Committees
Youth and Education
The youth & education committee is made up of volunteers who are committed to teaching youth about the United Nations and global issues from a Canadian perspective. The committee recognizes and values the importance of educating Canadians about the world in which we live.
Through its programs and community involvement, the youth & education committee strives to draw links between local and global concerns, as well as provide youth with interactive learning opportunities that challenge them to develop their own ideas and opinions about global issues. Recent initiatives include “Sport-in-a-Box”, a program that inspires young Canadians through the power of sport to engage with their community in physical fitness and health activities, as they learn about global issues.
Human Rights
The human rights committee is mandated to promote and protect the enjoyment and full realization by all people of all rights established in the Charter of the United Nations and in international human rights laws and treaties. The mandate includes preventing human rights violations, securing respect for all human rights, promoting international cooperation to protect human rights, and coordinating activities that promote human rights awareness within our community.
Our goal is to introduce our community to the values and principles of the United Nations with respect to human rights. Through education and various local activities, we strive to promote inclusiveness, where all citizens can enjoy full participation in Canadian society; and to educate our community about human rights violations, occurring both nationally and internationally, so as to encourage members of the community to become more active global citizens.
Special Events
Through the promotion of Special Events, the Committee aims to encourage awareness of issues regarding Youth and Education, Human Rights, and the Environment affecting Toronto and the world today. The Special Events Committee achieves this by helping other UNACTO Committees plan, organize and promote public awareness events. By doing so, it aspires to engage communities to work together to achieve a common goal.
Fundraising
Fundraising is an essential element of UNACTO that allows us to fund various events throughout the City of Toronto. The fundraising committee acts as the backbone of supporting UNACTO’s various initiatives and events that introduce the community to the values and principles of the United Nations.
The funds are raised by the efforts of our volunteers within Toronto and the surrounding area, and contribute to UNACTO’s resources and promote international causes and issues on a local level. Donations from a plethora of events such as silent auctions, benefit dinners, and concerts add up and make a big difference at the end of the day. In addition, various small businesses and corporations are approached. As funds are raised, important international issues and concerns have an exponentially better chance of being addressed.
Governance
The Governance Committee, initiated in 2006, has two principal purposes.
The first purpose is to assist in guiding UNACTO’S Board of Directors in the development and maintenance of effective relations with the national Association’s board, officers and staff, and to do so in the context of promoting growth in the membership, and strong leadership, of UNACTO.
The Committee’s other purpose to review with the Board UNACTO’s overall mission, governance and objectives from time to time and to recommend desirable changes. The Governance Committee will try to make sure that UNACTO as a whole and individual Board committees and other representatives are operating effectively in line with planned objectives.
One of the ongoing responsibilities of the Governance Committee is to oversee each Board committee’s review and/or development of a clear but brief mission statement, specific short-term goals for the forthcoming year, means of evaluation of progress and success — ideally occurring at least semi-annually, and projection of any future financial needs.
Communications
The communications committee works with the other committees of UNACTO to ensure that our many events and initiatives are made aware to our members and the public. We act as a liaison between committees to ensure effective communication, and interact with the media to ensure exposure for UNACTO’s various endeavours.
We seek to use different methods of communication to ensure that UNACTO is innovative and effective in reaching out to the public, to ensure that the voices and energies of our committees and volunteers will engage public dialogue and action in support of the United Nations and the global community in which we are all an integral part.