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Holland Bloorview named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for 2022

Holland Bloorview recognized for strategic focus on inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility

For the first time, Holland Bloorview has been named one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers. This award recognizes employers across Canada that have exceptional workplace diversity and inclusiveness programs.  Finalists are leaders in their industry and geographic region of Canada. The full list of winners was released yesterday.

“Advancing inclusion, diversity equity and accessibility (IDEA) is a core strategic priority,” says Julia Hanigsberg, president and CEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. “Being a Canada’s Best Diversity Employer is recognition of the substantial progress we’ve made so that all children, youth, families, staff, learners, researchers, volunteers and visitors experience our organization as a place where they can be their authentic selves and feel safe and welcome. And while I am grateful to and proud of our team for its terrific work, we know we must go further and faster.”

Among the initiatives recognized this year:
 

  • The IDEA Task Force and dedicated action plan to address individual, systemic and institutional racism.
  • Ward Summer Research Program in the Bloorview Research Institute offered to undergraduate students with a stream for students with disabilities and another for Indigenous students.
  • Project SEARCH, a school-to-work employment training and transition program for high school students with intellectual or developmental disabilities, of which the hospital is a regional leader and an employer host site.

”The journey forward to where we are today has been both humbling and invigorating,” says Meenu Sikand, inaugural executive lead of equity, diversity and inclusion and co-chair of the IDEA Task Force at Holland Bloorview. “We’ve listened and learned along the way and we know that there is much more to do”. 

This award follows Holland Bloorview’s recognition as one of Greater Toronto’s Top Employers, announced December 3, 2021 for the twelfth consecutive year.

If you’re interested in joining the Holland Bloorview team, visit www.hollandbloorview.ca/careers or follow us on LinkedIn.

Learn about Canada’s Best Diversity Employers inThe Globe and Mail, and read up on why Holland Bloorview was selected.