Community and Race Relations Committee
works at raising awareness
Wednesday November 27, 2002 Roderick Benns
Stephen Lewis spoke at the recent Peaceful Communities forum and delivered his top points for creating a peaceful community. Roderick Benns and Michelle Strutzenberger investigate those topics further through a multi-faceted series on each point. Recently, Roderick Benns sat down with Patricia Marett and Fezi Mauncho of Community Race and Relations Committee in Peterborough.

Ending or minimizing racism in a community inevitably starts at the community level. Federal programs may exist as an umbrella, but it is community programs that make things happen. It is community attention to the goal of racial harmony that contributes to a peaceful community, according to two community activists.

Patricia Marett and Fezi Mauncho

But making multiculturalism happen, as opposed to it just existing on paper, needs to be the goal says Fezi Mauncho, office coordinator for Community and Race Relations Committee (CRRC) in Peterborough.

"Government needs to stress the acceptance and the accomplishments of multiculturalism," she says.

"How does it create a better society? Multiculturalism can just be a front that says 'everything is perfect' even when it may not be all the time," she explains.

While everything may not be "perfect," CRRC believes it has the tools to chip away at those concepts antithetical to racial harmony and peaceful communities - intolerance, prejudice and ignorance. And in the end, it believes communities like Peterborough will succeed when people come together out of an ongoing mutual respect for differences.

That's where the role of CRRC comes in, a City-of-Peterborough-funded group that exists to raise the profile of community awareness of racial issues and to promote and understand the benefits of racial diversity.

Patricia Marett, chair of the board of CRRC, says the group has specific tasks in the year ahead.

"We have some exciting projects on the go."
Part of their program money will include presentations for Grade 6 students in community schools, an age group the committee feels is an excellent time to catch students.

"The belief is that young children are very impressionable, so we want to prepare these presentations. We want to be active in the community through various approaches," says Marett.

This includes linking up with a local sports league for youth (the team or sport as yet undetermined) to heighten awareness of racial issues, according to the chair.

Marett also points out that there are references within the Ministry of Education guidelines for secondary schools that require exposing students to multicultural and racial issues.

"We know there needs to be more done here but teachers need to have more resources, too. We think we can help provide those resources and aid the curriculum in the process," notes Marett.

This will include helping to prepare workshops for educators themselves, she adds.

Just recently completed by Mauncho, a cultural-sensitivity training workshop with Children's Aid employees focused on cross-cultural child-rearing practices. For instance, Mauncho says there is "not so much of an emphasis on cultivating the independence of the child in Africa, as there is here."

"All the mother concentrates on is nursing and her connection to her child. There is the belief in Africa that independence will come naturally, while family ties get strengthened. There is much greater stress here on the independence of the child early on," says Mauncho.

Another function of CRRC will be to develop an annotated bibliography of resources for the community. And, the committee is hoping to increase its board membership this year, so inquiries into membership are always welcome.
"In particular, we would like to have a fundraising committee which would develop fundraising events and initiatives," explains Marett.

A poster contest for Grade 7 and up students is also in the works; the contest asks that students show their appreciation for racial diversity when considering their approach to the poster. Then, the poster will be used by the committee at various events in the coming year.

CRRC also has an ongoing scholarship award (now eight years running), called the Larry Fine award. It is given to a student (of either high school, college or university) who displays an appreciation for racial diversity and who promotes it in their setting.

Since 1982 the committee has existed, funded only by the City of Peterborough until a successful Trillium application was achieved for the coming year.

"We appreciate the funding we receive from the City. To allow groups like ours to flourish is very important, because if you have a community developing its own initiatives, then of course it is more effective at the community level," says Marret.

If you are interested in volunteering or being on the board of directors for Community and Race Relations Committee, call (705) 742-9658.

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