News & Stories

Thank You Edmonton Community Foundation for the Belonging in Our Community grant

Jun 27, 2023

We want to extend our sincere gratitude to our long-term supporter, Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) for awarding us the Belonging in Our Community: BGCBigs’ Strategy on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion grant last year.

With this generous grant, BGCBigs has been working toward intentionally embedding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices throughout the fabric of the organization, as well as developing a comprehensive EDI strategy and business plan that would result in the agency having strong well-informed EDI practices for daily work. The grant has also helped the agency provide valuable and enriching EDI training, learning more about Indigenous culture and ways of being, learning about Allyship (from an Indigenous perspective) to our staff and Board members. We have engaged Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers as we continue to work on reconciliation.

As an organization, serving children and youth from very diverse backgrounds, we collaborate and work with different partners, volunteers and communities to provide services that ensure that all young people (and families) have safe, inclusive and supportive spaces, positive mentoring relationships and equitable opportunities for growth. Our mission is to ensure that Equity is at the centre of our work and with the long-time support of ECF and this grant, we are educating ourselves every day on how best to do this work and provide this support in a way that is equitable and creates dignity for all.