Change starts here.
Change starts here.
Linda Geggie has planted the seeds for the development and adoption of a food strategy for the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island.
Participants of the first United Way Public Policy Institute (PPI) celebrated completion of their sessions in June, 2011.
Linda participated in the Public Policy Institute sessions as coordinator of the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR). She engaged with public policy experts and others to hone her policy project.
Linda’s policy work considers food from a systems perspective. “Just as we do planning for housing, transportation and economic development, the question is, ‘How do we look at how our food is produced, distributed and consumed in a way that meets our goals for health and sustainability.’”
An emerging food strategy would look at, for example, expanding agricultural land within the Capital Region.
Not only did Linda benefit from the experience of institute faculty, she found timely support from her peers in the program. “Different people had different pieces that were really useful to me, for example Carolyn, who works with the Boys and Girls Club. One of the things our organization is looking at is potentially merging with another organization. Carolyn had just been the process of merging the Boys and Girls Clubs. It was timely for me to be able to meet her and ask her about that. She also does donor relations and sponsorship work and we’re moving into that. So now I have a great resource in Carolyn who can mentor me and she has agreed to do that.”
Linda’s personal journey on the food front began at the community level. “I didn’t wake up one morning and say, ‘Hey I want to do food policy.’ For many years I’ve worked in grassroots organizing and projects with youth in urban areas, for example community gardens. We found that a lot of the things we wanted to do involved public land and getting government support and permissions and that took me down the path to working more on behalf of food and farm organizations.”
In May 2011, Linda says, Capital Regional District (CRD) planning staff recommended that a food strategy be considered by the CRD. The presentation she developed for the Public Policy Insititute will inform the work she will do next year during the consultation and support-building phase with stakeholders. “I’ll be employing all of my wits and all of my learning in doing that.”
Linda’s advice for anyone considering joining the next PPI sessions: “Be willing to commit your time, your passion, your brainpower. It takes a lot of thinking and listening if you want to get the most out of it.
“What I saw happen with me and others in the cohort is that we connected with amazing people that inspired us and left us feeling not alone in our work. My passion for my work was renewed. It happened for a lot of people. At the beginning a lot of us came in burned out and griping about funding. As we moved forward there was a shift in the group to become much more positive and focused on what we are trying to do. People got re-inspired.”
Former BC premier Mike Harcourt will be joined by four public policy experts to present 2012 sessions. The non-profit, non-partisan institute is the first of its kind in British Columbia.
Joining Harcourt to present sessions in 2012 are:
• Dr. Liz Whynot, former president of BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre
• Brenda Eaton, chair, BC Housing Management Commission and former Deputy Minister to BC Premier Gordon Campbell; former BC Deputy Minister in Finance and Treasury Board, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and Social Services
• Elizabeth Cull, former BC Minister of Health, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations
• Ida Goodreau, former president and CEO Vancouver Coastal Health.
This unique learning opportunity is designed for non-profit organizations grappling with dynamic challenges in social and health services, and, for individuals eager to help change the future by shaping public policy.
Participants will be mentored on an applied project targeting a public policy issue strategically relevant to their organizations.
Sessions will be delivered once a month over a two-day period between January and June 2012. This program is open to participants from across the province. Tuition, accommodation and travel expenses will be subsidized.
With only 25 participants selected, space is limited.
Visit http://www.uwlm.ca/ppi for more information, or to apply. Application deadline: Sept. 30, 2011. To learn more, contact Yves Trudel at ppi@uwlm.ca
Stephen D’Souza’s focus on helping his community to better address housing and homelessness issues just got sharper.
Participants of the first United Way Public Policy Institute (PPI) celebrated completion of their sessions in June, 2011.
Stephen participated in the Public Policy Institute sessions as Executive Director of Burnaby Community Connections. He worked with public policy experts and others to hone his policy project.
Stephen’s roots in the not-for-profit sector are deep, nurtured by a longstanding family passion for community work. “At a young age I saw my parents volunteering. They taught me how important community is to our life. When I started to look at what I wanted to do career-wise it seemed I was bred for it. It felt right.”
At Burnaby Community Connections, a non-profit society committed to connecting people, services and community since 1971, Stephen and his colleagues know that issues of housing and homelessness are common challenges for many people served by the agency. “Our role takes us across a lot of different sectors. It takes us from childcare, to immigrants to seniors. Housing is an issue across the board.”
While at the United Way Public Policy Institute, Stephen focused on developing a housing strategy covering emergency, transitional, affordable, and market housing options for Burnaby.
“When I started to think about the impact our agency could have strategically moving forward, this is an area where we thought we could really change the dialogue in our community. It had become very entrenched and no one was talking. I thought our agency could bridge that and come forward with solutions that everyone could get behind,” he says.
He also realized that the PPI presented an opportunity to personally develop as an advocate for change. “It came at the right time for me. I applied on a wing and prayer. When I heard back, I was gleefully surprised that I was accepted. I took the opportunity and ran with it and researched this issue with a lot of support from the mentors in the program. I was able to learn so much about housing and homelessness and build what I think is a pretty strong case for solutions in our community.”
At the PPI, Stephen also learned a lot from others. “A number of participants were focusing on housing and homelessness. I got to hear about the issue from across BC and what they were struggling with and what they were doing and the successes they were having. There’s a lot we can do together. The opening up of perspectives was great and I fed off their passion.
“For the last three years it has been hard in this sector. We’ve been fractured, competing against one and other and pulled in so many directions. For six months (at the PPI) as we developed friendships and relationships, we asked, ‘Why aren’t we doing this together? We could be doing this together across many communities through collaborations,’” Stephen says.
He intends to advance policy work on housing and homelessness through the many networks he participates in. For example he is with the Burnaby Board of Trade. It has taken an active role on homelessness. “They’re looking at trying to come up with a Burnaby-based solution,” he says. With the Burnaby Task Force on Homelessness, representing a group of citizens, service providers, government agencies, he and other members are connected regionally.
Stephen’s participation at the PPI allowed him to explore policy alternatives and approaches. “I understand the process a lot better now. We had been going to the ministers, the mayors, but we didn’t do the research on the people that are going to implement on behalf of the ministers, so that when we go to the ministers or mayors they have a document that they can approach right away.
“For a continuum of housing you need to have a layered approach. You need federal and municipal support but for them it’s a potentially losing cause. You can invest a lot of money and not come up with a result that’s positive. There are a lot of pilot projects that are struggling and there are a lot that are succeeding and I think we need to approach what’s working and look at how we scale it up and move it forward. No one wants to own it. We need to convince them as to why they need to step up. Here’s the benefit, here’s the role you can play and here’s how it’s in your mandate. Let’s do this together,” he says.
Stephen’s advice for anyone considering joining the next PPI sessions: “Be willing to commit your time, your passion, your brainpower. It takes a lot of thinking and listening if you want to get the most out of it.”
Former BC premier Mike Harcourt will be joined by four public policy experts to present 2012 sessions. The non-profit, non-partisan institute is the first of its kind in British Columbia.
Joining Harcourt to present sessions in 2012 are:
• Dr. Liz Whynot, former president of BC Women’s Hospital and Health Centre
• Brenda Eaton, chair, BC Housing Management Commission and former Deputy Minister to BC Premier Gordon Campbell; former BC Deputy Minister in Finance and Treasury Board, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and Social Services
• Elizabeth Cull, former BC Minister of Health, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance and Corporate Relations
• Ida Goodreau, former president and CEO Vancouver Coastal Health.
This unique learning opportunity is designed for non-profit organizations grappling with dynamic challenges in social and health services, and, for individuals eager to help change the future by shaping public policy.
Participants will be mentored on an applied project targeting a public policy issue strategically relevant to their organizations.
Sessions will be delivered once a month over a two-day period between January and June 2012. This program is open to participants from across the province. Tuition, accommodation and travel expenses will be subsidized.
With only 25 participants selected, space is limited.
Visit http://www.uwlm.ca/ppi for more information, or to apply. Application deadline: Sept. 30, 2011. To learn more, contact Yves Trudel at ppi@uwlm.ca
Hope grows in a Vancouver community garden.
“We have become so private in our lives, gardening helps open the door,” says Katherine, a long-time volunteer with the Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House community garden. Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House is a volunteer-driven organization providing services to residents in East Vancouver.
The community garden began four years ago with funding from United Way of the Lower Mainland. There are two locations: one at Frog Hollow and one at Clinton Park. These gardens are planted, tended and harvested by volunteers like Katherine. The goal of a community garden is to engage its diverse community and encourage backyard gardening to be included as part of a family food plan. Adults and children attend workshops and events to learn and share their knowledge.
In April 2011, Statistics Canada reported prices for basic food purchases increased by 3.7% during the last 12 months. Prices for fresh vegetables increased by 4.3%. With the expectation of food costs to continue to rise, Frog Hollow’s community garden is an important resource for families to gain access to affordable healthy food and to learn about gardening.
“I like to refer to it as the experiential garden,” says Katherine. Encouraging all to participate, Katherine and volunteers have planted many different types of vegetables, from Chinese broccoli gai lan to edible flowers for the summer salads to be served with a hot lunch at the family drop-in sessions. Everyone gets a chance to spend time in the garden. Preschool children from the Frogs in the Park program plant their very own seedlings and spend the last two weeks of the summer tending the garden.
Katherine is a single mother of two grown children and has lived in the north-east Vancouver community for more than 15 years. Her daughter Allura having been identified with developmental delays was able to take advantage of the after school programs at Frog Hollow from grades one to seven. Over the years, the family participated in various programs at the neighbourhood house including the food security programs. Today, Katherine teaches as well as assists with a variety of duties for Eva Aboud, the Food Security Coordinator.
“She is a knowledgeable resource for the community garden,” says Eva. “She is a real help.” Katherine helps with some administrative duties, as well as coordinating planting, workshops and an online blog for the community garden.
To celebrate the garden and its community, Frog Hollow organizes an event on the last day of the Frogs in the Park program. A harvest festival is held on September 1 at Clinton Park. The festival includes a vegetable growing contest, food from the garden and lots entertainment.
United Way of the Lower Mainland donors are helping to fund the garden by supporting Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House food security programs.
When Teresa and her young son moved to Vancouver to start a new life, the challenges seemed overwhelming: as a single mother, she needed to find a school, housing, daycare and a job. “I felt isolated and alone.”
That’s when she connected with the YWCA Single Mothers' Support Group at Little Mountain Neighbourhood House, which helped her find accommodation in YWCA Semlin Gardens.
“It’s a housing community for single mothers and their children, funded in part by the United Way of Lower Mainland and owned and operated by YWCA Metro Vancouver in partnership with the province of BC, where you pay 30% of your income in rent. It’s a great way to help single mums get ahead,” says Teresa.
“It has a strong sense of community….since we are all single mothers, we can relate to one another. The kids love it!”
Teresa believes that the stigma attached to single mothers as “poor, uneducated and unable to provide for their kids is totally untrue! Lots of us go back to school while raising our children.”
But without “the other half” to depend on, life can be a struggle. That’s why United Way support is so vital.
“To be able to get help and get ahead is what it’s all about. If single mums can get educated, they can get out of poverty and give their kids the best in life.”
Teresa is grateful for the support she received in helping her return to school, earning her degree in Early Childhood Education. In 2010, she took time to give back by becoming involved with fundraising for United Way of the Lower Mainland.
“It taught me a lot about the community. It’s great to know there so many companies and individuals ready to help.”
In BC today, 20 per cent of families are headed by single moms – half of whom live in poverty.
The poverty in which many single moms and their children live often results from a combination of factors, including lack of child care and housing, low minimum wage rates, reductions to funding for education, as well as the challenge of balancing parental and work responsibilities.
United Way strengthens the systems that contribute to strong and healthy families, by advancing Smart Family Policy. United Way invests in organizations that advocate on behalf of children, collaborating with researchers, participating in community planning, public education events, think-tanks, and by convening stakeholders with the most influence over policies affecting children and families.
Watch her story here:
It’s January 2010 and union leader Bill Gaucher sits in his New Westminster headquarters, figuring out how his union can contain costs and make arrangements for the extra drivers working during February's Olympic Games.
But the unassuming leader of more than 5,000 workers in B.C. and Alberta has a much broader vision than looking after their needs only.
For more than 20 years, Bill has worked tirelessly to help the less fortunate in our communities. He’s coordinated staff donations for United Way of the Lower Mainland, worked at the soup kitchens and, for the last seven years, helped raise funds for Variety’s Telethon for children.
“We’re a social union and there’s a bigger part to play. I believe in giving back to the community,” says Bill, the secretary-treasurer of Canadian Auto Workers Local 114 since 1981.
In 2009, he received the United Way of the Lower Mainland Joe Morris Labour Community Service Award for his efforts.
Bill simply praises the office staff at CAW’s regional headquarters on 12th Street in New Westminster. “I’m just the guy that asks people to help out. I never have to ask twice. I am very proud of them,” he says.
Philosophically, Bill believes the government should pay for people’s basic needs, but the fact remains that there is a gap to fill, and he believes non-profit organizations and the community at large are needed to fill this gap.
“We shouldn’t have to have food banks. They were created as a temporary measure, but they’ve never gone away. I have been looking at food bank lines for 15 or 16 years and there’s a lot more 'regular Joes' standing in line now.”
He adds: “I remember last year, a bunch of us went to downtown Vancouver to work at the soup kitchen. It was very humbling.”
Bill notes that homeless shelters always seem to be the first to lose their funding, and the number of seniors in poverty is now also becoming a widespread and serious issue.
On a personal level, Bill regards himself as a lucky man. He married his childhood sweetheart Michele when they were mere youngsters, aged 17 and 16 respectively. They’ve now been married 35 years, living mostly in Surrey, where they raised three sons.
Bill started out as a warehouseman, and despite coming from a non-union background, moved into the union business in March 1980, with the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway, Transport and General Workers. The union merged with the Canadian Auto Workers Union in 1994, and Bill's been in charge of Local 114 ever since.
He first became involved with the community when he sat on the United Way Labour Board and credits his union work, training and a steady wage with giving him a broader picture of society’s needs.
“It’s important to realize there’s another world out there. I owe a lot to the union: this job opened my eyes to things I might not have seen otherwise,” says Bill.
A diverse group of Surrey gardeners enjoyed fresh foods from the good earth at harvest time.
In June 2009 DIVERSEcity Community Resources Society and the City of Surrey officially opened a new Community Garden project at Hazelnut Meadow Park in Surrey.
United Way of the Lower Mainland donors are helping to fund the garden by supporting DIVERSEcity’s food security program.
DIVERSEcity is a community partner of United Way of the Lower Mainland. United Way contributed $42,000 to the agency's food security program in 2009. The food security program helps people living in poverty and includes the community garden, several community kitchens and food security advocacy activity.
Stop a moment to look and you’ll see world in this garden: Burmese, Asian and African immigrants and refugees tend plots side by side with local seniors and neighbourhood residents with support from DIVERSEcity staff. Participants are learning about fruits,vegetables and herbs suitable for a Canadian climate, organic gardening and composting, seed saving, and harvesting.
There is a growing exchange of learning between the newcomers and a welcoming community. Funke Ilumoka, originally from Nigeria, is among the African women in the garden. Funke is also a community kitchen program coordinator with DIVERSEcity. “I’m a city girl but going back to this is wonderful. There’s nothing like growing your own and knowing what’s gone into it and the process it has gone through to get to your table,” she says.
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