Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of access – and inequitable access – to child care and education has had a negative impact on children and their families. Children’s right to an education has been put in jeopardy, and the closure of schools along with the transition to virtual learning has had a ripple effect on a wide range of other rights. This presentation will share the latest research findings from the Raising Canada report on the impact of COVID-19 on children’s rights, along with a recent national poll on the return to school this fall.

Schedule: Monday, November 16 from 12 to 12:40 PM (Atlantic Standard Time)

Delivery Method: Remotely, by virtual room

Cost: Free

Speaker: Sara L. Austin

Sara is a world class champion for children, with more than 20 years of global and Canadian experience. As the Founder CEO of Children First Canada, she leads a national movement to make Canada the best place in the world for kids to grow up.
You’ll find her name on several “most powerful” lists, and for good reason. She has led highly successful advocacy, public awareness and philanthropic campaigns and shaped major public policy efforts. She has learned multiple languages and is fluent in the parlance of diplomacy.Women of Influence, and in 2017 she was the youngest person to be inducted into the Top 100 Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame.
Sara has a proven track record of leading high achieving teams with local and global impact. Most recently she served as the CEO of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre, where she led Canada’s most advanced frontline agency responding to child abuse. Previously she served as Director of the President’s Office of World Vision Canada, supporting the CEO and Board of Directors and leading strategic initiatives for children and workplace diversity and inclusion.
Her leadership has impacted the lives of millions of children. Most notably, she led a global campaign that resulted in the adoption of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child for a Communications Procedure (OP3). This ground-breaking law allows kids or their advocates to hold governments accountable for violations of children’s rights, and has since been used by Greta Thunberg and 16 of her peers to file a complaint against their governments regarding violations of their rights to a sustainable future.
She is an expert in governance best practices and has served on the UN's Global Advisory Council on Violence Against Children, the WXN Diversity Council and the Boards of Dalhousie University, the Canadian Coalition on the Rights of the Child, York Region Children’s Aid Society and the Christie Refugee Welcome Centre.
Sara holds an MSt/LLM with Distinction in International Human Rights Law from Oxford and an Honours BA in International Development and Women’s Studies from Dalhousie University. She has completed the Governance Essentials Program for Non-Profits with the Institute of Corporate Directors, the Maytree Foundation’s Public Policy Program and the University of Alberta’s Indigenous Partnerships Program.
On a personal level, Sara is married and has a son and she is a cancer survivor. She is an avid downhill skier, water sports enthusiast and international traveler.