These experiences also create opportunities for new and old Canadians to create a dialogue, to promote communication and knowledge sharing, to build awareness, and participate in outdoor recreation and nature appreciation. We believe this will ultimately lead to an increase in all people’s involvement and inclusion in Canadian society.

Our purpose is to engage individuals from diverse communities who are economically and socially disenfranchised – particularly youth, children, seniors, and women.  Our overall objective is to support their engagement process and to become positive leaders in their communities who implement their own solutions.  To this end, we involve individuals from diverse ethno-specific communities in our work.

FutureWatch upholds the underlying principle that cross-cultural understanding and environmentally-sustainable practices facilitate the growth and development of healthy communities.

Further, the movement must challenge people to make changes in their lifestyles, and to develop a greater appreciation for the natural environment around them. It has been recognized that the integration of minorities into mainstream eco-outdoor activities by government agencies, environmental organizations and institutions has been poorly developed, despite the fact that ethno-cultural groups make up a large and growing portion of Toronto’s population (51.5%). Immigrants from Spanish Speaking countries are estimated at 200-250,000 while 70-100,000 are with Somali backgrounds. Besides, 80-100,000 new Canadians are settling within the Greater Toronto Area every year, 70% of whom arrive from Africa, Asia, Central and South America; and the Caribbean.

“Most ENGOs today have very little ethno-cultural and aboriginal diversity in their staff and board of directors, and have difficulty delivering programs that are inclusive and representative of the communities in which they work.”¹

Canada is constantly welcoming new immigrants and slowly absorbing them into the social fabric of the country. Its vast expanses of land and growing cities and good standard of living make Canada an attractive place to come to.  Newcomers arrive in Canada with motivation to work hard and earn a decent living and advance their family’s social standing. Compounding the above situation is the fact that the majority of newcomers and members of ethno-cultural communities are settling into neighbourhoods facing the greatest levels of poverty, where they tend to live under poverty levels for long periods of time during the first years of settling into Canada (United Way, Poverty by Postal Code, 2003). As a consequence, these families are deprived of engaging in low impact outdoor recreational activities.

¹ Environment and Diversity Project Primer, Sustainability Network, Sonia Dong, 2009, web, http://sustainabilitynetwork.ca/edp/edp.htm

They envisioned the possibility of bringing community leaders together in partnerships to find solutions to complex social, environmental and economic problems. Today, these complex problems affect all communities at a very local level. Yet the decision-makers who create or perpetuate them often do not consider the impact of their policies and practices on the local community. The challenge is to bring together communities for the purposes of understanding these complex issues through learning and participation.

Philip Lucima was born in Uganda. He lived and studied in Toronto for several years. Unfortunately, Philip did not live to see his dream come alive. Today, FutureWatch carries on the vision in his memory.