Why Kensington speaks up

We won’t soon forget the images of seas of people taking to the streets around the globe to protest anti-Black racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.  

Like many organizations, Kensington Health took that moment to pause and reflect on how we – a health and community service provider – can and should affirm that Black lives matter and, more importantly, follow that with action. There needed to be substance behind the statement.

With that, in the fall of 2020, came the formalization of a commitment to diversity that has been at the core of our organization since 1889. You may know that, more than a century ago, the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine opened the first surgical hospital for women in Toronto, on the site of Kensington’s campus. For more than 62 years, the sisters provided medical care for poor and needy women regardless of race and religion.

We are building on this long legacy.  

In the months that have followed, we’ve begun building an equity program with three areas of focus: the people who work with us, the care we provide and how we can join other organizations in making our communities more inclusive.

We’ve created monthly learning opportunities for staff, conducted health equity training with our Board of Directors and have brought on Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care clinician and health equity leader, to assess the care we provide from an anti-oppression lens. At the same time, we are working with hospital and community service partners to reimagine how health care is provided to make it more inclusive and barrier free for our most vulnerable.

While it is absolutely the right thing to do, you may ask yourself why this is necessary. After all, if you’ve walked our halls before COVID-19 hit, you’d see people of all ages, races and backgrounds working together in harmony. Our inclusive culture is something we are fiercely proud of.

Truth is, unless you are a member of a minority group, you may not necessarily feel the weight of the inequities that remain all around us. More than 50% of Kensington Health’s employees identify as a visible minority. We also have colleagues who are queer, non-binary or have a disability.  

When COVID-19 fueled a spike in anti-Asian racism, we had colleagues who were afraid to walk around the campus alone during their breaks. The Islamophobic murder of a family in London, Ontario had some Muslim employees who wear the hijab confess that they, too, are feeling unsafe.  

These are all examples from just the last year, which are layered over an undercurrent of ever-present systemic racism and societal inequities. Imagine the weight of a lifetime of these experiences – that is what more than half of us bring to Kensington every day.

Kensington Health speaks up when we learn of an injustice in our communities because it directly affects our people and their families. We believe that when the heart of Kensington – our incredible staff – feels safe, heard and included, they, in turn, provide better care.