Advancing Equity and Justice Days
November 29, 2025
I’ve done a lot of learning over my past 2 ½ years as Executive Director of the Compost Education Centre. I’ve had the awesome opportunity to learn from my colleagues, community, and more broadly, the global network of people who work to advance equity and justice. I’ve learned how to do the minutiae of the day-to-day better, and I continue to learn hard-earned lessons about the responsibility of a community non-profit within a broader movement of liberation.
Over two years ago, my thoughtful and politically informed colleagues were struck – and horrified – by the genocide unfolding in Palestine. At the time, I was urged by my coworkers to do and say something. My first response was the sense that it was not appropriate for an organization with a mission of composting education to engage in broader political action and dialogue. I have since learned that that moment was an opportunity that I wasted – I neither supported my staff in a severe moment of grief and horror nor did I recognize the unique ability of the Compost Education Centre as a non-profit to connect a local community to broader political dialogue, education, and action.
Because while our day-to-day work is hyper-localized and rooted in sharing accessible skills for waste diversion, composting, conservation, and organic gardening, it is connected to broader movements for liberation from systemic oppression. A just and sustainable food system is inherently linked to broader issues of peace and social justice.
As part of my learnings and to recognize the power the Compost Education Centre has to enable conscious action and support employee wellness, we have now integrated the following into our Employee Policy Manual:
- Staff are empowered to take bereavement leave to process the grief of the present moment and the weight of its history.
- The organization collates and shares existing resources such as mutual aid, counselling, workshops, and fundraisers among team members.
- The organization pauses our operations at strategic moments. The decision to pause our operations at strategic moments will be taken by staff via a consensus-based decision-making model after a landscape survey of other organizational actions.
- Each full-time staff member can access three paid “Advancing Equity and Justice” days to enable the participation in activities and organizing around advancing equity and justice outside of the work we do together. These days can be used for participation in activities (e.g. volunteering, advocacy, and education) that promote equity, inclusion, and justice. The activities must align with the organization’s anti-oppression policy.
These initiatives were inspired by recommendations made by Evenings & Weekends Consulting.
As an individual, I continue to reflect critically on my own actions and the systemic dynamics that foster oppression. As an organization, we commit to a continuous cycle of identifying, confronting, and dismantling discrimination and oppression within our culture, operational frameworks, and structures. And as a community, we look to connect with broader calls to action, empower and amplify marginalized voices, and foster an environment of feedback and improvement.
Posted in Anti-oppression, Blog