The board of Harmony Movement and Harmony Education Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Janelle Yanishewski as executive director, effective immediately.
Janelle has been a member of the leadership team at Harmony since 2015, as Manager of Operations as well as project manager on the cross-country “Voices of Canadian Youth” project partially funded by Canadian Heritage.
“This represents a generational change for our organization,” said board chair Bernice Carnegie. “I am excited to work with Janelle to ensure there will be continuity and that new ideas she brings forward will be fully implemented.”
Harmony Movement provides interactive diversity and equity education programs that empower and inspire youth, educators and those in the social service sector to develop an equity lens, empathy, respect, and leadership skills for creating for social change.
“I want to grow our work building understanding across differences,” said Janelle, “because when some are excluded we are all missing out. We as individuals need to keep learning, growing and leading, but we also need to challenge the established systems causing harm.”
Harmony Movement was founded in 1994, as a not-for-profit organization to combat inter-racial intolerance and to confront the “us versus them” attitude which was prevalent in Canadian society at that time. It was downsized due to provincial funding cuts in 2018.
“We are back and fully-open to continue serving our communities,” said Cheuk Kwan, former executive director. “The world needs, now more than ever, to remain vigilant against racism and discrimination, and Harmony Movement is continuing to play the role as one of the leading providers of inclusive education in Ontario.”
At the Harmony Movement’s annual general meeting held on October 15, 2021, Bernice Carnegie was re-elected chair, with Cheuk Kwan as vice chair, Helen Anderson as secretary, and Ranvir Jangi as treasurer.
