The SEIU-West Multicultural Mentorship Committee (MMC) sponsored members to attend the Threads: Cultural Conversations 2023 Conference and these are their reports:
LETA (Multicultural Mentorship Committee)
I was impressed with how vast and extensive their lineup of speakers for this two-day event was. Very inspiring, encouraging, and empowering speakers!
Speakers shared their own experiences and had the skills to share their expertise on the topic they were asked to present, and they explained how they found their way up yet are still grounded and part of the community. They shared how and why they need to make a difference in society. They learned the ways of being inclusive and still managed to keep their own identity. The willingness to learn, to observe and to share the knowledge they had and then the adaptability to make the change and to be acceptable to all the things around them was fascinating. It’s very inspiring to hear all the speakers talk about what they had done through their work and listen to their personal experiences and educational opportunities that were available in helping to shape their lives as new Canadians. They climbed up the ladder by working hard, thriving to be a part of the community and becoming politically engaged.
We have a social justice and legal system that inspire all Canadians by showing inclusivity and open minds to learning the differences between people, culture and society. Knowing that you can exercise being an individual, as a group, an organization, a community and government is no different because if we see our differences within ourselves and are still able to continue on to find ways how to help others that will give us more opportunities to be as part of a society and being inclusive. This will make the world will be a better place for everyone.
Threads is a concept that we are not made up of one strand. We are many different strands, and we can unite to stand together as one and become stronger with the same outlook and goals for success.
I thank my union, and our MMC leaders for the opportunity to attend this kind of event. So glad that I had the time, and I made the time to attend. I would like us to continue to support Threads and hopefully be able to spread this kind of event to others.
DEBBIE (General Member)
I learned that there are a lot of different cultures that are experiencing the same issues as Indigenous people are facing. They referred to being “Canadian” a lot but when asked what they meant by that, no one answered my question. This was presented as a story time, and I would have liked to have more interaction.
YOLANDA (Multicultural Mentorship Committee)
Thanks to SEIU-West for letting me attend the THREADS two-day conference. I was so thrilled to listen to all the speakers from start to finish, learning about their cultures and everyone's similarities. We are all people, no matter what country we come from. Their experiences were so amazing! How everyone can strive to be successful, because no matter who we are, we can succeed if we work hard to aim for our dreams. The sharing of cultures of different races was incredible, the dances and music was beautiful. I would definitely recommend everyone consider subscribing to the Threads Library and watching the recordings. You'll gain lots of knowledge from listening and seeing for yourself. It was truly an amazing conference. Thanks Again!