Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

During the 2020-2021 season, the CMHA Executive recognized the need to prioritize initiatives around education and programming for our increasingly diverse membership.

This began partly due to continuing reports of racism incidents occurring within our Association. Many of these incidents were difficult to resolve due to the 'they said vs they said' nature. This caused a desire on the part of the Executive to tackle this problem through education. In addition, the significant social movements within National Hockey promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a priority for our sport, and the importance of education and allyship to those programs' success, also influenced this effort.

As a result, our Association formed a DEI Committee, which is now in it's 5th year. This Committee is intended to work together with the Executive and membership to create programs, education and conversations to promote a culture of inclusion and belonging for players, families, team officials, volunteers, and all those who are part of our Colts Family.

It takes years to change organizational culture. We recognize that the work we are doing today is only a step in the right direction.

Every initiative below is designed to focus on our DEI Committee’s primary focuses:

To address gender-based discrimination in minor hockey by cultivating a safe, inclusive space for players and members of all genders. Typically known as sexism.
To address race/ethnicity-based discrimination in minor hockey by cultivating a safe, inclusive space for players and members of all racial/ethnic backgrounds. Typically known as racism.

DEI Committee:

DEI Committee Chair: VACANT

DEI Committee Members: Craig Sherbaty, Dee Purewal, Marty Jones, additional TBA

Any member of Our Association, including players, is encouraged to join the committee.

Please email [email protected] to sign up! All are welcome.

Initiatives and Programs (so far..)

Indigenous First Shift

In July of 2021, BC Hockey hosted an Indigenous Cultural Workshop, which CMHA was fortunate to have a representative attend. It was an excellent learning experience, and we were excited to then put our learning into action!

BC Hockey then invited us to partner with them to create an Indigenous 'Try Hockey' program. We reached out to our usual First Shift partners (Bauer, Hockey Canada, and the Vancouver Canucks), and they were as excited about this as we were. This allowed us to host a program FREE for Indigenous youth to participate in, including head-to-toe equipment, supplied by Bauer.

We were able to offer the Indigenous First Shift program for now 4 successive seasons. We are also working on some other ideas. Stay tuned for updates!

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made 94 Calls to Action for Canadians. Our Association recognizes our role in meeting calls 87-91 which focus on sports. By supporting the Indigenous First Shift, we seek to hold space for players of Indigenous ancestry to participate, excel and thrive in minor hockey.

For more information: Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action

For more information: Indigenous First Shift

Our program was featured by BC Hockey in this profile: Cloverdale First Shift Programs

And by BCIT: BCIT Investigates Improving The Indigenous Hockey Experience

Member Survey

At the start of the 2021-2022 season, Our Association added specific DEI-focused questions to the annual membership survey. We asked members to share their experiences of inclusion and belonging based on various forms of diversity including gender, language, neurodiversity, race, and ethnicity.

Survey responses indicated the following areas where CMHA is thriving when it comes to DEI:

- CMHA uses social media and other tools to support DEI.
- CMHA treats everyone equally.
- CMHA has cultivated a space where diversity is evident in teams

Survey responses indicated the following areas where CMHA has work to do when it comes to DEI:

- CMHA needs to provide education, support, and tools for coaches to understand DEI and cultivate inclusion.
- CMHA needs to address barriers to inclusion for those who identify as minorities.
- CMHA needs to address barriers to equity and inclusion for players of all skill levels.
- CMHA needs to increase diversity in coaches.
- CMHA needs to ensure that there are clear ways to report experiences of discrimination.

The DEI Committee will be working with the Executive to build programs to address the opportunities above.

Mental Health in Minor Hockey

In the past several seasons, CMHA has supported the Buddy Check for Jesse program, focused on bringing awareness to mental health and wellness in hockey.

Coaches are asked to chat with their teams about the importance of checking in on the mental health and wellness of each other. This important initiative is focused normalize mental health challenges to support young players to speak up about their personal challenges and support each other.

For more information: Support Mental Health - Buddy Check for Jesse

What’s up next for DEI Initiatives and Programs?

As we look towards the upcoming season, we’re excited to continue working on programs to support key initiatives.

DEI Education for Coaching Staff

Craig Sherbaty, Director of Hockey for Our Association will be providing DEI Training for all Coaching staff.

This training covers the basics of DEI and focuses on minor hockey-specific scenarios to support coaches in building inclusive team culture and give coaches the tools to support players with diverse needs.

Harnessing the Power of Social Media

One thing we know we’re good at is sharing, celebrating and acknowledging DEI through our powerful social media tools. We will continue to focus on celebrating diverse holidays and celebrations that are important to Our Associations membership.

This year, we’d also like to use social media to begin sharing the stories of some of our incredibly diverse coaching staff and association volunteers. We will continue to be working on an inclusive and meaningful way to share the immense diversity of our membership primarily focused on gender and race/ethnicity.

Try out our inclusive hashtag when sharing hockey images: #allcoltsbelong

Recognizing Players for Being Inclusive!

Is there anything that beats watching kids support each other?

We do still have stickers that players can wear on their helmets:

Wearing the stickers is not mandatory, but is highly encouraged. We hope that this education and awareness campaign will foster an environment where incidents of maltreatment will be reduced (ideally eliminated).

Throughout the season we ask our Coaches and other team officials to watch for opportunities for their players to 'get caught doing good', and to then celebrate those players when they act as allies to promote inclusion within their teams. We plan to highlight those examples on our social media.