Best Practices Toolkit

There are many ways of approaching anti-racism, equity and inclusion work and FCM believes each municipality is best suited to determine their own approach based on their unique needs, challenges, barriers, capacity, resources, financial means and more. Given the uniqueness of all communities, there is no blanket solution to this complex challenge. However, there are tried, tested and various best practices we can all learn from.

The resources on this page serve as a best-practices space for municipalities to be able to draw inspiration, ideas and resources to further advance anti-racism, equity and inclusion within their municipality. While each municipality is on their own anti-racism, equity and inclusion journey, these resources have intentionally been selected to enable municipalities to customize their own workplans, journeys and recommendations. Regardless of where you are in your AREI journey, our suggestion is to go through all the resources to determine what parts best suit your needs at this current time.

It is important to remember that no action is too small and that this work should not be viewed as an all-or-nothing approach. We hope the toolkits and templates provide ample inspiration and will create pathways forward regardless of your current state.

Templates and toolkits

UNESCO Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities

• A toolkit on inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA): Good practices for researchers
  A holistic approach to inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in research teams, activities or even in the classroom is crucial. This toolkit provides principal investigators with practical ways to achieve an inclusive culture, free of racism and discrimination.

• The Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities: A Guide for New and Established Members
  This updated toolkit provides practical information and resources for municipalities to support and strengthen their work in fighting racism and discrimination in all its forms, while also emphasizing the importance and benefits of embracing inclusionary practices.

• Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Toolkit: Templates and Tools by Alberta Urban Municipalities Association
  This toolkit includes different types of accountable groups, how to write clear terms of reference, how to write a news release or bulletin, how to develop a work plan, how to measure your success, and much more.

• Policy statement on Francophones, language and discrimination
  This policy statement explains the relationship between the Ontario Human Rights Code, language-based discrimination and French-language minority rights under other laws. In keeping with the Preamble of the Code, this statement aims to promote respect for the inherent dignity of Franco-Ontarians and their full participation in society without discrimination based on Code grounds related to language.

• The YWCA Metro Vancouver: CityShift Equity Kickstart Guide (2023)
  This guide is intended to be used by municipal council members and civic staff who are looking for resources to help them start or continue to embed equity in their decision-making practices.

• The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association’s (AUMA) Measuring Inclusion Tool (MIT) was developed to help municipalities become more welcoming and inclusive. The goal of this tool is to give municipalities a way to measure the level of inclusiveness of the municipality and the community. By using the tool on a periodic basis, you will be able to measure the impact of your actions. Beyond this, MIT is designed to help you plan where you might go next and how you can get there. It is designed to help you understand the change process that communities often go through to become more welcoming and inclusive. In addition to measurement, MIT can serve as a discussion and educational tool. By reading the tool’s real-life indicators, staff and stakeholders can begin to understand what inclusion looks like.

• The Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) is an American national network of government working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all. While GARE is a US-based organization, the templates and toolkits included are universally relevant and applicable in anti-racism, equity and inclusion work.
  • Racial Equity Toolkit: Racial equity tools are designed to integrate explicit consideration of racial equity in decisions, including policies, practices, programs and budgets. It is both a product and a process. Use of a racial equity tool can help to develop strategies and actions that reduce racial inequities and improve success for all groups.
     
  • Racial Equity Action Plans a How-to Manual: This manual provides guidance for local governments to develop their own Racial Equity Action Plans after a period of research and information gathering. This manual also provides guidance and tools to conduct this research. GARE created a Racial Equity Action Plan template after a national scan of promising practices from cities and counties that have developed plans for racial equity and the structures that supported successful planning processes.
     
  • Advancing Racial Equity and Transforming Government: A Resource Guide to Put Ideas into Action: This Resource Guide provides additional information about the six strategies in which GARE has seen success in advancing racial equity and government transformation. Why are they important? What is the theory? What is the practice? How does change happen? The toolkit shares the stories and lessons learned from local government leaders across the country who have built (and continue to build) racial equity strategies. This guide also includes examples on how to measure your impact.
     
  • Racial Equity Toolkit: An Opportunity to Operationalize Equity: A step-by-step outline of questions to ask in order to operationalize equity.
    • Seattle: An example of how this toolkit can look like in practice

• Boston Consulting Group Anti-Racism Toolkit and Activity Guide
  BGC Canada developed the Anti-Racism Toolkit which includes the following key sections: anti-racism key concepts, implementation guidance and activities. Together, these sections can help you think differently about differences—to celebrate the aspects that make our communities unique while actively confronting the historical and systemic barriers that prevent all Canadians from being equal.

• Ontario Human Rights Commission: Common Commitments and sample actions against racism and discrimination
  • This website offers simple yet effective actions municipalities can take to address racism

• The Anti-Racism, Access and Equity Policy and Human Rights Complaint Procedure Template page provides template examples for statement of commitment, policy and actions on anti-racism, access and equity, and a human rights complaints procedure.

• In 2021, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) drafted a set of policy recommendations to the federal, provincial and municipal governments across Canada to tackle violent and systemic forms of Islamophobia. If your local government is seeking to understand and take a stand against Islamophobia, this report provides the context behind Islamophobia in Canada and a comprehensive list of specific policy recommendations. These policy recommendations could be supported and adopted in your municipality to further advance your anti-racism and equity journey: https://www.nccm.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Policy-Recommendations_NCCM.pdf