Equity and anti-oppression in child welfare

In this guide, and in the OACAS course, the term "equity" is used instead of "equality" when discussing the need to transform practices and procedures to address the disproportionality and disparity in Ontario child welfare and provide equitable outcomes for all children, youth and families.

That's because "equality" refers to equal treatment of people regardless of things like circumstances, abilities, and means. On the other hand, "equity" refers to fair treatment that takes into account the structural barriers and disadvantages that impact how people participate, access services and opportunities, and experience the world. Sometimes equity means treating people differently in order to achieve equitable outcomes for everyone, as illustrated below:

Image by the Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire.

The picture on the left depicts equality. In this picture, each boy gets the same thing: one box. But this approach often falls short of meeting people’s actual needs, because this approach only works if everyone has the same needs or is starting from the same place, which is not often the case. As you can see in this picture, the boys need different supports to see over the fence.

The picture on the right depicts equity. Equity takes into account individual and historical differences and gives people access to what they need to achieve the same outcomes.

Equity acknowledges that we do not all start at the same place socially because of the legacy of historical injustices in society, including colonization, slavery, and patriarchy. With this in mind, equity ensures that access and opportunities are provided to marginalized identities that experience ongoing systemic and structural barriers.

"Diversity" and "inclusion" are other terms that are sometimes conflated with equity. However these terms typically speak to the need for differences – including identities and characteristics such as age, race, sexual orientation, learning style, and geographic location – to be embraced and celebrated. While this is important, diversity and inclusion approaches ask fundamentally different questions and are concerned with fundamentally different issues than efforts seeking equity, which are focused above all on securing equitable outcomes.

We can see the differences between diversity, inclusion, and equity at play in different environments including workplace settings. For example, an organization may have a workforce that is racially diverse, yet predominantly white at the management level. While this organization may be characterized as diverse, equity – or the representation of various groups at different levels of the organization – has not been achieved.

Similarly, while the staff of an organization may be racially diverse, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that racialized individuals can face persistent and systemic discrimination in the workplace, for example, as was reported following the first symposium for African Canadian child welfare staff in Ontario (with 79% of attendees expressing that they had experienced anti-Black racism within their agency). Keeping this in mind, an organization could still be characterized as diverse but, due to the hostile environment experienced by racialized staff, it would have failed at inclusion and equity.

At the heart of efforts and initiatives seeking equity in child welfare is the achievement of equitable outcomes for all children, youth, and families. Anti-oppression or anti-oppressive practice (AOP) can be understood as a framework for working towards equity.

In the child welfare context, equity also entails:

• Addressing the marginalization of vulnerable populations in society through the de-centering of child welfare processes from an institutional and oppressive perspective (i.e. Eurocentric, heteronormative, ableist, etc.) to a system focused on the safety and well-being of a child within the context of their individual family or community and with respect to their unique circumstances. This requires meaningful engagement with families and communities in decision-making processes and recognition that families are experts of their own lived experiences
• Critically assessing how individual behaviours, social structures, and institutions work to create and perpetuate the oppression and marginalization of those who have been identified as not belonging to a dominant group
• Developing equitable and power sharing partnerships and collaborations with communities, service providers, and other systems leaders to support culturally safe service provision
• Integrating an equity analysis on an ongoing basis to transform everyday practices and procedures at all levels of the sector, from front-line staff to senior leaders and boards of directors