MAY E-NEWS
Freedom To Read
Next Gen
Festival Season
Congrats UofMosaic Grads
Coalition to Combat Online Hate
Anti-Hate Community Leaders Group
Florida and Texas recently banned hundreds of books. Canada is not exempt from this issue, with current pushes against books focused on race, gender, and sexuality in Manitoba, Ontario, B.C. and New Brunswick.
At last week’s Mosaic’s Next Gen workshop, students raised the topic of school curriculum and books - what they would keep or change.
Students were divided about History class. Roughly half said there wasn't a point to learn about the past - the other half said it is important to know.
Mosaic’s team facilitated a respectful dialogue, which lead to vital questions from youth. Whose history was being taught in books in schools? Whose wasn't? Why does it matter?
Youth are interested in issues that affect them, their knowledge and understanding of the world. Your support helps them articulate perspectives, think critically, consider other views, and develop action maps. Thank you for supporting youth where they are now to set them up for the future.
Sincerely,
Leigh Naturkach, Executive Director
Freedom to Read
Check out Freedom to Read’s work and resources on censorship, bans, as well as how to get involved.
“Freedom of expression rights are essential to education in a free and democratic society. These are the rights of everyone in the school community, including students. Teacher-librarians are charged with ensuring that those rights are acknowledged and respected.” – Dianne Oberg
Next Generation
Since January, the Next Generation team has:
👉 Delivered 35+ workshops
👉 Engaged 1,600+ youth, including the youngest participants in our history at Lake Simcoe Public School
👉 Graduated three Junior Fellows
👉 Reached over 100,000 people online
What is next? A “Peace Pedagogies” conference for educators and practitioners that works with youth. Want to get involved? Contact Amal at: aa@mosaicinstitute.ca
Festival Season
As part of the Provocation Festival and the Toronto Arab Film Festival, Mosaic is a proud Community Partner for the screening of Foragers on Saturday, May 20th in Toronto.
This film is a meditative film depicting the dramas around the practice of foraging for wild edible plants in Palestine / Israel.
Mosaic is a proud Community Partner for this year’s Toronto Jewish Film Festival and is co-presenting four films:
Narrow Bridge (June 6)
Children of Peace (June 2)
Shalom Putti (June 8)
Hope Without Boundaries (June 4)
All online films are available for 48 hours and are geoblocked to Ontario. Discount code to access the films: MOSAIC@TJFF.
Congrats UofMosaic Grads!
All 24 UofMosaic Fellows of the 2021-2023 cohort have completed their placements. We are proud of all they contributed not only to Mosaic through workshops, dialogues, and publications, but to their own communities!
You can learn about their campus dialogues here – from issues of Body Prejudice to Bias in Western Media. Stay tuned for their publications which will be shared through the summer.
Thank you to all who applied to the 2023-2025 cohort – we saw an 113% increase in applications since 2019, and reaching new regions. We are motivated by how many want to engage in the work of dismantling prejudice.
Coalition to Combat Online Hate
As a member of the Coalition, Mosaic has signed onto a letter to the federal government to take action and introduce the promised legislation combatting online hate and harms. Check out the website for more resources and information.
Anti-Hate Leaders Group
Mosaic recently signed on to the Anti-Hate Community Leaders Group, founded by the Council of Agencies Servicing South Asians.
The focus areas of this group is on: legislation on online hate, interfaith dialogue, education, policy, media and advocacy. We look forward to working together to help dismantle prejudice.
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