Central Alberta Refugee Effort and other community organizations will be hosting the 7th Annual CommUnity the Power of One Event next month.
The free in-person event funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will be held March 19 at Red Deer Polytechnic’s Cenovus Centre from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will commemorate March 21st the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
According to a news release, the goals involve envisioning a peaceful community where harmony is a result of diversity. It is also about equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and resources to continue the diversity conversation in their communities.
Keynote speakers include Zarqa Nawaz, writer of Little Mosque on the Prairie, and Renée Vaugeois, executive director for the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights, a non-profit charitable organization working to advance dignity, freedom, justice, and security through collaborative relationships and transformative education on peace and human rights.
Nawaz is the author of the memoir Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, which was shortlisted for the Leacock Medal for Humour, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and two Saskatchewan Book Awards. She also created the hit CBC comedy series Little Mosque on the Prairie, the world’s first sitcom about a Muslim community living in the West, and is the creator and star of the forthcoming CBC Gem series Zarqa.
Her new novel, Jameela Green Ruins Everything, publishes this spring. Nawaz lives in Regina, Sask., with her loving but long-suffering family.
Vaugeois has been behind numerous efforts such as, Stride Advocacy, Radical Inclusion, Southern Alberta Sexual Exploitation Collective, the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights and Righting Relations.
Attendees will have 10 workshops to choose from throughout the day and a panel to discuss challenges, resources, and tools to prepare us for future action planning as we continue the conversations and try to eliminate racism in our communities.
To register go to www.eventbrite.ca.