June 25th, 2025
Embedding Equity Within EAFWR: Reflections from Year One
By: Mimi Mahmud, Equity Strategist
As I consider my first year as Equity Strategist at Extend-A-Family Waterloo Region (EAFWR), I’m reflecting on what it means to embed equity into a sector that has historically excluded many of the people and communities it now seeks to serve. The developmental services (DS) sector — like many care-based systems in Canada — has not been designed with systemically marginalized groups in mind. Shifting that reality takes more than intention. It takes structure, resourcing, and accountability.
I joined EAFWR in June 2024, just three and a half years after moving to Canada as a first-generation immigrant. My professional background includes roles in public sector equity strategy, grassroots funding reform, and systems-change work rooted in anti-racism and decolonization.
My work is grounded in anti-oppression practice, community empowerment, and a deep belief that equity is not a side project — it is the work.
My role at EAFWR was created in response to a clear and growing truth: the communities of Waterloo Region are more racially, culturally, spiritually, and linguistically diverse than ever, and our organization needs to reflect that reality, internally and externally. The creation of this role is a statement of commitment, and one deeply aligned with our core values of Belonging, Community, Equity, and Relationships.
To bring those values to life in tangible ways, over the past year, we’ve set in motion a range of initiatives that move equity from concept to action:
- Launched our Days of Significance calendar to mark culturally and spiritually important days, embedding them into wellness activities and internal planning
- Reimagined our engagement with Indigenous communities, grounded in relationship and cultural accountability
- Reshaped our approach to Truth and Reconciliation, including smudging at key events and transforming how we do Territorial Acknowledgements
- Embedded an equity lens into Strategic Plan implementation – interrogating whose voices are centred, what gets measured, and how success is defined
- Facilitated visioning sessions with program teams to support them in weaving EDIB into planning, programming, and decision-making
- Continued to participate, contribute, lead and learn as one of the founding member agencies of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Community of Practice within Ontario’s developmental services sector
Beyond internal work, we’ve also prioritized building connections with the broader community. I’ve attended and spoken at cross-sector events where I’m often the only person representing the DS sector. That absence is telling. It reminds me that we have work to do in showing up — not just where we’re expected, but where equity, justice, and systems-change conversations are already happening. EAFWR is now showing up in those spaces, and that visibility matters.
This first year has been about listening, building trust, and naming truths. We are still early in this work. But I believe we’re starting to move differently—more critically, more consciously, and more in alignment with the communities we strive to serve.