Executive Director's Report 2007

Valerie Price

I am pleased to report on another eventful year at MARL. Michael's report has identified many of the highlights and you will find further detail on our programs and projects in the rest of the Annual Report which I hope you will take a moment to read.

In this report I will focus mainly on our efforts that are centred on youth. Along with our partners, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, we awarded once again the Dr. Sybil Shack Memorial Youth Award as part of the celebration of International Human Rights Day. This year's recipient, Tasha Spillet, has an outstanding record of involvement with human rights activities which includes being a founding member of the United Against Racism Aboriginal Youth Circle.

Our high school workshop series called "Youth Against Hate" continued this year with great success. We owe much to Dorota Praski, the volunteer facilitator for the workshops, for the program's success. Many of you will remember Dorota as the Program Coordinator for the Human Rights and Holocaust Studies Program. After the wrap-up of that program, she has brought the same skill and dedication to our workshop series with great effect.

Our new program is the Human Rights Education Program through which we will help high school teachers to strengthen human rights education and help students to engage in human rights activities. We are delighted to be initiating this new program at a time when the convergence of a number of activities points to Winnipeg emerging as a centre for human rights. With the advent of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the varied activities of the Global College at the University of Winnipeg human rights are increasingly generating more attention in our community. In this context, our new program can play a meaningful role in human rights education.

Thank you to the board members and volunteers for helping to move MARL's work forward and thank you to all the funders who make our work possible.