JHC 2022 Annual Report

Executive Director’s Report

Entering 2022 was entering a year like no other. Coming full out of pandemic work and re-orienting ourselves to the increasing demands on the organization related to human rights issues and advocacy, capacity building for anti-oppression and rights based approaches to organizations, and pressures of growing networks of collaboration emerging in our work such as Righting Relations and Stride. This reorientation and regrouping took place in the midst of some of the most tense social, political and economic times in our country and world. Sometimes I look back and wonder how we managed to emerge from all this doing strong and solid work, while navigating difficult and tricky relations in a post-COVID world which is inherently steeped in collective trauma not fully realized.

Despite the larger macro level realities, JHC’s operational team this year set their sights on regrounding and solidifying our systems of working together and taking care of each other. The non-profit sector is filled with burnout right now, along with rising demands, and we knew we needed to strengthen our systems to ensure staff were better able to manage the workload while meeting the demands of family, work and community. The management team of JHC really deepened and focused on their collaboration and creating a strong framework of support for the other staff and each other. We made difficult decisions to create a healthier and safer working environment. The management team worked hard to strengthen staff on-boarding and development, built a full revision of a policy manual, and established guidelines for strengthened collaboration.

In addition to strengthening our management team, this year saw substantial improvements and growth in the branding and communications of JHC. Our following continues to grow and the team is working well together in building content and being braver in our public engagements. 2022 saw the most press releases this year than any other garnering important attention to the work of teams like Radical Inclusion, Social Stride and the Anti-Racism Muslim Collaborative.

2022 was also a grounding year in terms of re-evaluating our financial relationships and capacities after all the increased inflows and outflows from the COVID Response and Collaborative work. We shifted our auditor to undertake a full review of the organization and how we were doing and where we could strengthen our protocols and processes. This was a positive process showing us that we were performing well in our management of resources and adjusting to the shifts coming from COVID.

This year we also laid foundations to increase and strengthen our fundraising capacities, building a donor management policy for the first time and establishing plans and goals. Our Human Rights Awards was a beautiful opportunity to thank our many partners and donors and the event in October was one to remember for all of us as our first major event in years. We were honoured to host the awards with Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor, a former board member and now patron of the John Humphrey Centre. JHC saw an increase in our grant-writing capacity and we supported a number of grassroots organizations to access resources to support their important work as well.

JHC’s operational team spent a lot of time and effort strengthening our capacity and processes around evaluation and reporting. The team was, and continues to, work well together to ensure all our obligations and timelines are met. The team also worked to build our Theory of Change of which we are happy to share with you in this report which we hope reflects the breadth and impact of our work.

Capacity building internally was a significant focus in 2023. In addition to the above accomplishments, our volunteer management continues to strengthen. In 2022 we developed a volunteer management policy, undertook further training of staff and the expanded volunteer engagement into our various projects. The most outstanding volunteer growth was in relation to plans for the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) coming in 2023. A total of seven teams were built and functional within four months and working towards planning the premier and largest gathering in the country to commemorate and reflect on the UDHR at 75. We are excited to create a space of collaboration and learning that will amplify the Declaration and advance the realization of human rights in Canada.

I want to thank all the staff, volunteers, board members and supporters of JHC. We continue to make significant contributions to our local community and are driving forward and modelling change across the country. I am honoured to work with such an incredible circle of people and look forward to the continued journey.

Renee Vaugeois

Executive Director

John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights