents from May 2021.

95% IDENTIFIED AS GIRLS 54% thought people would describe them as feminine

Alum Demographics

50%

respondents perceived their family wealth as average in comparison to their peers. In 2021, responses were similar when alums compared their current economic status with that of their peers.

of respondents received financial assisstance while attending Branksome Hall. ( 2% didn’t know, and nearly 5% skipped this question)

of alums were not aware of financial assistance available at Branksome Hall.

of respondents genderidentified as women while they were students. This remained similar when respondents named their current gender identity (i.e., 97% women; 3% non-binary; 2% gender-fluid; 1% trans).

* Total may not add up to 100%, as respondents could pick multiple options.

TOTAL RESPONDENTS

The range represented graduates from 1945 - 2021.

The majority of alums who work full-time asserted that DEI was part of their job, with 19% naming DEI as a formal part of their job description.

78%

non-disabled

Languages spoken most often, outside of English were Cantonese (4%), Spanish (2%), and Mandarin (2%)

11% 5%

Alums who responded to the survey were former day students boarding students both

Key Findings: Surveys & Focus Groups

Where available, context research is provided in callout boxes.

• Student Experiences: For Grades JK-6 students, parents/guardians reported that the majority (80-90%) of students experienced positive social interactions. Grades 7-12 students reported that 92% felt they were treated with respect and 77% felt school rules were fairly applied. Pertinently, students in focus groups commented about how much they appreciated having access to co-curricular and extracurricular activities that would not be available to them outside of Branksome Hall. Feelings of respect, belonging, and fairness of rules were more prevalent among those who identified with a dominant social identity generally defined in this context as wealthier, white, Christian or Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender and able-bodied rather than historically marginalized groups. Students also felt there was room for growth in soliciting and implementing student ideas to improve the school.

• Peer and Adult Support: Most Grades 7-12 students (80%) reported having peer support. Younger, wealthier, white, heterosexual and cisgender students who were not new to Branksome, as well as students with disabilities, reported higher levels of peer support. One third of respondents felt that they had an adult to go to for problem-solving, with higher support reported by Grades 11-12 students who identified as wealthier, white, heterosexual and cisgender. In the Junior School, parents reported that it was easy for their children to make friends and that teachers were generally respectful and listened to parents’ concerns. Parents did, however, express concern that teachers lacked formal training in responding to issues of inequity and suggested further professional development was needed.

• Sense of Safety: In general, Grades 7-12 respondents reported they felt safe at school (60-80%). However, fewer were sure the school would protect them from online harassment/cyberbullying (34%). Most students felt a degree of safety from cyberbullying but indicated some confusion in knowing what to do if they experienced it. Parents of JK-6 students expressed a strong sense of physical and emotional safety. Across the school, East Asian respondents felt a lower sense of physical safety than other groups.

• Social Inclusion and Belonging: In general, Grades 7-12 students felt welcome (76%) and included (75%) at Branksome Hall. Notably, 25% of students felt they were less frequently included at school. Factors that can impact inclusion are a sense of belonging and feeling

that one matters to others. In general, Grades 7-12 students reported feeling like they matter to adults (61%) or peers (63%) in the school. Feelings of exclusion were more pronounced among Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) students who reported heightened feelings of isolation because race and racism issues were not regularly discussed or addressed. A similar sentiment was expressed by parents/guardians of JK-6 students who are racially minoritized. There was also a correlation between those with more social privilege and increased feelings of belonging. Alums reflected that while most felt included, their school experiences were very heteronormative, and that diversity and inclusion has increased over time.

LEARN MORE SOCIAL INCLUSION AND BELONGING

School belonging is defined as “the extent to which students feel personally accepted, respected, included, and supported by others in the school social environment” (Goodenow & Grady, 1993, p. 80) and in particular focuses on meaningful and ongoing relationships with peers and teachers (Slaten et al., 2016). Student belonging presented a challenge across the education sector long before the pandemic began. For example, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Student Census (2018) found that almost one third of students struggled with belonging at school. A recent study of the independent school sector found that 73% of students in the U.S. and 66% in Canada reported feeling a sense of belonging in school (Gulla et al., 2022), similar to what was found at Branksome. During the pandemic, cultivating a sense of connection and belonging became more difficult, with 50% of students saying their connections with other students and with teachers decreased, and 32% saying their sense of belonging has decreased (Challenge Success, 2021 ).

• Mental Health and Well-Being: For Grades JK-6, the majority of respondents had positive views of their child’s well-being. Over two-thirds (70%) of Grades 7-12 respondents reported feeling stressed, and they suggested a partial connection to the highly rigorous academic curriculum. Grades 7-8 students reported less stress, more positive responses, and more opportunities to talk about mental health. Cisgender, heterosexual and day students reported better mental health than transgender, gender-diverse and LGBTQ2S+ students. Respondents who perceived themselves as being “very well off” were more likely to report “rarely being happy.” Further, this group was more likely to state they “never” talked openly with peers about supporting each other’s mental health and “never” had opportunities to learn about mental health. Generally, students across demographic groups felt that more opportunities to learn and talk about mental health were needed.

LEARN MORE STRESS AND WELL-BEING

There is evidence to suggest that student stress is on the rise and has increased significantly during the pandemic. The Peel District student census (2018) found that 35% of students reported high levels of stress or pressure. However, more recently, TDSB found that 60% of students reported being under a lot of stress (Cameron & Presley, 2021), similar to students at Branksome Hall. In their U.S.based research, Challenge Success found that as far back as 2009, 70% of students they surveyed reported high levels of school-related stress. In 2021, they found that 56% of students reported that their level of stress (Pope, 2009) had increased even more during the pandemic (Challenge Success, 2021). Parental expectations, high amounts of homework, frequency of assessments, and lack of sleep are all enduring factors.

• Social Justice and Representation: Of Grades 7-12 students, nearly half (46%) indicated agreement with seeing their own culture, identity and background in what they were learning about in class. However, students who identified as wealthier, white, Christian or Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender and able-bodied were more likely to indicate feeling like their identity was represented and that they were treated with respect. Only 6% of racialized alums reported that they often or always saw themselves reflected in class material when they were in school, suggesting representation has grown over time. Parents of JK-6 students were unsure about the level of representation of different groups in the curriculum, and auditors noted they would benefit from more information. Focus group participants were excited about changes made to the curriculum over the last year, describing them as “impactful for students.”

• Experiences of Boarding Students: Boarding students were more likely to be racialized than day students (76% vs. 41%), and thus the findings regarding boarding students should be reviewed also from the lens of what minoritized students are sharing about their experiences. When the audit was conducted in 2021, boarding students reported that they were less likely than day students to feel included or respected. They were more likely to find it harder to make friends, with 28% responding they found it somewhat hard vs. day students (14%), and were more likely to disagree that they had a peer to go to for help with problem solving. BIPOC alums also recalled feeling a divide and they, alongside parents, wished to have stronger relationships between day and boarding students.

LEARN MORE EXPERIENCE OF BOARDING STUDENTS

Research on the experience of boarding students is rare, however a study by Pfeiffer et al. (2016) examined the experience of students across 15 high schools in Germany, 297 of whom were boarding and 404 of whom were day students. Boarding students were found to have significantly lower rates of peer integration. The researchers recommended that schools should implement measures to support boarding students in gaining access to peer groups. A qualitative study on the experience of Chinese international students in U.S. high schools also reported that social interaction with day students was challenging for boarding students due to cultural differences, shyness, language barriers, and lack of common interests (Brooks, 2017). Min’s (2022) research in the Canadian boarding school context suggests that the communal living environment can play a role in the development of strong friendships with other boarding students, but is no guarantee of healthy social-emotional adjustment, especially if they face discrimination from day students due to language proficiency or racism. Boarding students often cope with the lack of belonging by either assimilation (giving up their culture in order to fit in) or double-marginalization (becoming both invisible due to their cultural differences and hypervisible during racially-charged incidents), and therefore need a strong social support network of both peers from their cultural group as well as the dominant cultural group to develop a balanced bicultural identity.

Collectively these findings revealed several areas of strength and opportunities for improvement relating to students’ experiences of the school environment, interactions with their peers and teachers, and feelings of inclusion and belonging. Anima offers their analysis and interpretation of these findings in the following section.

Student and Alum Experience Themes

In their analysis of the student and alum findings, Anima identified seven main themes. For each theme, Anima made practical recommendations for Branksome Hall to consider implementing in the interest of supporting DEI at the school as it is currently structured. These recommendations are outlined in the Appendix (p. 31).

Perception of Branksome Hall as a DEI Leader in the Independent School Sector

The first theme Anima observed was the extent to which Branksome Hall is engaging in DEI as a catalyst for profound organizational change. Nearly every department within the school community has been impacted by the prioritization of DEI principles, in particular the DEI Working Group. The attitudes of current students and alums reflect an overall consensus that the school is moving forward with regard to DEI. There is also a general consensus that this is new territory for the school and that community stakeholders are engaged in a process that has really just begun.

Anima auditors were sincerely impressed by the DEI programming that was consciously intersectional, centred on a variety of voices, and signaled that significant work has already been accomplished at Branksome Hall to advance DEI principles. The school is encouraged to sustain ongoing efforts to prioritize DEI within the organizational and school culture. It is also clear that regular, sustained training is needed to equip all members of the school community to effectively recognize biased words and actions, and intervene appropriately.

The Complexities of Lived-Experience and DEI Expertise

DEI is a rapidly growing field where there is widespread confusion in every sector about what is or is not DEI. Branksome Hall reflects this contemporary social context where students with one or more marginalized identities navigate DEI differently to students belonging to dominant identities (those who have identified as wealthier, white, Christian or Catholic, heterosexual, cisgender and ablebodied). Specifically, those with more dominant identities have a harder time noticing when exclusion occurs. Anima

auditors invite the school to prioritize the study of systemic discrimination and how it manifests in daily life, both within and outside the school context.

Several experiences shared by students revealed that a lack of subject-matter expertise has resulted in wellintentioned but misguided attempts at being inclusive. These anecdotes reflected the need for training and practical tools to facilitate open conversations and build relationships across differences, including comfort in naming and addressing instances of microaggression (forms of subtle ‘everyday’ discrimination that are often considered harmless by those in the dominant social group). Anima also sees an opportunity here to bring on additional DEI subject-matter experts, and encourage school leaders to adopt a 360-hour training benchmark for developing literacy in DEI issues, to develop a more nuanced understanding of current and future students.

Low-Trust Environment Nurtured by DEI Inexperience

While there was widespread acknowledgement that Branksome Hall has prioritized DEI principles in an unprecedented way for the school, the institution’s inexperience with this type of work fostered a low-trust environment. The current political climate encourages a public rhetoric of shame and blame when it comes to organizations addressing systemic racism. Attitudes of cynicism, distrust, online shaming and a lack of willingness to buy in are widespread challenges in the field that extend far beyond the Branksome Hall context. It is inevitable that any initiative to change organizational culture regarding DEI will be met with some level of cynicism and distrust in the early stages. Tackling a lowtrust environment requires self-aware, authentic leaders versed in equity, as well as transparent accountability structures that support the DEI journey.

Mental Wellness Considered Distinct from DEI

It is clear that the school has significantly improved the cultural climate for mental health awareness in recent years. Students at Branksome Hall expressed confidence in discussing and identifying mental health concerns and spoke about the ways the school encourages students to be aware of their mental health and take steps to increase well-being.

Like many institutions, however, it was noted that at the time of review, Branksome Hall’s extensive mental health programming did not directly focus on the implications of systemic discrimination such as racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or sexism on well-being. Managing and mitigating the impacts of systemic exclusion are necessary to support robust mental health. At the time of review, there was an opportunity to broaden the demographics of mental health service providers at the school—whether in part-time or full-time capacity—as well as increase DEI expertise within the well-being and student support department overall. As of the 2022-23 academic year, Branksome Hall restructured its student counselling and support team. The team now includes three social workers in addition to the Director of WellBeing and School Counselling, and brings foundational DEI and social justice expertise as part of their training.

The Need for Further Integration of Boarding and Day Students

Students and alums referred to a clear and distinct separation between boarding and day students; nearly everyone reported feelings of anxiety about crossing the social divide to get to know the other side better. Within the population of boarding students, racial identity contributed substantially to students’ perceptions of belonging.

Opportunities for DEI Within the Alum Community

Alums spoke highly of the DEI-focused direction Branksome Hall has been taking in recent years. However, many alums who participated in the DEI audit described a reticence to participate in the Alumnae Association events, particularly among those under 45 years of age who wanted more welcoming spaces. Anima sees an opportunity for Branksome Hall to invest more time into programming for younger alums and DEI work that generates further participation.

Anti-Black Racism and Black Student Experience

Anti-Black racism is an under-acknowledged reality of Canadian society. Anima Leadership has developed a framework for recognizing and addressing anti-Black racism in organizations, which names three key patterns of anti-Black bias, each of which was apparent in feedback from students:

1. Black students recounted multiple experiences of exclusion, naming specific instances that made them feel alienated by both students and teachers.

2. Personal accounts of over-surveillance included having work graded more critically and less favourably compared to white peers, despite equal proficiency (i.e., submitting identical work for a group project, but a white classmate received a significantly higher mark).

3. Lack of advancement examples were tied to exclusion and favouritism, such as being first to raise their hand in class, but the last person to be called upon—if invited to contribute at all.

Work is required to:

• acknowledge and address Black students’ negative experiences, which detract from feeling welcome and included at school;

• build strengthened and sustained trust with Black students and to uphold commitments to anti-Black racism initiatives.

Black students made clear their desire for student involvement in reconciliation and revision of disciplinary practices. Such inclusion in these processes can embolden and empower Branksome students.

Educational Excellence and Redefining the Branksome Girl

The audit found that the community was proud of Branksome Hall’s longtime standards of excellence and strong reputation as a leading girls’ school. For example, many students and alums emphasized the importance of learning in an environment distinct from cisgender boys. While these notions were regularly cited as powerful strengths, they also represent a limitation on the school’s ability to integrate DEI as a strategic value.

Specifically, the historical notion of the “Branksome Girl” and the attendant expectations around speech, appearance and behaviour was raised as an example of how Branksome Hall’s reputation could be perceived as in conflict with inclusive practices. Students and alums described the school’s culture whereby idealized notions of heterosexuality, femininity, appearance, ability and behaviour were informally codified in the myth of the “Branksome Girl.” In this context, Anima heard some of the challenges faced by non-binary and trans students, as well as students with individualized learning needs, who expressed feeling ashamed or looked down upon for being accommodated.

While many of the customs that alums recalled are no longer practised at the school, it is worthwhile for Branksome to consider how historical conceptions of the “Branksome Girl” may still echo today in subtle ways across the institution.

To address this issue, Anima auditors encourage Branksome Hall to ask, “How does the school want to define the ‘Branksome Girl’ in the future?” To answer this question, we must consider the past, current and aspirational perceptions of our students within and outside the Branksome Hall community in order to validate and

refine what it means to be a Branksome Hall student. Further, within the answer to this question is the guidance needed not only to embed DEI across the organization, but also how it can extend its identity as an institution with historical roots in inclusion, building on its history of being a non-denominational girls’ independent school when it was not the norm in Toronto.

Correlation Between Social Privilege and Feelings of Belonging

A consistent finding across all subcategories of demographic data for both students and alums was that strong feelings of belonging were correlated to socially dominant identities.

Non-white students consistently described feelings of isolation and confusion about why there were so few teachers and administrators of colour. Junior School parents reported verbal bullying taking place between students on the basis of appearance, body hair, access to cell phones and family wealth. Sexual and gender minority students described a lack of access to information about, and familiarity regarding their identities from teachers and other school officials. There was an overwhelming perception shared by both students and alums that the opinions of those with the greatest economic and social privilege were prioritized by the school.

Anima auditors note that the key question to ask is, “What forms of social inequity does Branksome want to work to eliminate, and which forms cannot be fully addressed?”

This has implications for the scope and depth of DEI integration within the organization.

The following two themes emerged from DEI issues raised by students that require evaluation as part of Branksome Hall’s long-term Strategic Planning process. This is in alignment with Anima’s recommendation to develop a vision of Branksome Hall’s future, from which the possibilities and limitations to how deeply DEI can be embedded will become evident.

Employee Experiences: Summary of Findings

Within this section, we highlight key findings relating to employees’ experiences at Branksome Hall that emerged from the employee survey, focus groups, interviews and meetings with key employees across departments.

Employee Demographics

* Total may not add up to 100%, as respondents could pick multiple options.

Key Findings: Surveys & Focus Groups

Where available, context research is also provided in callout boxes.

• Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Over 97% of employees indicated that DEI was important to them and 85% felt it was important to the school. However, 13% of racialized employees (compared to 3% white) felt that DEI was less of a priority for the organization.

• Perceptions of Organizational Climate & Belonging: Just over 70% of all employees felt that they can be authentic at work and that they were recognized for their accomplishments. Of note, 55% of LGBTQ2S+ respondents felt as though they could not voice contrary opinions without negative consequences, whereas 28% of heterosexual employees held the same view. The ability to voice contrary opinions and feel heard is important for fostering both a sense of psychological safety and trust in the workplace.

LEARN MORE EMPLOYEE AUTHENTICITY AND BELONGING

A recent survey of almost 2000 workers in the U.S. concluded that over 60% of employees felt they had to hide some aspect of their identity at work, such as their political views, mental health condition, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, or a disability (Mason, 2022). Black employees, in particular, often engage in impression management behaviours in order to avoid being stereotyped as unprofessional (McCluney et al., 2021). However, similar findings apply to employees who are LGBTQ2S+, gender-diverse, or have a disability. Research in the independent school sector suggests that the majority of employees and school leaders continue to be white and heterosexual, making it difficult for diverse employees to be their authentic selves at work due to stereotyping, incivility and backlash (Brown & Swihart 2021; Dunnell, 2018a; Dunnell, 2018b; Mason, 2022). However, impression management takes a toll as well, as it is cognitively exhausting and can lead to burn-out and lower job satisfaction (Hamilton & Almeida, 2022).

• Perceptions of Belonging, Bias and Identity at Work: Significant group differences were reported in levels of belonging, as well as understanding and comfort with discussing group identities and bias. Overall, 31-40% of individuals in minority groups (race, sexuality, disability) felt excluded, compared to 1-3% of employees in the dominant group. Additionally, 31-54% of individuals in minority groups felt that administrators and peers were not knowledgeable about bias and required training, compared to their white and heterosexual peers (13-14%).

• Perceptions of Hiring and Selection Processes: Approximately half (48%) of employees felt that hiring practices were fair and consistent while one-fifth of employees felt that it was harder to get hired at Branksome if you were a racial minority. Minority groups also felt an equity lens needed to be applied to the hiring process in addition to specific training in cultural competence and bias.

• Perceptions of Advancement Opportunities and Compensation: Most employees (70%) felt they had access to training and advancement opportunities. The majority of employees (65%) felt that they were compensated fairly. However, some people expressed concerns about pay bands and increases being clear for faculty but not for staff.

• Perceptions of Workplace Harassment and Discrimination: Strong policies are in place at Branksome Hall. Overall, 88% of employees felt that harassment and discrimination were not tolerated. However, 11% of employees surveyed indicated they had experienced (though the school notes not reported) harassment and/ or discrimination by peers, students or parents, with LGBTQ2S+ and racialized employees significantly more likely to have experienced discrimination (40% and 23% respectively).

LEARN MORE WORKPLACE HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION

A recent poll of a representative sample of employees in the U.S. found that 46% of employees thought that their organization had an issue with discrimination and bias in the workplace and 51% of employers agreed (Lever, 2022). In the Canadian context, a recent study of almost 5000 employees found that 71% of employees experienced harassment at work. Gender-diverse, LGBTQ2S+ and Indigenous employees were more likely to report experiencing all types of incidents of harassment. While these findings cut across employment sectors, 62% of employees in education reported experiencing harassment at work ( Berlingieri et al., 2022).

• Daily Workplace Experiences: Over half of employees (54%) reported having a good work/life balance, and nearly one third reported that this was a challenge for them (32%). Whereas the majority of staff (66%) felt they could ask for accommodations, faculty were less likely do so (36%). In 2021, there was a statistically significant proportion of employees who did not feel fairly paid (43% staff and 12% faculty/management). Anima is aware that Branksome Hall has initiated a salary review process in 2022.

In focus groups, the participants named some additional areas of concern, with examples that they believed create barriers to inclusion at Branksome Hall. The concerns flagged by participants included:

• Microaggressions (i.e., mistaken names, assumptions about background)

• Lack of community connection

• Improper facilitation of sensitive topics

• Members of minoritized groups called on to represent their identity group

• Representation of minoritized communities

• Pay and advancement transparency.

Organizational Audit: Summary of Findings

The assessment of student and employee experiences was supplemented by a comprehensive audit of three key organizational systems — Admissions, Human Resources, as well as Marketing and Communications — whereby the consulting team analyzed policies and documents as well as conducted multiple interviews with department leaders and employees. Key findings from this audit are outlined in the following pages. Where available, context research is also provided in callouts.

Inclusive Admissions

The admissions process comprises the journey a candidate takes from interested prospect to enrolled student. Admissions is, in many ways, the lifeblood of an independent school, as it is a fundamental component for achieving organizational goals and financial targets. This stage is the first point at which potential students and their families are introduced to the Branksome Hall community, so adhering to best practices with regard to DEI is essential.

KEY FINDINGS:

• Student Application Process: Branksome Hall does a considerable amount to ensure families have a good understanding of how to apply to the school. An area of growth, with regard to supporting DEI objectives, is that demographic data should be collected during the application process—a process that impacts all stages that follow, from selection to orientation. Branksome could also improve accessibility by providing more translation accommodations for families throughout the process.

• Student Application Criteria: The school currently does not disclose its criteria for successful applicants or how the criteria are determined. More could be done to provide prospective students with additional information.

• Student Interview Process: The school has developed a robust process that invites a holistic appreciation of applicants and their families. This process could be improved by collecting demographic information and providing translation services for families.

• Selection Decisions and Tools: The current evaluation tools, though detailed and easy to follow, include multiple opportunities for unconscious biases related to race/ ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic status to be activated (i.e., questions about “family fit” and “eye contact”). Range of student development is also a consideration at the Junior school level.

• Admissions Team and Training: The team has received some basic DEI training and recognizes the importance of incorporating DEI into their work. They need to increase knowledge about applying the DEI learning to their responsibilities and the admissions process as a whole and increase diversity on the team.

• Student Onboarding: Available information, though comprehensive, is dispersed across multiple channels, so new students and their families are left to piece together information from various sources. Information in one source would support those students and families who are new to the independent school context.

Inclusive Recruitment and Selection, Retention and Advancement of Employees

Recruitment is the process through which an organization attracts, assesses and hires a candidate for a job. This stage of the process is an individual’s first experience with an organization and plays a vital role in the diversity of candidates an organization is able to attract, and eventually, retain. Inclusive recruitment supports equity at the earliest step of the hiring process by creating standardized, transparent methods during recruitment that minimize the impacts of bias and other subjective factors.

During the inclusive selection process, employers narrow down an applicant pool to identify a candidate that will be most successful for the posted position. The selection process starts when an organization receives applications and continues up until the point an offer is made to a candidate. At each major decision-making point, the organization reduces the candidate pool until the end of the process when the “right” candidate is selected for the organization.

Inclusive retention involves the systematic efforts employers make to encourage employees to stay with the organization, leveraging policies and procedures to maximize job satisfaction and minimize the impacts of bias. This stage is crucial for developing and maintaining Branksome Hall’s workplace culture, reducing turnover and helping support long-term DEI success.

The most effective organizations recognize the importance of fostering a positive, healthy work culture and supporting employees’ development aspirations and career goals. Inclusive advancement is the process of supporting employees’ professional growth and expertise, with specific attention paid to members of minoritized groups. It includes stretch assignments and activities that promote job growth and/or expand job roles or responsibilities.

KEY FINDINGS: Recruitment and Selection

• Community Demographics: This audit provides a step toward understanding the demographic makeup of the organization and can be used as a baseline going forward. Branksome should adopt the practice of consistently comparing its workforce data to the wider demographics of Toronto or Ontario.

LEARN MORE DIVERSITY IN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Human Resource departments are key contributors to the success of whole-school DEI initiatives. Research suggests that recruitment of diverse candidates requires involvement of a DEI practitioner (Brown & Swihart, 2021), setting explicit recruitment goals with an eye for increasing diversity, as well as strategic and long-term approaches to hiring BIPOC individuals (Munhofen & Vardi, 2020). Lever (2022) found that in the last 12 months, over 70% of companies surveyed claim to have taken action to improve their DEI hiring practices. However, 60% of companies also expressed challenges with finding diverse applicants and prioritizing DEI as a company goal, and 50% struggled to create inclusive policies or retain diverse talent. Meanwhile, BIPOC candidates continue to face prejudice in hiring where they are perceived as less competent (Wells et al., 2021) or feel they are being interviewed to meet a diversity quota and are thus more likely to hide their identity during the recruitment process (Lever, 2022). Candidates are keenly interested in company DEI policies and look for related information on company websites and in the job description. Additionally, research suggests that BIPOC educators leave at rates 25% higher than their white counterparts due to burnout from racial stressors like microaggressions (Mahatmya et al., 2022), retaining diverse talent brings its own challenges, especially if there is a disconnect between DEI-forward recruitment materials and the majority-white reality of the job.

• Employee Recruitment Pool (Internal and External): Internally, employees can leverage many opportunities to build capacity to move into new positions. However, there is opportunity to create programs or partnerships to tap into a more diverse external hiring pool.

• Job Descriptions: Standardized templates should be adopted to reduce inconsistencies between departments regarding the breadth of information shared.

• Job Posting: Branksome’s postings are simple to understand, invite nondominant groups to apply, and offer a solid overview of tasks and reporting structures. However, lack of transparency regarding pay may limit Branksome’s candidate pool.

• Advertising: At the time of review, advertising for available positions conformed to established conventions in the independent school sector. Affinity groups, associations for minoritized professionals, and trade publications by minoritized communities are areas of development for targeted job ads at Branksome Hall.

• CV’s/Resumes: Implicit biases can influence selection decisions based on factors such as non-Western names. This could be avoided by implementing an anonymous application channel as well as consistent use of scoring matrices.

• Interview Panels, Interviewing and Selection Decisions for Employees: Interview panels always have an experienced hiring manager; however, a clear strategy is needed for ensuring diversity and DEI training for hiring panels. Branksome uses effective interviewing questions, and can improve by implementing grading matrices to increase consistency. Job offers are clear and HR is involved in all selection decisions, providing a strong foundation. For next steps, consider selection decisions with an awareness of the demographic needs of the organization.

Retention and Advancement

• Employee Onboarding and Accommodation: Branksome’s onboarding involves one week of formal training offered once a year and there are opportunities to expand delivery across the year. Branksome’s ability to provide accommodations complies with all relevant legislation but could be more proactive in providing a wider array of accommodations for the visually and physically impaired, as well as cultural and religious accommodations.

• Conflict Management: Branksome has clear policies and protocols related to conflict management. They can be better leveraged to counteract an internal culture of hesitancy related to raising issues. This hesitancy is based in dominant cultural norms of what is considered professional, which favours polite, quiet and indirect conflict style. Branksome has opportunities to increase public discussion of issues, such as through town halls or employee resource groups.

• Networking, Mentoring, Affinity Groups and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs): Faculty have access to valuable networking and mentoring opportunities at Branksome; however, the same types of opportunities should be available for staff. Mentorship programs should also meet the needs of equity-seeking employees. Many employees are unaware of Branksome’s newly established Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and their mandate.

• Inclusive Organizational Policies: Human Resources has well-established internal policies for faculty and staff to navigate critical issues. While these targeted policies are useful, at the time of review, there remained a lack of clarity for issues such as compensation transparency, washroom guidelines, pronoun usage and a transitioning policy for faculty and staff.

• Job Design (how work is organized and supported): The school has standardized job design for most jobs within the organization. At the time of review, the school went beyond legal requirements when offering paid leave, health benefits and flexible work arrangements. As next steps, the leave policy should be revised for gender-inclusive language and the school can conduct regular pay audits.

• DEI Training and Professional Development: Branksome Hall training and professional development is robust and should focus on systematically integrating DEI principles. While some DEI training has been provided to those in supervisory positions, non-management employees, especially staff, need greater support in this area.

• Embodied Leadership and Succession Planning: Leaders should champion DEI by example; however, minoritized employees have expressed unease about leadership relying on them to lead conversations and initiatives related to their own nondominant identities, indicating room for development among leaders.

• Succession Planning: Employees want to see a clear path to how to advance within Branksome Hall.

• Performance Reviews/Evaluations, Feedback and Data Collection: Teacher evaluation and non-teaching staff performance management were respectively assessed as impressive and adequate, with non-teaching staff experiencing fewer assessment measures and feedback opportunities. Feedback needs to be solicited more frequently from employees through anonymous feedback channels.

• Strategic Planning: Branksome’s current strategic plan includes DEI goals and objectives and should incorporate an ongoing engagement plan.

Inclusive Marketing and Communications

In its audit of marketing and communications, the consulting team assessed products and processes against best practices in the field.

KEY FINDINGS:

• Inclusive Language and Diverse Images: Branksome has demonstrated effort to feature DEI content internally and externally and found noticeable progress in the last five years toward the consistent use of inclusive language and diverse images. However, there is inconsistency in the use of gender-inclusive communications practices and a standardized land acknowledgement. Lastly, images of non-white students are used repeatedly and risk opening the school up to criticism that the images used are overrelied upon to market a diverse community.

• Accessibility of Online Materials: Much of Branksome Hall’s online printed and video content relies on the accessibility features built into the platforms they use. There is a need to adjust existing practices to meet or exceed minimum requirements for accessibility.

• Events and Meetings: Branksome Hall events are highly curated and very well-organized. School leaders, faculty and staff are often present. It is evident that a lot of thought and consideration is put into planning the calendar of events, with the selection of guest speakers, and attention to addressing topical issues and dates of

significance. Greater DEI subject-matter expertise across event planning teams is needed. At the time of review, there was limited capacity to apply a DEI lens to event planning and in turn, review and revise current procedures.

• Feedback and Accountability Practices, Policies and Procedures: Branksome Hall’s communication team is a frontline for fielding feedback and complaints addressed to the institution. They do so in partnership with school leaders. The communication team is interested in bringing more transparency to its accountability practices. There are few opportunities outside of the Whistleblower policy and the current DEI audit for employees to provide anonymous feedback. Stakeholders recognize disingenuous efforts and respect authenticity and accountability, so moving in this direction should be encouraged.

• Policies and Procedures: There are currently no policy statements or formalized diversity, equity and inclusion policies and procedures to guide the communications team. Standardizing processes and distributing instructions for providing suggestions and feedback would address some of the challenges the organization faces in promoting events and milestones and allow enough notice to do so effectively.

Prioritizing Black and Indigenous Experiences

Over the past few years, Canadians have been galvanized by a racial reckoning. We have all been called upon to examine the racism underlying systems that continue to oppress racialized people in our country. When conducting a systems review to discover and address inequitable practices, the most effective solutions are found in adopting practices that centre those who are most impacted. Just as a rising tide raises all ships, improving circumstances for those facing the greatest barriers has the benefit of also empowering those

TACKLING ANTI-BLACK RACISM

As with the Black Student Experience, Anima Leadership applied a three-part framework for recognizing anti-Black racism in the experiences of Black employees:

1. Exclusion at Branksome Hall can take the form of low levels of Black representation within teaching faculty and in leadership roles. Any perception that being white is the norm at Branksome will negatively impact all BIPOC staff, but this is especially true for Black employees. Representation matters whether it is a school or organization. The limited representation of Black employees results in feelings of isolation and lack of belonging with students and employees.

2. Over-surveillance is seen in instances in which BIPOC employees are singled out. It is not uncommon in organizations for racialized employees to be regularly asked the question “where are you from?” regarding their background, or to be questioned in the halls as though they were a visitor or stranger—both actions which assume outsider status and have occurred at Branksome with frequency according to employee feedback.

3. A BIPOC employee shared their perception of a lack of advancement, compared to their white counterparts. Often in organizations where diversity in leadership is an issue, Black employees see this as a signal that there will be difficulties in finding a career path forward.

who face fewer. It is with this in mind that we concentrate on Black and Indigenous experiences within an organization, recognizing the history and continued legacy of genocide, subjugation and exploitation these communities endure in Canada. When it comes to institutional policies and procedures, without concerted attention paid to eliminating bias and injustice, their disempowerment is often intrinsic to standard ways of operating.

TACKLING ANTI-INDIGENOUS RACISM

Over the last few years, Branksome Hall has embarked on a process to educate staff and students about Indigenous culture and anti-Indigenous racism. This has included departmental learning on Indigenous relations, including Indigenous learning in curriculum development and featuring Indigenous leaders in speaker series. During the auditor’s in-person visit, it was noted that both the Junior and Senior & Middle Schools integrated Indigenous cultural learning into their day-to-day practices. In 2020, the school also hired an Indigenous consultant to support the process of becoming a Downie Wenjack Legacy School. The Legacy School program is a free national initiative to support Indigenous learning and awareness to further the goals of reconciliation.

The steps Branksome Hall has taken to integrate an awareness of Indigenous culture and sovereignty constitute efforts of reconciliation. The school could amplify and build upon its existing commitment to countering anti-Indigenous racism by publicly endorsing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) calls to action. Further, aligning programming related to Indigenous issues with the TRC calls to action would strengthen Branksome’s commitment to equity and offer a strategic focus.

It is important to note that fewer than ten students identify as Indigenous in the surveys, so the audit was unable to report on their results given they might be identifiable. This is the smallest demographic population at the school. While Branksome Hall is at the beginning of its journey of understanding and challenging anti-Indigenous racism, there is much opportunity for growth.

Organizational Themes

DEI Accountability

Nurturing a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment requires a solid accountability structure to support organizational change. Branksome has taken important steps in this direction by establishing a senior leadership position focused on DEI, developing a DEI report card and providing stakeholders with regular updates through newsletters and other communication channels.

Moving forward, it is recommended that Branksome school leaders collaborate with the Board of Governors to establish priorities and DEI goals based on this audit and develop accountability strategies to measure progress and ensure follow-through. Accountability can look like finding support through partnerships with organizations and individuals that can provide advice and access to deepened expertise. It can also come in the form of responding to feedback and criticism authentically. Support and buy-in to DEI are crucial to furthering Branksome’s efforts in building a welcoming and inclusive learning and working environment for all students and employees.

Leadership and Governance

Branksome Hall has already forged a pathway to increase DEI awareness, understanding and action through leadership and governance. This includes training for the Board and leadership and recruiting new Board members from the BIPOC community. Other initiatives for the Board to consider include: conducting a Board DEI audit that examines policies and procedures, as well as developing a DEI strategy for the Board that is integrated with the school’s strategy. Furthermore, supporting the development and oversight of a DEI accountability structure for the school would also be especially important.

Harassment, Discrimination and Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is critical to DEI as it enables employees to be their authentic selves without feeling pressured to assimilate to dominant cultural norms to feel respected and included. The audit identified indicators that suggest psychological safety is lower than optimal for some employees, especially those who are minoritized.

Data Collection

Branksome Hall has already demonstrated its commitment to ongoing assessment by establishing benchmarks through this comprehensive audit, maintaining a DEI report card, and providing regular updates to students and families. Branksome Hall should continue to measure progress by conducting further engagement with the school community to regularly collect both demographic and social inclusion data (on a voluntary basis).

DEI Training and Development

The audit revealed a cross-departmental need for formalized DEI training for all employees, especially leaders (including within the areas of retention and advancement). While existing educational opportunities about DEI are plentiful, these tend to be discrete and may not amount to a fulsome understanding of DEI across the organization. The audit identified that a more systematic training and development plan is required to create behavioural change that puts learning into action.

Supplier Diversity

Branksome Hall currently uses suppliers for labour, services and products and achieving supplier diversity for thirdparty employees on campus is important to establishing an organizational culture of DEI. While the audit was not scoped to analyze procurement procedures for outside vendors, it included recommendations to ensure DEI standards are upheld across the organization.

Return on Investment/Business Case

The long-term success of Branksome Hall as an organization hinges on a robust DEI strategy with institutional buy-in. DEI strategy can improve the financial value of the organization, attract talent, reduce turnover, improve the organizational image, expand relationships with clients and customers and help mitigate legal exposure. However, currently, there is little understanding of how DEI is connected to returns on investment (ROI). Linking ROI to leadership decisions whenever possible can motivate follow-through on commitments as well as support innovation and risk-taking.

In analyzing the Student Experience, Employee Experience and Organizational Audit findings, Anima noted a series of organization-wide themes that have emerged which are not specific to any one department.

Progress Update and Initial Action Plan 5

Branksome Hall’s Action Plan is informed by Anima’s recommendations. Anima advises Branksome Hall that recommendations by their very nature are not mandates, but matters to be considered carefully in light of the organizational context, priorities, DEI strengths, opportunities and strategic alignments. For that reason, Branksome Hall’s shared values, guiding principles and ongoing community engagement efforts will remain cornerstones of our long-term DEI Action Planning effort.

Throughout this process, your participation is critical to our success. In 2023, we will be hosting community engagement sessions and facilitated conversations, and requesting participants to identify key priorities along with associated rationale.

We encourage every member of our community to engage in these opportunities. We will share details about the meetings on our school website and in internal newsletters. Submit your comments and questions to DEI@branksome.on.ca.

The Branksome leadership team is grateful for Anima Leadership’s partnership and expert assessment. Anima has identified several areas of development that can allow for constructive conversations and layered action plans at Branksome for many years to come.

Engaging Our Community: DEI Guiding Principles and Goals

In addition to the data and metrics collected through the audit, Branksome Hall’s long-term DEI Action Plan will be guided by the school’s shared values, guiding principles and an ongoing community engagement effort.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Acknowledge and dismantle systems of oppression

Centre open and trusting dialogue

Engage diverse viewpoints

Address needs of minority communities

Make courageous decisions

Consider the equity implications of decisions

Make data-informed decisions

Commit to learning and challenging implicit bias

Create space for dialogue about the action plan

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Facilitate conversations with:

• Board of Governors

• School Administrators

• Student and Employee Affinity Groups

• Grades 7-12 Students

• Parents and Guardians

• Alums

• JK-12 Student Experience and Well-Being Teams

• Admissions Team

• Human Resources & Talent Management Team

• Marketing and Communications Team

• Community Advisors and Partners

BRANKSOME HALL’S FIVE DEI GOALS INCLUDE: SHARED

1. Increase DEI awareness, understanding and action for all constituent groups through leadership, governance, communications, enrolment management and human resources practices.

2. Develop an organizational culture that encourages advocacy, anti-racism and anti-discrimination and values the lived experiences of community members.

3. Build employee capacity and leadership through

continued learning opportunities to foster classroom and school operational practices that are rooted in anti-racism and antidiscrimination education.

4. Build student capacity for advocacy, dialogue and antiracism leadership across the school.

5. Develop metrics, collect data and report findings that inform DEI priorities.

As we work together in developing our long-term action plan, we will remain steadfast in our shared values:

VALUES

• Sense of Community

• Inclusiveness

• Creativity

• Making a Difference

Meeting Our DEI Goals Through Our Actions

Goal 1:

Increase DEI awareness, understanding and action through leadership, governance, communications, enrolment management and human resources practices.

• Build DEI as a core strategic pillar in Branksome Hall’s Strategy Refresh 2023

• Review and revise Board Governance policies and bylaws through a DEI lens.

• Distribute communications style guides as well as event guides.

• Enhance employee communications of hiring, harassment and job evaluation practices and policies.

• Expand our full-year onboarding strategy for new employees.

• Compensation audit and salary review for all staff positions.

• Create an admissions onboarding summary for new families.

• Annual review and expansion of our financial assistance program.

• Promote BIPOC scholarships to new families.

• Explore alum mentoring and network program.

• Solicit ongoing feedback from alum.

Goal 2: Develop an organizational culture that encourages advocacy, anti-racism and anti-discrimination

• Share school practices in DEI and course expectations at K-12 curriculum nights.

• Continued support for R.I.S.E, our Black Student Union, student affinity groups and DEI programming across JK-12.

• Host welcome events for new students and identify care support programming.

• Engage in DEI-focused learning and conferences with employees, students and parents.

Goal 3: Build employee capacity and leadership through learning opportunities

• Host gender expression and identity training for all faculty and staff.

• Design ongoing training, online modules and in-person professional learning opportunities for employees’ professional development program on anti-Black racism education, and Indigenous education.

Goal 4: Build student capacity for advocacy, dialogue and anti-racism leadership

• Support Boarding social events that are open to the community.

• Host DEI-focused student leadership conference for incoming school leaders.

• Support speakers that focus on anti-racism and anti-discrimination, social action and allyship.

Goal 5: Develop metrics, collect data and report findings that inform DEI priorities

• Review audit findings within Branksome, develop multi-year priorities and share audit survey findings on DEI website.

• Collect documentation for initial review of courses (course outlines, IB Scope and Sequence Documents) as part of the school’s Approaches to Teaching & Learning.

Branksome Hall sets out annual school-wide and departmentspecific priorities to advance our DEI strategy at the school and in our classrooms by choosing actions that enable systemic change, increase awareness and enrich our programming. Here is a sampling of the DEI actions currently underway on our campus:

Roadmap for Advancing Branksome Hall’s DEI Action Plan

OCT 2023

Draft Action Plans Complete

FEB 2024

Share Multi-Year Action Plan with: Employees Students

Parents/Guardians Alums

Affinity Groups Clubs

APRIL - MAY 2023

Sharing the DEI Audit Findings with Our Community

Anima and Branksome Hall leadership will present and facilitate conversations around initial action planning. There will be several opportunities for staff, parents/guardians, students and alums to participate in these conversations. For example, departmentspecific conversations will focus on Student Experience, Employee Experience, Admissions, Communications and Branding. We also will host specific opportunities to engage the DEI Working Group, Affinity Groups, Diversity Council, Parents’ Association.

OCT - NOV 2023

Solicit Feedback on Draft Action Plans

OCT - NOV 2023

Initiate Values Survey

We are committed to sharing more details as they become available through the DEI newsletter, our Portal and website.

DEC 2023

Presentation of Multi-Year Action Plan to the Board of Governors

NOV 2024

School Climate Survey

As we continue to build on our DEI Action Plan for the 2023-2024 Academic Year and beyond, here is what you can expect at a high level.

With this comprehensive audit and the multi-year action planning that will flow from it, Branksome Hall has taken real and meaningful steps forward on our DEI journey. We now have an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to further improving and growing our DEI outcomes by utilizing the audit as a launching pad for current and future action, rather than a summary of past experiences.

As we continue our work to identify and integrate DEI-specific skills within our curriculum, increase representation in hiring, support student and employee leadership in combatting anti-Black racism, engage in diverse community and educational partnerships, and make systemic changes, these actions will serve to benefit everyone in our community, building a strong sense of belonging and equipping our students and employees with the skills and awareness to recognize their role as advocates and allies as they move forward in their personal and professional lives.

We thank the students, parents, employees and alums who have shared their experiences. Your participation and insights have enriched the recommendations that have been proposed, many which are already being acted upon and are underway, and through which we will continue to make Branksome Hall a leading, globally minded school and a more inclusive, diverse and equitable place for all.

As Anima Leadership has noted, an organization is successful in achieving real inclusion when it supports all individuals within the community so they feel they are part of organizational processes, have access to information, resources and decision making, and that their ideas are valued and they experience a sense of belonging.

Appendix: A Guide for Branksome Hall― Recommendations from Anima Leadership

Anima Leadership has provided recommendations in their final report to support the advancement of DEI outcomes for Branksome Hall as an institution. Anima and Branksome Hall recognize that while implementing every consideration here may not be feasible, the recommendations offer guidance for conversation and decision-making. DEI is an ongoing journey of organizational improvement, requiring the gathering of feedback from internal stakeholders, making choices about how to advance in multiple areas, and keeping abreast of emerging external trends. Organizational leaders and teams, in partnership with student, parent/guardian, employee and alum representatives, will consider these recommendations and determine which will be taken up and prioritized in order to inform short, medium and longterm strategic goals, as well as future aspirations.

For readability, we have followed Anima’s guidance in grouping recommendations based on the experience or organizational system they intend to impact, and in a few cases have shortened or rephrased individual recommendations. As you know, we have not been waiting for these results to make progress on our DEI goals. To that end, the highlighted recommendations in bold and italics are already in progress, many of which were initiated on a parallel path to the DEI Audit. In determining which items to start working on, we prioritized high-impact choices that could bring about significant changes to our system, would build upon existing strengths and opportunities for growth, and enrich our programming. Other recommendations will take more time and require further internal consultation or are dependent on other priorities.

We invite you to join our community engagement sessions to learn more about the priorities that are already underway or have been identified as part of our short-term goals. Many organizations will benefit from seeing these recommended actions as independent schools across Canada strive to make systemic change. We encourage others to join us in taking action.

STUDENT AND ALUM EXPERIENCE RECOMMENDATIONS

BRANKSOME HALL AS A DEI LEADER IN THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SECTOR

• Sustain ongoing efforts to prioritize DEI within the school culture.

• Continue to support the work of the Branksome Hall DEI Working Group and develop an accountability framework to achieve DEI goals.

• Reinforce the importance of bystander intervention skills and prevention strategies through training and development for adults to nurture psychological safety at school, especially for minoritized students.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF LIVED-EXPERIENCE AND DEI EXPERTISE

• Establish a DEI training program that covers key content areas and practical skill development including but not limited to: brave conversations; recognizing and interrupting microaggressions; bystander intervention training; psychological safety training; racial justice literacy; trans and queer justice literacy; and critical orientations to (dis)ability.

• Within DEI training and development, offer a focus on markers of social privilege and allyship directed at those who embody dominant identities.

• Earmark funds for DEI training that individual departments can integrate into their overall annual plans for professional development in discipline-specific ways that will cultivate subject-matter expertise.

• Build DEI subject-matter expertise into faculty professional development plans.

• Engage a DEI subject-matter expert to work with the marketing and communications team in a consulting, part-time or full-time capacity.

LOW-TRUST ENVIRONMENT NURTURED BY DEI INEXPERIENCE

• Develop a transparent accountability framework to achieve DEI goals and share it with stakeholders, including students, families and employees. Incorporate feedback from stakeholders in both the development of an accountability structure as well as review processes to monitor progress.

• Support leaders in further developing skills in selfawareness, emotional intelligence, brave conversations, authentic feedback as well as DEI knowledge and skills (as per previous training and development recommendations).

• Support all employees, especially leaders, in anticipating cynicism, critical feedback and potential backlash, and build mitigation strategies into the development of all DEI initiatives.

MENTAL WELLNESS CONSIDERED DISTINCT FROM DEI

• Consider ways to enhance the representation of BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ individuals in the counseling positions.

• Build DEI principles into the strategic direction of mental health services.

• Mandate guidance counselors and school social workers to have advanced DEI training.

• Increase programming support for issues of eating distress/disorder.

• Address skin tone, body hair, and physical ability in body image campaigns and programming.

• Offer students resources for how to address systemic forms of discrimination as part of an overall mental wellness strategy.

THE NEED FOR FURTHER INTEGRATION OF THE BOARDING AND DAY STUDENT COMMUNITIES

• Facilitate regular social events between boarding students and day students throughout the year.

• Match boarding students with day students for a full-year peer-to-peer support program.

• Host academic and cocurricular events within boarding school spaces.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEI WITHIN ALUM COMMUNITY

• Solicit further feedback from alums on topics of interest and event types of interest to mobilize a larger number of participants.

• Align the strategic direction of the Alumnae Association with the broader strategic direction of Branksome Hall when it comes to DEI.

• Actively promote BIPOC scholarship funds to alums, with opportunities to contribute to expand such scholarship opportunities.

ANTI-BLACK RACISM AND THE BLACK STUDENT EXPERIENCE

• Develop a strategy to tackle anti-Black racism with a transparent accountability framework to support Black students.

• Address anti-Black racism by offering specific training for educators and support staff on the nature and manifestation of anti-Black racism.

• Commit to hiring more Black-identifying teachers and support staff.

• Establish effective mechanisms for recognizing the achievements of Black students.

• Provide support to Black students at Branksome to combat racism, navigate complaint processes, identify barriers to success and access appropriate resources (e.g., scholarships, networking, mentoring).

• Continue to encourage and provide material support to student groups, like the Black Student Union, and give them a space to connect and build community within Branksome Hall.

EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND REDEFINING THE “BRANKSOME GIRL”

• Anima’s recommendation is to initiate a multi-stakeholder analysis to create a vision of Branksome Hall in the year 2042. Within such a process is the answer to define the Branksome student—will it be the same as today or different?

CORRELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL PRIVILEGE AND FEELINGS OF BELONGING

• Clarify which equity issues will be prioritized for future planning, as part of the multi-stakeholder analysis and future visioning process. Having a solid sense of the limits of the community’s vision for its future demographic profile will inform the scope of recommendations that are deemed appropriate.

ORGANIZATIONAL AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS

INCLUSIVE ADMISSIONS

• Develop an accessibility strategy for marketing and communications to ensure the broadest spectrum of applicants feel welcome, including translation supports for materials and sessions.

• Develop an equity strategy to encourage applicants from minoritized backgrounds. This may include, but is not limited to, collecting demographic information, considering a weighted application process that prioritizes applicants from historically excluded groups, and building partnerships with diverse feeder schools.

• Develop a communication strategy to increase the transparency of and access to our admissions processes, including: the criteria used for a successful applicant; the number of openings available at grade levels; the assessment process and requirements; how waitlists and declines are managed; our approach for keeping families together (legacy); and how we support and onboard new families.

• Provide a clear rationale for selection questions and share them beforehand with applicants.

• Translate selection questions into multiple languages.

• Offer translation services to applicants who require them, ensuring that consistency and quality of communication are not a barrier.

• Invest in professional development to expand knowledge of implicit bias and applicable mitigation strategies (particularly relating to the admissions process). This includes reviewing the practice of including photos in the application phase and using a bias filter to determine its necessity.

• Create a process for collecting voluntary demographic data during the application process and consider how to use this information to better understand the needs of applicants during the interview stage.

• Review current selections rubrics and processes using a bias-free filter to ensure selection decisions consider the broadest spectrum of applicants fairly, with specific attention to hidden barriers related to race/ ethnicity, culture, language, socioeconomic class and applicants from outside Canada.

• Specify whether decisions made during the interview and selection stages are based on the ten attributes of the IB Learner Profile or alternate sources. Share the rationale behind their use to provide transparency for both decision makers and applicant families.

• Review the admissions process for early years to determine whether more inclusive options might better reflect the developmental stages of young children, offering another possible pathway to diversify the student body.

• Develop department-specific statements that express a commitment to the school’s DEI vision and specify priorities and accountability measures to be shared publicly at all stages of the admissions process, including the current and desired state of DEI at the school.

• Provide the Admissions team with DEI training and clear direction as to how to apply learning to their roles and responsibilities. This can include during collaborative work, interview processes and decision making about applicants.

• Develop a short-term strategy to enlist people with diverse identities to support the Admissions team in their decision-making process related to student selection, using internal or external sources.

• Develop a broader, long-term HR strategy to diversify its employee base, including within the Admissions team, to reflect the diversity of the city of Toronto.

• Create a one-document summary of onboarding procedures that is easily accessible via multiple languages and channels, including the student handbook.

• Invite and welcome conversations on sensitive topics such as race, learning disabilities and equity-based needs to better support inclusion for minoritized groups during the interview and onboarding processes.

• Develop transition programs for minoritized students that include school-parent/ guardians partnerships to enhance student success.

INCLUSIVE RECRUITMENT

• Develop a diversity recruitment strategy that identifies populations for priority hiring.

• Collect volunteer demographic data annually on applicants, shortlisted candidates, and new hires.

• Regularly conduct workforce analysis to track workforce and demographic trends in the City of Toronto and, if possible, within the independent school sector.

• Engage in community outreach and partnerships with community organizations to strengthen external relationships, particularly in communities that are underrepresented in the Branksome Hall community.

• Create a diversity recruitment strategy that is explicit in its goal of establishing a diverse recruitment pool that reflects the internal and external community, also sharing the strategy with the organization and community to solicit feedback and suggestions for improvements.

• Communicate regularly with employees about internal DEI initiatives, hiring processes and changes to ensure transparency.

• Use innovative internships, mentoring and workplace bridging programs to increase candidate pool(s) and outreach, including to postsecondary and high school students.

• Include institutional vision, mission and values, a statement of adherence to OHRC policies and any equity statements aligned with the organization.

• Use best practice guidelines consistently including, but not limited to, division of time and tasks, physical effort abilities, willingness to be trained in DEI skills, accommodations, time off, overtime and benefits.

• Include the salary band in all job descriptions, new and existing (particularly non-teaching positions) and regularly audit pay rates to ensure they meet market standards.

• Ensure managers and employees are trained in understanding the policies, procedures and rights regarding the discussion of salary in the workplace during and beyond the job offer.

• Review required duties for positions, as well as supervision protocols, to ensure employees are not exceeding outlined tasks without a transparent process in place for changes and exceptional circumstances.

• Ensure job postings both align with job descriptions and list salary bands consistently.

• Clearly state vision/mission/values alongside adherence to the OHRC, available accommodations and any equity statements the organization wishes to add.

• Give thought to mandatory educational requirements for jobs and expand the relevant experience section to include transferable skills from other sectors.

• Adopt a system that anonymizes candidates’ personal information during the initial application process.

• Advertise in affinity networks, professional associations, and educational organizations with an equity focus and in alternative educational programs.

• Expand the current list of advertising venues and maintain an updated directory.

• Regularly update Branksome’s job posting site to reflect the diversity of the workforce by featuring images of current employees.

INCLUSIVE SELECTION

• Select CVs/resumés using multiple factors and a clearly defined process for every stage of decision making to address bias.

• Develop a system that anonymizes the personal information of candidates on a CV/ resumé.

• Develop a CV/resumé scoring matrix to ensure consistent assessment incorporating bias mitigation strategies.

• Analyze CV/resumé using a panel that reflects the diversity of the community.

• Use an interview panel that reflects the community and train panelists in communication skills, implicit bias, emotional intelligence and bias-free assessment tools.

• Require interview panels to evaluate and debrief recent interviews, using any training received to innovate and bring new inclusive approaches to interviewing.

• Create bias-free assessment tools to use throughout the interview process, including an interview grading matrix that ensures consistency and reduces bias, and reference check that include DEI-based questions.

• Ensure that interview invitations inform applicants that accommodations are available and that all materials are available in accessible formats.

• Prioritize DEI skill-testing and scenario-based questions in all interviews, specifically about working with a diverse team and student body.

• Offer applicants interview questions before the start of the interview to allow them an opportunity to consider their responses.

• Develop a standardized question bank for each position category, that allows for customization of questions to address the unique experiences, skills and needs of individual candidates.

• Regularly review new hire selections to assess demographic hiring trends, including an analysis of competition files.

• Be more transparent in the selection process to better support the demographic needs of the organization in selection decisions.

• Keep applications on file for 18 months, as candidates currently have 12 months to file a complaint (Note: Branksome Hall currently keeps applications on file for 24 months).

INCLUSIVE RETENTION

• Deliver onboarding as a long-term process (up to six months), with continued touchpoints between Human Resources and new employees in a formalized manner.

• Regularly invite feedback to improve employee introduction/integration.

• Ensure more in-depth DEI content is integrated during onboarding, in alignment with overall organizational goals and delivered by a diverse team whenever possible.

• Provide the Human Resources department with specialized DEI training relevant to their responsibilities to make the onboarding process more inclusive.

• Develop a strategy to upgrade accessibility options across all facilities.

• Revise accommodation policies to include a wider variety of accessibility options that also consider the cultural context (e.g., supporting employees of Islamic faith in accessing private space for prayer time), nurturing an organizational culture that promotes and normalizes accommodation practices.

• Engage with key stakeholders frequently, via school communications, meetings and training sessions, to assess accommodation and accessibility needs. Update stakeholders regularly on how the school is meeting these needs.

• Enhance the existing conflict management policy and strategy to include, but not be limited to: providing ongoing training to leaders and employees on topics related to brave conversations, DEI, and emotional intelligence; naming conflict management norms to increase transparency and broaden institutional capacity for different cultural and individual communication styles; creating a formal feedback process about conflict resolution and complaints to ensure improvements; using onboarding and professional development time to openly model scenarios for benefit of faculty and staff; supporting managers’ and leaders’ ability to listen, validate and encourage employees to discuss DEI issues; creating an explicit policy about supporting employee and parent conflict management.

• Support from leadership to nurture diverse networks and mentoring opportunities for employees by learning to become more comfortable having conversations related to identity in group and individual settings.

• Promote diverse networking opportunities available to faculty and staff.

• Link DEI goals to mentoring and networking opportunities.

• Create an ERG policy and Terms of Reference to establish purpose, objectives and guidelines for group formation and assignment of an executive-level sponsor.

• Openly encourage participation in ERGs during onboarding and throughout the school year.

• Actively encourage leadership to consult and coordinate with ERGs to identify and address barriers to DEI.

• Support affinity group members’ career development by connecting them to pathways for emerging/aspiring leaders in the organization.

• Establish a process for updating and improving internal policies that includes, but is not limited to: ensuring classification and compensation systems are posted publicly, more clearly communicating employees’ legal right to a bias-free workplace and the process for filing a discrimination and/or harassment complaint and ensuring Group Benefits are inclusive of LGBTQ2S+ communities.

• Promote gender diversity appreciation with a clear statement of the organization’s commitment to supporting gender diversity and the use of gender-neutral language across all policies.

• Extend the Transitioning policy to include faculty and staff.

• Develop a social procurement policy to ensure supplier diversity and values-alignment is part of business practice.

• Investigate frameworks for job/ work design and evaluate their applicability to the Branksome employee experience.

• Conduct a pay equity audit and perform a review on a regular basis.

• Consider updating relevant policies to account for the plurality of families, such as single-parent, multiple-parent, multi-generational and extended (e.g. Avoid using gendered terms like her for pregnancy leave and paternity leave over bonding care leave, develop more nuanced policies for childcare, eldercare, family leave, birth of a still-born child, etc.).

• Consider expanding the Alternative Work Arrangements policy to include options such as job sharing, full remote work and compressed work weeks.

INCLUSIVE ADVANCEMENT

• Ensure that the leadership program actively addresses equity for minoritized future leaders and promotes multiple approaches to leadership, including internal and external opportunities.

• Invest in professional development programs to encourage marginalized groups to enter roles that they have historically been excluded from (e.g., women of colour in senior leadership positions).

• Develop a leadership strategy that includes a minimum 360-hour learning goal for decision makers to become DEI champions, developing fluidity and ease in order to embody equity principles.

• Incorporate DEI into performance evaluations for leadership.

• Develop a succession planning strategy that includes but is not limited to standardized criteria that indicate candidates’ readiness for promotion; temporary placements and stretch assignments to further develop leadership skills; a pre-identified pool of candidates; and additional consideration and priority given to minoritized and traditionally excluded employees/candidates.

• Integrate DEI mandates into the teacher growth portfolios and performance management plans (PMP) to assess teachers based on technical proficiency and their implementation of core DEI values (e.g., collaborative goals, gender-neutral language, etc.).

• Use industry best practices for performance reviews including but not limited to feedback from peers, managers, subordinates and students; self-assessments; informal feedback.

• Require senior leadership to monitor and advance the equity of opportunities, resulting from performance evaluations.

• Include in progressive discipline policy examples of misconduct related to discrimination (e.g., the use of racial slurs, stereotypes or harmful comments).

• Develop inclusive advancement as a strategic priority and implement a process to ensure advancement and promotion are conducted equitably.

• Showcase inclusive advancement approach to both internal and external stakeholders, with clear links to the moral, social and business benefits.

• Ensure developments within the DEI field regularly influence organizational strategy and planning.

• Conduct an employee engagement survey every two years and a social inclusion census every 2-4 years.

• Develop a strategy for Human Resources to improve their feedback and data collection policies which includes but is not limited to: creating processes for anonymous employee feedback to improve and innovate on advancement strategies, DEI process and policies; developing multiple means to collect regular feedback that is separate from the performance review process, including direct feedback to leadership; interviews that are conducted regularly with employees (both stay and exit interviews); data sharing internally and within the sector to understand trends and impacts.

INCLUSIVE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

• Implement consistent practices in support of gender inclusivity, including, but not limited to: pronouns next to names when they first appear in text, nongendered language when referring to students, preferred pronouns in email signatures and the option for students undergoing a pronoun and/ or name change or gender transition to have this change announced in a congratulatory notice.

• Develop guidelines within the draft event guide for use of land acknowledgements across the organization as part of Indigenous awareness, including strategies for adapting the land acknowledgement to different contexts and events with ongoing efforts to make them meaningful.

• Implement an annual review mechanism for internal communications to develop a greater diversity of content and address ethnocentric representation to ensure continuous improvement.

• Include, in the biannual employee survey, communications questions to receive ongoing feedback as to how communications can better reflect the employee body.

• Develop a framework for securing and selecting images with particular care not to: perpetuate stereotypes, present underrepresented groups incongruously, use photos of a person’s likeness without prior and informed consent, or misrepresent institutional diversity by overusing images of underrepresented students.

• Update campus maps to indicate gender-inclusive, in addition to accessible washrooms and change rooms.

• Conduct an accessibility audit following the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act to identify critical accessibility issues and receive specific recommendations to address them.

• Provide the communications team and educators with accessibility awareness training to ensure resources shared are accessible.

• Continue to use public events as public speaking opportunities for students, particularly around DEI issues.

• Consider including skill development in discussing sensitive DEI topics for student leaders.

• Review school calendars to ensure recognition of holidays and days of significance is culturally diverse.

• Incorporate a DEI lens into each stage of the event management process into existing planning tools.

• Dedicate resources to support the communications team in developing inclusive communication skills and culturally responsive practices.

• Communicate with the public with honesty and transparency when a mistake is made and commit to using direct, non-euphemistic language when addressing issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, privilege, toxic masculinity, and white supremacy.

• Institute a feedback management system that may include, but is not limited to: a template of standardized responses, a list of forwarding contacts for common topics, and clear and accessible means for soliciting feedback.

• Develop an accountability structure with reciprocal support for the marketing and branding team’s work while also relaying critiques received back to institutional leadership for strategy development and execution.

• Develop an Equity Action Plan to formalize, develop and implement accessibility and accommodation standards through policy and procedures.

TACKLING ANTI-BLACK RACISM

• Develop an institution-wide anti-Black racism strategy, that includes training and development, to address challenges related to exclusion, surveillance and lack of advancement.

TACKLING ANTI-INDIGENOUS RACISM

• Develop an institution-wide anti-Indigenous racism strategy, that includes training and development, to address challenges related to exclusion, surveillance and lack of advancement.

DEI ACCOUNTABILITY

• Develop an accountability structure to measure progress and ensure follow-through on DEI priorities and goals, including strategies to address perceptions that undermine institutional trust.

LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

• Conduct an audit of Branksome Board of Governors’ policies and practices with a DEI lens.

• Develop a Board-specific DEI strategic priority with an emphasis on recruiting and retaining qualified, diverse Board members that represent the demographics of Toronto.

• Co-develop an accountability framework with school executives to help achieve DEI goals for Branksome Hall.

HARASSMENT, DISCRIMINATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

• Engage the Branksome community to develop an overall strategy for psychological safety to improve the reporting process, with an emphasis on conflict competence as well as openness to feedback, disagreement, and a diversity of opinions.

Appendix: A Guide for Branksome Hall―Recommendations from Anima Leadership

• Ensure employees are regularly and thoroughly educated about the zero-tolerance policy for harassment and discrimination. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that the principles of a harassment and discrimination-free and inclusive environment are accessible and well-publicized in classrooms, workspaces, hallways, the website and materials sent to parents.

• Ensure employees and students know how to report harassment and discrimination and are clear on what the investigation process entails. Improvements to reporting mechanisms should involve consultations with employees and students.

• Leaders and managers engage in professional development to improve skills in psychological safety, emotional intelligence as well as giving/receiving authentic feedback.

• Access the services of a DEI/ Human Rights Ombudsperson to support the mediation of sensitive issues, critical feedback or complaints from employees or students.

DATA COLLECTION

• Develop an organization-wide data collection strategy for hiring and advancement as well as school admissions.

• Conduct regular employee engagement surveys (that include questions around DEI) amongst employees and students to ensure opportunities for feedback.

• Conduct focus groups and interviews to collect qualitative information with a specific focus on the experiences of Indigenous peoples and those with disabilities.

• Regularly report on findings to the Branksome Hall community.

DEI TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Develop an organization-wide DEI training strategy for all employees, including leadership.

• Implement DEI training that is specific to the needs of each department.

• Set clear goals for what the organization would like to achieve through DEI training and evaluate movement toward annual goals.

SUPPLIER DIVERSITY

• Procure more suppliers that reflect the diversity of the broader community and the communities in which they do business.

• Develop and implement policies and guidelines to assess DEI practices of suppliers.

• Develop a long-term inclusive supply chain strategy that includes holding Branksome Hall’s auxiliary programs to the same standards and processes as the rest of the organization.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT / BUSINESS CASE

• Formally link DEI policies and practices to ROI and positive business outcomes whenever possible, to develop a comprehensive understanding of the benefits of DEI while motivating follow-through on policies, practices and commitments.

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