Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - June 2009 - Index

GRANT’S COMMUNITY ACHIEVERS
GRANT’S IS PROUD TO PRESENT THIS
SERIES ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE MAKING
A DIFFERENCE IN THE COMMUNITY
Alina Chatterjee, Manager,
Planning and Community
Practice at
Toronto Community Housing
Corporation, knows a thing or
two about feeling displaced and
trying to fit in.
Born in Toronto, she moved
with her parents to Montreal,
then to Kolkata with her
mother and then to Germany
before moving back to Kolkata
and finally, again, to Toronto,
in 1996. She speaks English,
Bangla, a bit of German and
some French.
“Yeah! My parents moved often,
and the moves were...challenging!
Often, we were the only
family of colour, we ate curry at
home, which was a bit of a novelty
for my friends! In Montreal,
I was at a francophone school –
which I appreciate now – but it
Alina Chatterjee
MANAGER, PLANNING AND
COMMUNITY PRACTICE,
TORONTO COMMUNITY
HOUSING
was difficult at the time. You want
to fit in. It was a struggle. Of
course, not quite the way it was
when I grew up. The power issues
are not quite the same in the
adult world.”
The glass ceiling, being told
her name is difficult to pronounce...Chatterjee
has seen it
NARI MAVALWALLA /DESI NEWS
LIVES ARE BUILT WITH
BRICKS, MORTAR AND HOPE
all. The experience fuelled her
passion to fight racism at every
level.
She was involved in the
launch of a large anti-racism
project at the Scadding Court
Community Centre (SCCC).
Violence had erupted in Alexandra
Park and racial slurs were
showing up on doors. The SCCC
convened 14 focus groups across
the city to explore the issues
surrounding racism and
the police. What emerged was
that a lack of communication
and a souring of relationships
between youth and police –
many newcomers were not fluent
in English – was making the
situation worse. This led to the
formation of the largest community
development and access-to-complaints
project being
launched.
As program co-ordinator at
the Alexandra Park Community
Centre in 2000, realizing that
there were no programs in place
for Muslim women, Chatterjee,
along with her colleagues and
women from the community, set
up a kickboxing program for them.
In her current position,
Chatterjee focuses on the need
to promote social justice through
policy change and challenging
systemic racism.
“Things are much better
now,” she concedes. “Different
groups are organized around it.
People like Uzma Shakir and
Amy Casipullai have done tremendous
work in the area. But
there remains a need to recognize
racism and to find different
ways to deal with it, challenge it.
We have to name it first, then find
the means to address it.”
As manager, Planning and
Community Practice at Toronto
Community Housing Corporation,
her responsibilities include
ensuring that the sets of goals
and objectives that have been
identified are being applied, to
ensure consistency in the delivery
of programs, enhance existing
staff skills and to see that
all interactions are respectful.
Toronto Community Housing,
says Chatterjee, is a unique