Alka Kumar

Project Advisor E-mail: hello@cmccfamilies.ca

Special Advisor and Web Content Creator

Alka Kumar, Ph.D., is a Research Affiliate with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration program at the Toronto Metropolitan University. With education and work experience in the humanities and in interdisciplinary social sciences – literary studies, migration, and peace studies – her work lives between research and practice, spanning across sectors, with a focus on social justice and capacity building for racialized communities. Given she has equal interest in research and practice, her objective in all her work is to bridge these two worlds that are often quite separate from each other.

Carrying her own ‘lived experience’ of migration, her areas of expertise include facilitation of skills and training workshops, with the objective of supporting new Canadians and other individuals in building their capacity, including preparing them for workplace success through individualized career transition and employment pathways planning. Alka develops teaching resources around topics such as Workplace Communication and Business English, Conflict Management and Resolution; and narrative techniques involving storytelling to help program participants in achieving their self-improvement goals.

In a consulting role, Alka undertakes projects with organizations that involve research, writing, and workshop facilitation as well as stakeholder engagements, strategy development, and leadership training.

About CMCCF

We are a diverse, collaborative network of individuals united to promote the well-being of Manitoba’s cultural communities. Using engagements, events and storytelling projects, we promote social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through facilitated conversations where diverse voices can be heard and amplified. We are dedicated to building relationships based on trust, respect, and dignity for all.

Acknowledgement of Original Lands

CMCCF is located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation. We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.

Contact Us

Winnipeg, MB

Canada

Email:hello@cmccfamilies.ca

Website:https://www.cmccfamilies.ca

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Purpose

The Purpose of These Peace-First: CollaborationNet Pages These pages exist to share what we have learned. Over the past year, Peace-First: CollaborationNet has operated as a time-limited demonstration initiative, which is a space to test ideas, host conversations, and discover what might grow when peace is placed at the center. Conversations took root in informal Peace-First Hubs across Winnipeg, Thompson, Brandon, and Portage la Prairie, with related gatherings in Vancouver and Toronto. Toronto now helps convene national roundtable conversations, linking local dialogue with a broader Canadian exchange. What began as small, local discussions has become more connected — not through expansion or centralization, but through coherence. Across regions, shared themes, tensions, and hopes are emerging. This webpage documents that journey. It gathers reflections, materials, and learning from Hub conversations so others can understand what has been explored and carry it forward. From the beginning, Peace-First was designed as a seed-planting initiative, formally concluding March 31, 2026. Its focus has been to explore how individuals and cultural communities understand inner peace, collective vision, community cohesion, and cultural dignity and visibility. The Hubs are volunteer-led spaces where community connectors and members gather to listen, reflect, and imagine what a peaceful geographic and cultural community might look like in practice. Along the way, we developed background papers, reflection documents, and practical toolkits shaped by lived experience in Manitoba and beyond. This page now serves as a living repository within the Peace-First Library, offering capacity-building tools, framing papers, hub guidance, and shared learning that communities can adapt to their own realities. The purpose is not to centralize authority, but to make learning accessible. Peace-First Hubs are community-led and partner-supported — grounded in relationship, not hierarchy. Supported by ACOMI, ECCM, Palaver Hut, MIA, cultural community members across the country, and allies such as MANSO, Mediation Services, CanU Canada, and PCHS, this work moves through partnership rather than control. This initiative has been made possible through the principal financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, with a supportive role played by The Winnipeg Foundation. Their investment has allowed these conversations, materials, and connections to take shape. These materials are not instructions to replicate. They are tools to adapt. This page is more than documentation. It is an invitation. Peace-First is not about imposing a uniform model. It is about strengthening conditions for dialogue, cohesion, and shared responsibility before a crisis. If this resonates, we invite you to explore further, join a national roundtable call, or consider what it would mean to host or support a conversation in your own community. Join a national roundtable call. Complete the survey. The seeds have been planted. What grows next depends on all of us.