DIVERSITÉ D’ABORD: Racism in the nonprofit sector in Quebec
A research project by the Centre for Community Organizations (COCo)
Published on July 30th, 2024
The Diversité d’Abord research project is being conducted by the Centre des organismes communautaires (COCo) from 2016 to 2024. The data presented in this research was collected from 252 people via two online surveys targeting community sector staff of all racial backgrounds in Quebec, and 5 focus groups with racialized community sector staff. The partial results of the research are set out in three introductions and two chapters. We discuss the terminology to be used when talking about racism in the community sector in Quebec, explain the diagram “The “Problem” Woman of Colour In The Workplace”, and finally detail our analysis of the specific experiences of racialized women in the Quebec community sector.
Download the individual chapters here
Introduction 1. Presentation of the Research Diversité d’Abord
Introduction 2. Word Use and Methodology
Introduction 3. Demographics
Chapter 2. Racialized Women in Quebec Nonprofits
Using This Research
Diversité d’Abord is covered by a Creative Commons license (attribution, non-commercial).
We appreciate it when others use our work, and we’d love to hear about it! Write to info@coco-net.org, add us and identify us in your sharing credits by citing the Centre for Community Organizations (COCo) and the research project https://coco-net.org/diversite-dabord. To cite our report in research or any other document, please follow this template:
The Centre for Community Organizations (COCo). July 2024. Diversité D’Abord Report. From the Diversité D’Abord project research from 2016 to 2024. Montreal, Canada.
Diversité d’Abord
A LOOK BACK AT THE VARIOUS STAGES LEADING UP TO THE COMPLETION OF THE REPORT
Since 2017 COCo has been undertaking Diversité d’Abord, an in-depth research project looking into the impacts of race and colonialism on the Quebec non-profit sector. For years, people have shared stories and personal experiences with COCo that point to a wider systemic problem, and it felt like it was time to dig deeper: to collect numbers, to collect stories, and to begin speaking about this together.
WHITESPACE
Launch of Diversité D’Abord
We have launched Diversité d’Abord with two confidential surveys:
The “Community worker experiences” survey is for staff, board, volunteers and collective members at Quebec community groups. We want to know about how race has impacted your experiences.
The “organizational profile” survey will gather an overview of what the sector looks like currently, and some basic information about how race plays into hiring and recruitment. Anyone in your organization can fill out this survey, but it is best if it is someone who has basic knowledge of internal policies and budget.
In addition to these online surveys, we held focus groups for racialized members of the community sector. The information gathered in the surveys and focus groups will be used in a public forum, report, and a series of tools on how to address racism more effectively in your organizations.
Our research has been presented to over 250 influential people in the nonprofit and social economy sectors so far.
WHITESPACE
Women Of Colour In Organizations
One of the most important published pieces of our research so far has been the infographic about the “Problem” Woman of Colour in Organizations.
Here’s a look at the trajectory charted in The “Problem” Woman of Colour In The Workplace.
This story begins when a racialized woman is hired into an organization where the leadership and/or staff are predominantly white. More information on the tool is available here.
This tool was adapted with permission from Safehouse Progressive Alliance for NonViolence.
At COCo we wanted to imagine another ending to this story, one where racialized women would have a different experience of working in community organizations. You can watch Iman’s story here, and dream with us of a world where Black, Indigenous and other racialized women can be seen and heard in their fullness.
WHITESPACE
WHITESPACE
Forum On Racism In The Non-Profit Sector
In May of 2017, we held a day long forum on racism in the nonprofit sector in Quebec. We presented our findings and trained workers on best practices on how to navigate dynamics of racism in the Quebec community sector. We used our findings to develop 3 workshops, each of which was offered in French and English.
WHITESPACE
Workshop 1 : Having Hard Conversations: The Courage to Face Ourselves
This workshop taught participants how to tackle the personal and emotional responses we have to conversations about racism—responses that stop us from hearing the experiences and realities of people of colour working in the sector and stop us from addressing the impacts of racism on our workplaces.
Workshop 2 : Sharing Stories: Racial (In)Justice
Often when incidents of racial injustice are expressed, racialized people are expected to justify their experiences with facts and statistics. As important as this data can be, we can lose the nuance and power of individual experiences. This workshop taught participants how to use ‘narrative weaving’ to access new ways of understanding ourselves,the impact of our words and actions, and how racism moves through our bodies, our work, and our movements.
Workshop 3 : From Hiring to Firing: Women of Colour In Organizations
Our research reveals a pattern where women of colour are disproportionately subjected to discrimination, violence, and structural barriers at every step of their experience in nonprofit and community organizations. This workshop used the stories that were shared with us in our focus groups and surveys to candidly detail the oppressive dynamics that often force women of colour out of the community sector.
Black Women Taking the Lead
We closed the day with an impactful panel co-organized by Shanice Yarde from the Social Equity and Diversity Office at McGill, which featured generations of Black women activists and nonprofit leaders in conversation with each other.
Overall, 120 community sector workers were trained in identifying and managing racial discrimination in their workplaces.
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The Research Results
The full results of our research are not yet available. However, as we analyzed the data, we were struck by how certain themes and stories consistently repeated themselves.
Though the full results of this research will be published shortly, there were a few themes we wanted to highlight here:
- We saw a significant difference in how white and racialized sector workers identified and/or witnessed incidents of racism. For example, 26% of racialized workers reported witnessing a racialized worker leaving a position in the last year due to racial harassment or an unwelcoming environment for racialized workers, whereas only 7% of white respondents witnessed this occurring. Our focus group respondents nuanced these statistics: after repeated experiences of their white colleagues denying their stories about racism racialized workers would often leave their jobs silently, only disclosing to their closest peers their true motivations.
- Another theme that stood out to us from the surveys and focus groups was how racialized women, and especially Black women, were subjected to higher levels of surveillance by their co-workers and superiors, both with respect to their work and their interpersonal interactions. We started calling this dynamic ‘weaponized bureaucracy’: that is, disciplinary policies (for example, dress codes or lateness policies) would be disproportionately applied to racialized workers (especially women), where similar infractions would be ignored with their white peers.
Many thanks to the authors and all those who made this research project possible.
Lead researcher: Emily Yee Clare.
The report was co-authored by Emily Yee Clare and Kira Page.
Lead data scientist: Alexandra Heggie.
Graphic designer: Grace An.
Editing and sensitivity reading: Zina Mustafa.
Photographer: Stacy Lee.
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