"Sharing power" : representation of visible minorities on the boards of selected immigrant serving agencies in Peel

This study analyzes patterns of racial minority representation on the Boards of immigrant serving agencies (ISAs) in the cities of Mississauga and Brampton in the Region of Peel, Ontario. Executive Directors of 13 organizations were contacted and asked to provide ethnic, gender, age and educational information on the composition of their Boards and to describe the ethnic make-up of the client populations they serve. Boards were then scored on diversity (numbers of different ethnic members on the Board) and representativeness (a comparison of the ethnic composition of the Boards to the ethnic make-up of the population served by their ISAs). Findings indicate a wide range of scores on both diversity and representativeness. Some Boards are fully homogeneous and unrepresentative of their clients. Others are diverse but unrepresentative, and still others are fully representative of their client populations.