Our Board

FTP is governed by a volunteer board of directors comprised of individuals who have a broad range of experience and commitment to ending violence in our Sharyn Ayliffe Laura Cameron community. Their strategic leadership focuses the Treasurer efforts that support the agency to meet the changing needs of our community, while simultaneously ensuring that FTP’s mission and values are front and centre. Board members, individually and collectively, evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency annually in order to identify areas for growth and development. New board members are recruited by FTP’s Governance Committee; a committee that is also responsible for reviewing the terms, expertise and diversity reflected in current members, and identifying expertise gaps. Once a board member is recruited, they are included in the slate of directors put forth for election at FTP’s Annual General Meeting held each June. New members are given a comprehensive orientation as dictated by FTP’s Board Policies and Procedures. Board meetings are held monthly throughout the year and require a five-person quorum for decisions that will affect the operation of the agency.

Denyse Horner Trisha Linton Rapinder Kaur Vice-President

Tony Maxwell Preeya Rateja Sheralyn Roman Rukiya Sa’d Kimberly Van Ryn

GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE WORK The Governance Committee has had another busy year, working behind the scenes to conduct both regular reviews of policy and to foster new and timely initiatives in response to ongoing change, both in the community and at FTP. Our continuing goal remains to support the work of FTP to the best of our abilities, and in alignment with FTP’s Mission, Vision and Values. We have begun work on an exciting new initiative, which will be known as “Boardward Bound.” While still in the draft stages, a working group has been formed and a draft mission statement reflects our goal of: “Mentoring local youth to connect with and volunteer for nonprofit boards, for the purpose of developing leadership skills, deepening ties within the community, and shaping the future to create spaces where everyone can belong.” It is our intent to help foster future leaders and to create an environment where knowledge sharing, and educational and developmental resources will be shared across all of our community partners. As well, driven by a desire to embrace the forward-thinking policies of FTP, and working toward a board of directors that is inclusive, welcoming and flexible, we embarked on creating a new statement of intent designed to enhance Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the board level. The result is our new Belonging, Dignity and Justice (BDJ) Statement. Our approach was to consider equity work as two-pronged; what is the action we intend to take and what will be the resulting impact? The following statements were agreed upon: • We seek diversity to create dignity • We encourage equity work to ensure justice • We foster inclusion to ensure belonging Our final statement is a one-page document board members will be asked to sign each year. It will inform our recruitment, orientation, community outreach and policies—each of which will be created through a BDJ lens. In so doing, we hope to ensure an environment that is equitable, inclusive and diverse. We look forward, as the Governance Committee, to continue serving FTP through another calendar year and we congratulate the entire FTP team for their perseverance and grace in serving clients and the community throughout this past “post-pandemic” year! FTP’s Governance Committee Members: Carissa Burton, Denyse Horner, Priyanka Kumar (community member), Sheralyn Roman, Rukiya Sa’d and Kimberly Van Ryn.