Social Justice, Indigenization & Inclusion Committee

Group Co-Leads:

    Stacey Marjerrison and Caroline Wai

The Social Justice, Indigenization and Inclusion Committee is a passionate group of individuals who bring their diverse intersectional identities to this work. Our mission is to ensure that the work of ACCESS will benefit EVERY child with cancer in Canada regardless of their geographic area, race or ethnic group, First Nations, Inuit and Métis identity, socioeconomic background, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, religious identity, age and ability.

To bring about real change, it is crucial we centre, engage and collaborate with impacted communities. A one-size-fits-all methodology in clinical care, research, and policy is insufficient and unjust. We acknowledge the historical and ongoing racism, marginalization, oppression, and power hierarchies experienced by so many families in our health system. We are committed to upholding the values of reciprocity, equity, and human rights in our work to build a national pediatric cancer strategy. As individual members of ACCESS, we share the responsibility for creating a diverse and inclusive community that strives to improve pediatric cancer outcomes while simultaneously working to reduce barriers to treatment and outcome inequities.

Our work to date has included the development of the ACCESS equity statement and a guidance document for the appropriate collection of sensitive information within ACCESS. We assessed the ACCESS network for diversity and created diversity goals representative of the pediatric cancer community in Canada and have begun the process of training the ACCESS network with sessions in anti-racism/anti-oppression and data governance for sensitive data. All ACCESS-led research and projects are reviewed by at least one member of our committee to ensure an equity lens.

Priorities

  1. Embed Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles into all initiatives across ACCESS.
  2. Advise on the meaningful inclusion of all equity-deserving groups.
  3. Ensure implementation of the guidance document for collection of sensitive information.
  4. Continue to review ACCESS led research and projects through an equity lens.
  5. Build expert councils to ensure appropriate data governance, research, project direction and more.
  6. Develop projects that prioritise the needs of the community.