The Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre (HARRC) is committed to advancing education about race, racism, discrimination, racial equality, and anti-racist theory and practice in Hamilton. We do so by holding workshops, programs, and events, and offering support services to the community. We directly support affected members of our community by receiving complaints about racism and referring complainants to appropriate community resources.
We gather data and monitor incidents of racism and hate crimes in Hamilton and encourage compliance with existing anti-discriminatory legislation. Our mandate also involves liaising with community agencies, organizations, and community leaders, and proposing, drafting, and advocating for legislative changes to address systemic racism. We also consider and confront related topics such as anti-discrimination, anti-oppression, human rights related issues, ableism, intersectionality, trauma, and decolonization.
The Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Centre (HARRC) is an organization in the early stages of its development - please stay connected so that we can continue to inform you about our plans and activities.
THE NEED FOR HARRC:
In 2019, HARRC conducted a survey of 575 Hamiltonians, who shared:
HARRC should provide:
79%
Referral
Services
77%
Onsite Counselling
75%
Data
Collection
71%
Legal
Services
Experiences of Racism in Hamilton:
82%
of participants state that racism is an issue in the City of Hamilton
79%
of participants personally experienced an/or witnessed racism or racism-related issues in the past year
The experiences with racism, whether personally experienced or witnessed, were most often identified to have occurred more than once in the past year.
Participants who witnessed racism or racism-related issues were more likely to report the issue to HARRC compared to participants who personally experienced racism or racism-related issues.
The most common location where participants personally experienced or witnessed racism was in
public spaces.
Read the full survey results here.
OUR ORIGINS
HARRC was launched in April 2018 as a collaborative pilot project involving the City of Hamilton, McMaster University and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. HARRC arose from community need for a resource centre that addresses issues facing Hamilton residents experiencing racism and discrimination. The launch was informed by the City’s Committee Against Racism (CAR) and other community advocates.
HARRC was paused in February 2019 to allow for more community engagement and stakeholders’ input to better define the centre’s mandate, activities and success factors. Public engagement activities were conducted to learn lived-experiences of racism across the city. In addition, EMpower Strategy Group was retained to lead the establishment of an independent HARRC Board of Directors, supported and advised by a Community Advisory Panel. In 2021, HARRC was established as an independent non-profit corporation, working collaboratively with community partners.
LEADERSHIP
LYNDON GEORGE
Exeuctive Director
HARRC is pleased to announce the appointment of Lyndon George as executive director. An award-winning community builder, health equity advocate, anti-racism leader and government relations expert, Lyndon reports to HARRC’s board of directors and is responsible for leading HARRC’s reopening and fulfilling its strategic plan.
Lyndon brings more than 15 years of experience in government relations at both the provincial and federal levels to the role. He is also an active member of the Hamilton Health Sciences President’s Advisory Task Force on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HARRC’s inaugural board of directors was recommended to Council by a Community Advisory Panel and approved by Hamilton’s City Council. The new board assumed their leadership after the original HARRC project was paused in 2019 to allow for broader community engagement with the aim to re-establish HARRC with an independent board of directors.
Directors:
-
Cassandra Belasco - Board Chair
-
Desire Yamutuale - Treasurer
-
Ashleigh Montague -Secretary
-
Alice Mendelsohn
-
Amber Dean
-
Jordan Carrier
-
Kassia Johnson
-
Rodrigo Narro Perez
-
Roshney Kurian
-
Yvan Brochu