Friends in Toronto International Center of Excellence (FIT-ICOE)
Friends in Toronto International Center of Excellence (FIT-ICoE) provides vital support to NGO’s, subsistent farmers, and small business’s, guiding them in scaling up and implementing optimal field-to-table best practices to elevate productivity and adhere to industry standards.
Friends in Toronto International Center of Excellence (FIT-ICOE)
International Circle of Exchange – A global platform for dialogue, learning, and collective action grounded in lived experience, Indigenous wisdom, and restorative justice. The International Circle of Exchange (ICoE) brings together community leaders, practitioners, researchers, artists, and institutions to explore justice, healing, and systemic change across cultures and borders.
The International Circle of Exchange (ICoE) is a community-led platform for knowledge exchange, cultural preservation, and justice-centered collaboration—connecting lived experience, research, and practice across borders.
Knowledge Exchange
We document and share community-rooted insights that inform justice reform, healing practices, and social policy locally and internationally.
Cultural Preservation
We support the preservation of cultural memory, artifacts, and oral histories that are too often erased or commodified.
Restorative Practice
We elevate restorative justice, healing circles, and non-punitive approaches as viable, evidence-based responses to harm.
Community-Led Research
We challenge extractive research models by supporting research with communities, not on them.
Global Dialogue
We facilitate cross-border conversations that allow communities to learn from one another’s successes, struggles, and strategies.
Community Expertise
Use a clear and attention-grabbing short paragraph to engage your audience and draw them into reading the rest of your content.
Community Expertise
Communities are treated as experts in their own lives—not subjects or data points.
Ethical Exchange
Knowledge sharing must be reciprocal, transparent, and accountable.
Actionable Insight
What is shared through ICoE is meant to inform real change, not sit on shelves.
Grounded in Lived Experience
ICoE is built on the understanding that lived experience is not anecdotal—it is evidence.
From families navigating the justice system, to elders preserving cultural knowledge, to youth imagining new futures, the stories shared through ICoE shape how we understand harm, healing, and accountability.
We honor these stories by protecting them, contextualizing them, and ensuring they are used ethically.
“Real change happens when communities are trusted as experts in their own lives.”
Justice & Access to Justice
Cultural Identity & Memory
Healing Circles & Restorative Practice
Add an overline text
Exchange Focus Areas
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Justice & Access to Justice
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Cultural Identity & Memory
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Healing Circles & Restorative Practice
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Youth, Families, and Intergenerational Impact
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Youth, Families, and Intergenerational Impact
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Global Indigenous & Racialized Perspectives
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Give your list item a title
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Give your list item a title
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Community Exchange Participation
Community Exchange Participation
Institutional Partnership
What makes ICoE different from traditional research or conferences?
ICoE centers lived experience, community authority, and ethical exchange—moving beyond extractive or performative engagement.
FIT ICoE — INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS & GLOBAL EXCHANGE
Supporting International Projects Through Skills, Standards, and Exchange
The Friends in Toronto International Center of Excellence (FIT ICoE) is designed to support international, community-rooted projects that strengthen local capacity while preparing individuals and organizations for participation in the global economy.
A core focus of FIT ICoE is ensuring that skills, knowledge, and standards developed locally are transferable, recognized, and relevant internationally—bridging the gap between local opportunity and global readiness.
FIT ICoE — INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS & GLOBAL EXCHANGE
One of FIT ICoE’s priority international initiatives is the development of a Trades Training and International Readiness Program connecting St. Lucia and Canada.
This initiative is designed to:
Focus Areas Include:
The program supports both local infrastructure improvement and international employment readiness, enabling participants to contribute to projects abroad while raising standards at home.
FIT ICoE Program Pillars
These programs are designed for individuals, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and organizations seeking financial independence and long-term resilience.
FIT ICoE develops and hosts workshops focused on:
Budgeting, saving, and responsible investing
Entrepreneurial finance and business sustainability
Investments aligned with social impact and community benefit
For those driving local and international change, FIT ICoE provides:
NGO and cooperative formation workshops
Social entrepreneurship development
Legal and compliance literacy for nonprofit operations
Community advocacy and organizing training
Community Advocacy, NGO Formation & Social Enterprise
Participants gain practical knowledge—from governance and ethics to accountability and impact measurement.
Technology, Digital Literacy & Innovation Readiness
These programs emphasize responsible use, accessibility, and real-world application especially for underserved communities.
FIT ICoE addresses the role of technology in shaping communities and economies by offering programming on:
Digital literacy and access
The societal impact of emerging technologies
Navigating innovation, disruption, and ethical tech adoption
Grounded in FITCS’s foundational work, FIT ICoE offers learning spaces focused on:
Restorative justice principles and practice
Conflict resolution and dialogue facilitation
Healing circles and community-led reconciliation, & Trauma-informed approaches to systems engagement
Restorative Justice, Healing & Community Building
These sessions support families, communities, and institutions seeking alternatives to punitive systems.
Fundraising, Grant Writing & Resource Mobilization
This pillar ensures community initiatives are equipped to access resources ethically and strategically.
FIT ICoE develops and hosts workshops focused on:
Effective fundraising strategies
Grant writing and proposal development
Digital fundraising and donor engagement
Programs under this pillar include:
Leadership development and ethical decision-making
Business ethics and team building
Business incubation and optimization, & International trade readiness and compliance
Business, Leadership & Human Development
This stream supports entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and organizations navigating complex, cross-border environments.
Innovation Nexus: FIT ICoE Idea Hub
Unleashing Creativity Through Collaboration:
The FIT ICoE Idea Hub serves as a space where innovators, practitioners, and community leaders collaborate to generate practical, real-world solutions.
Innovation Nexus:
Exploring IoT, fintech, and emerging technologies with an emphasis on ethical adoption and community benefit.
Collaborative Exploration:
Bringing diverse perspectives together to co-create solutions that transcend borders and sectors.
Catalyzing Change in Finance & Industry:
Advancing best practices, cohesion, and inclusivity across evolving industries through shared knowledge and experimentation.
Unleashing Creativity Through Collaboration
The FIT ICoE Idea Hub serves as a space where innovators, practitioners, and community leaders collaborate to generate practical, real-world solutions.
Key Focus Areas:
Agriculture, Sustainability & Field-to-Table Standards
This work aims to elevate the livelihoods of subsistence farmers while contributing to sustainable agricultural development.
Through field-to-table standards, FIT ICoE empowers farmers and agricultural stakeholders by:
Enhancing productivity and agricultural techniques
Supporting compliance with international standards
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
Improving access to tools, knowledge, and markets
Use this short paragraph to write a supporting description of your list item. Remember to let your readers know why this list item is essential.
This work aims to elevate the livelihoods of subsistence farmers while contributing to sustainable agricultural development.
Empowering Local Agriculture and Enterprise Through Connectivity
FIT ICoE supports local farmers and small businesses by integrating IoT technologies and remote connectivity, enabling access to international resources while promoting environmental sustainability.
This initiative focuses on:
Live, integrated digital platforms
Use this space to add a short description. It gives enough info to earn a click.
Improved operational efficiency
Use this space to add a short description. It gives enough info to earn a click.
Global market participation for small-scale enterprises
Use this space to add a short description. It gives enough info to earn a click.
By bridging the digital divide, FIT ICoE ensures that even community-based enterprises can benefit from connected technologies and global networks.
At its core, FIT ICoE is about connection—between communities and systems, local practice and global opportunity, lived experience and institutional knowledge.
Through skills training, cultural exchange, innovation, and ethical collaboration, FIT ICoE empowers individuals and organizations to navigate an interconnected world with confidence, integrity, and purpose.
