About Us

With funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Urban Alliance on Race Relations will be working with Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators, Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto, and Tamil Canadian Centre for Civic Action to engage in two years of groundwork for systemic change in education policy, while engaging with organizations of racialized communities.

Our project first aims to bring together existing work, those already doing the organizing, and those eager to be involved in activism. We will then equip them further with advocacy tools & trainings, and spend the next two years working towards specific policy changes - that volunteers will determine - at the level of regional school boards & the provincial government.

As of now, we are currently in the data collection stage of our project. We have enlisted the help of placement students from the University of Toronto as well as Ryerson University to help us build up our knowledge of our selected communities and geographies.

Staff

Neethan Shan

Executive Director

Bio

Lilian Obeng

Project Coordinator

Bio

Neethan Shan

Executive Director

Neethan Shan is the Executive Director of Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR). He is a former Toronto City Councillor and Toronto District School Board Trustee for Scarborough—Rouge River. From 2006-2010, he also served as a York Region District School Board Trustee.

Neethan Shan began his career as a Youth Outreach Worker in Malvern. Neethan went on to become a manager for youth programs in Malvern, where he developed and implemented over twenty programs in many different schools. He has served as a Math and Science teacher, a college professor, and is the former Executive Director of CanTYD and of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians.

During his ten years as Executive Director of CASSA, Neethan advanced the health equity agenda for South Asian communities, undertook a campaign to make municipalities outside the GTA become more inclusive, spearheaded the campaign to establish anti-racism directorate at the provincial level, and brought over 100 organizations from across Ontario under a solidarity umbrella to advance social and economic justice for all South Asians and all other equity deserving communities.

Neethan’s extensive involvement in the social services sector also includes work with Parent Action on Drugs, Malvern Community Coalition, Community Use of Schools Council, and Scarborough Youth Task Force, just to name a few organizations.

Currently, Neethan is advocating for racial justice at all levels of government. He pushes for policy change at the systemic levels in education, employment, health and justice. He has led campaigns within diverse communities that fought back against severe cuts to education, healthcare and legal aid. He is currently leading an awareness and advocacy campaign to have all post COVID recovery and rebuilding initiatives to be centred on racial equity.

Neethan Shan has a distinguished human rights advocacy record, receiving many awards including the Race Relations Award from the Urban Alliance for Race Relations and the Vital People Award from the Toronto Community Foundation. As a Toronto City Councillor, Neethan was Toronto’s Youth Equity Champion and Newcomer Advocate.

Lilian Obeng

Project Coordinator

Lilian Obeng (she/her) is the Racial Equity in Education Project Coordinator. Lilian has an academic background in Political Science, but has been doing explicitly anti-racist work for the last five years. Lilian career began with campus organizing; specifically providing anti-oppressive trainings & challenging racism within the context of the university through formal advocacy. Much of my time at McMaster University was spent collaborating with staff & faculty to coordinate responses to various incidents of violence on campus. More recently, Lilian have entered the non-profit sector supporting the capacity building of youth-led grassroots organizations and doing frontline youth engagement while still maintaining critical, anti-racist & anti-oppressive principles. Lilian is personally driven by the need to challenge power & white supremacist ideals; and the desire to support transformative or restorative justice efforts.

This is certainly a full-circle moment for her; she been able to combine her lived experience (as a Black queer woman & immigrant) with her research interests and past career experience. The goal of this project is to lay the groundwork for systemic policy change to occur with Ontario school boards (Toronto, Peel, York, & Durham). We are currently in the research and recruitment phase of the project wherein we conduct community consultations, a literature review, and an environmental scan - the results of which will inform the specific advocacy work done by youth and parent/guardian volunteers

Outreach Staff

Nia Mascoll-Callendar

Nia Mascoll-Callender is the Black Community Outreach Coordinator with ONABSE. In this role, Nia works with ONABSE and UARR to coordinate and implement deliverables for the Equity in Education Project, including project management, capacity building and recruitment.

Passionate about community work and advocacy, Nia has worked in the nonprofit and advocacy sector for 3+ years. Serving Black youth and other diverse communities through programming and strategic outreach. Nia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Strategic Communications and Public Relations.

Yuxuan Li

Yuxuan Li is a community organizer at Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter. Yuxuan is currently working on worker’s rights project which aims to improve the lives and working conditions of Chinese immigrants in low-wage and unstable employment. Yuxuan is also working on Racial Equity in Education with UARR. Yuxuan has a master degree in Adult Education and Community Development. She is also a part time ESL and IELTS trainer for International students and new immigrants to Canada.

Eman Zahid

Eman is a student at the University of Toronto completing an Honors Bachelor of Arts in English and Women and Gender Studies. She hopes to pursue further education on social work and mental health in the Muslim community. She is passionate about implementing her knowledge of social justice and advocacy to create effective change for marginalized communities in Canada. As the Muslim Community Outreach Coordinator, Eman is responsible for organizing education system related sessions to increase public awareness about racial inequality in the Muslim community. Eman is an avid reader and meme connoisseur. Her guilty pleasures include American politics and all things chocolate.

Kayathiri Veerasingam

My name is Kayathiri Veerasingam. I currently work for Tamil Civic Action as their Youth Community Outreach Coordinator. I am also a 4th year Business student studying at the University of Toronto, specializing in Management and Marketing. I enjoy going on hikes and driving along scenic routes.

About Us

Staff

Neethan Shan

Executive Director

Lilian Obeng

Project Coordinator

Outreach Staff

Nia Mascoll-Callendar

Yuxuan Li

Eman Zahid

Kayathiri Veerasingam

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Outreach Staff

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