Here’s the lead:

Sasha Cumby’s mom, Debbie, says her daughter was a typical 16-year-old. But answering what made Sasha typical, her mom describes a young woman who was anything but an average teen: a straight ‘A’ student and advocate for animal rights, with career aspirations of becoming an environmental lawyer. A Girl Guide in Sparks, Brownies, and Pathfinders. A young woman who was both a deeply committed volunteer and a social activist, she had organized the collection of more than 400 teddy bears to send to children in Afghanistan. On top of her academic and community accomplishments, Sasha held a part-time job at Tim Hortons and babysat, not just her younger brother William (whom she called “her little brat”), but neighbours’ kids as well. People who know the six-foot-tall Sasha say she has an old soul.

In August 2009, Debbie and husband Bill took their kids on their very first family vacation: a trip to Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios. Three days into their trip,  sitting beside her boyfriend on the Indiana Jones rollercoaster, Sasha went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Strapped into the moving ride it was impossible to get Sasha out to perform CPR. First the family, then everyone else on the ride, were screaming to have it stopped. But it was several minutes before Sasha’s father could kick open her car and pull her out. By then, the devastating damage to Sasha’s brain had already been done.

Read the rest of Sasha’s Voice and the rest of the stories in the series.

I help non-profits and socially responsible businesses learn to tell their stories more effectively.

How?

Through writing, strategic planning and training support.

Here’s a list of services I can provide your organization; a list of my recent clients (feel free to contact any of them for a reference); a few client testimonials; and links to some resources I’ve written.

I sporadically add posts to my blog. Find client stories collected here; my sharedVISION column here; and old health blog posts here.

]]> http://www.donnabarker.com/2011/11/welcome-to-barker-communications/feed/ 0 http://www.donnabarker.com/2010/12/biggest-little-garden-in-town/ http://www.donnabarker.com/2010/12/biggest-little-garden-in-town/#comments Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:57:39 +0000 donna http://www.donnabarker.com/?p=1089 This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work that Fraserside Community Services Society and the South Fraser Women Services Society do in promoting balcony gardens for low-income families in New Westminster and White Rock. 

The Biggest Little Garden in Town just might well be one of the biggest little ideas in Canada.

In 2007, Diane Cairns, the Director of Living Well Programs at Fraserside Community Services Society had a vision: in ten years vegetables would be growing in every nook and cranny of New Westminster, and that the city would be renowned as the biggest urban garden in the world.

She imagined walking down streets and through parking lots lined with vegetable planters. She pictured fresh vegetables growing in every public space, from parks and alleys to courtyards and school yards. She breathed in the smell of the fruit trees that would surround every public building, from City Hall to hospitals to libraries.

“I came up with the idea of providing balcony, container gardens to people living on a low-income in apartments when the local food bank told me that they were having trouble getting donations of fresh fruit and vegetables,” recounts Diane.

So, Diane and Laurie Clarke, the Program Coordinator, built two prototype gardens themselves. They put the containers outside their office building, in a space, Diane says, where green can’t be seen for miles. As the seeds sprouted, people in the neighbourhood changed their walking routes so they could watch the gardens grow, help water them, keep them clean and, when needed, protect the bounty when it ripened.

Diane was amazed, “We thought we’d start with a pilot project of eight or ten gardens. We gave away 54 garden containers that first summer. In our second year, we didn’t need to promote the program at all since had a wait list. Last summer we distributed 80 balcony gardens and 62 more people had to wait until summer 2010 to get theirs.”

In New Westminster, a city where fully half of all residents live in apartment buildings, what difference can having 180 balcony gardens make? A great deal if you ask the elderly woman who, last summer during a two-week heat wave, was unable to manage the walk to the grocery store but still ate well, picking and eating her own fresh vegetables. Or the woman who had never introduced herself to anyone else living in her building, but, when her own garden produced more vegetables than she could eat, knocked on a neighbour’s door to share her harvest and made a new friend. Or the three seniors who, all living on different sides of the same building, became friends as they worked together to grow and share vegetables most appropriate to the sun and shade conditions on their respective balconies.

Of course, people could buy or build their own balcony garden containers but the Biggest Little Garden in Town provides much more than just a cedar box, some soil and seeds to members.

“Vancity’s support allows us to personally deliver and help set-up each and every garden. This personal connection between the new gardeners and Laurie, our experienced gardener, is key to everyone’s success. The relationships that have developed are creating a true community of gardeners – people who without even knowing it, are food security and climate change activists,” says Diane.

By supporting these neighbourhood projects, Vancity shows its commitment to food security and finding solutions to climate change.   The Vancity Community Project Grants are focused on communities making a difference in protecting our environment and addressing issues of poverty.  The Biggest Little Garden project is an example of the power of local action.

And the project has grown to other communities.  At a Vancity event, Fraserside Community Services Society talked about their initiative with a group in White Rock.  The South Fraser Women Services Society learned from the experience of the New Westminster group and has now launched their project with Vancity support.

With communities across British Columbia and around the world asking how they can create Biggest Little Gardens in their own town, Diane’s vision has expanded. She would like to see space on balconies, rooftops, parking lots – to be used for vegetable gardens.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work of the Better Environmentally Sound Transportation Society, providing convenient and secure bicycle parking at festivals and special events.

It’s a sunny summer day in Vancouver. A perfect day to hop on your bike and head over to the Trout Lake Farmer’s Market. But, since it is such a beautful day, you worry that once you reach the market, you won’t find anywhere to safely lock your bike. Fear not! The BEST Bicycle Valet is there to save the day – and protect your wheels, seat and the contents of your panniers.

Geoffrey Vincent, the BEST Bicycle Valet project manager says that while many community events have started to encourage participants to use environmentally friendly and sustainable ways to get to the events, parking bikes is often a challenge in Vancouver.

“BEST encourages people to get out of their cars and to pursue sustainable, active and healthy transportation. But getting people on their bikes is just one piece of the puzzle. Giving people a safe place to lock their bikes so that they feel confident that when they get back to their bike everything will still be there is important. And at community events, where there are lots of people and not many bike racks, we realized that having a valet service might encourage more people to ride.”

By supporting this project through our community project grants, Vancity shows its commitment to supporting sustainable transportation and finding solutions to climate change.  Cycling, public transit, walking and car pools are all important to get us out of our cars and reduce our environmental impact.

The Trout Lake Farmer’s Market was an obvious partner for the bike valet service, says Roberta LaQuaglia, Operations Manager of Vancouver Farmer’s Markets.

“The two organizations have a long-time relationship promoting “Bike to Market” month and both bike and car parking at Trout Lake is in short supply.  Since Vancity provided a subsidy to help us offer the service all summer long, we saw more and more familes ride to market each weekend.”

In 2008, its first summer of operation, BEST’s Bicyle Valet parked 1,100 bikes. In 2009, the team worked with 38 events and parked over 7,300 bikes. BEST estimates that approximately 2,500 riders – or one-third of the bikes they parked – would not have ridden without having the confidence of knowing their bikes were safe.

With a goal of making bike parking as common as car parking at events, not just in Vancouver but in cities around British Columbia and ultimately across Canada, the BEST Bicycle Valet encourages us to get out of cars and ride to community festivals and events.  Vancity is proud to be supporting BEST and the many community events that promote an environmentally friendly alternative that will help us find solutions to climate change.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work of the North Shore Neighbourhood Houses in creating  community gardens and sharing the produce from gardens with those in need.

Metro Vancouver’s leadership in green building, land-use and urban design have earned well-deserved accolades from around the world for years, and, innovative ideas like the North Shore Edible Garden Project, is one reason why we are considered a world-class leader in sustainability.

Since 2006, the Edible Garden Project has been connecting want-to-be gardeners with unused green space on both private and public lands. The results have been fruitful – and vegetable-ful.

Heather Johnstone, the Edible Garden’s Coordinator, says the project, which builds community around learning how to grow food sustainably grows and sharing fresh local produce so everyone can eat healthy food, is a perfect fit for the North Shore.

“Unlike almost every other community in Greater Vancouver, the North Shore has both a large population and absolutely no locally-grown food programs.  Since our community is steep and often shady, we have very limited productive farm land, and this makes us vulnerable if the bridges that connect us to our food sources are ever knocked out – we rely entirely on food transported from afar.  And, like all communities, the North Shore has a population of people who live on fixed incomes and don’t have access to enough fresh fruits and vegetables in their diets. The Edible Garden Project addresses both of those issues, ” says Heather.

By supporting this project, Vancity shows its commitment to encouraging  solutions to climate change and to addressing issues of poverty.

Rose, an Edible Gardens volunteer gardener, is a passionate environmentalist who grew up eating food freshly picked from her family’s garden, “I think that the Edible Garden Project is a key link to making community connections and reclaiming our planet. It takes me back to being a child, going out to the farm, eating and talking to one another, while we tended the harvest.”

Suzanne Fielden agrees. She is the co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Society which partners with the Edible Garden Project to deliver “Fed Up,” a program that connects children to what they eat by linking seasonal activities in the garden, with cooking and eating activities in the kitchen.

“Growing and preparing food are critical life skills that are no longer being taught at home or at school. There is lots of malnutrition in Canada, not from lack of food, but from eating food that is low quality. When we organized a festival of BC apples for the kids, we stunned to learn that many children had only ever tried one kind of apple.  And that some had never eaten an apple.”

Making sure that not only apples, but broccoli, beans, kale, chard and lots of other produce is grown and harvested on the North Shore, and is available on every family’s dinner table in North and West Vancouver, requires a lot of community support.

Heather reflects on this support, “We work with so many different people and organizations who all bring great ideas to finding solutions to the range of food security and environmental challenges we face on the North Shore. Vancity’s financial support has been incredibly important, enabling the program to create strong roots as we and the community grow, making more sustainable choices in our lives.”

If you live on the North Shore, think about joining the Edible Garden project.  You will become part of a network that is growing and sharing local food and promoting sustainable agriculture.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports the work Toxic Free Canada does encouraging BC resident to get off the bottle and drink tap water.  

Can something as simple as using a refillable container to carry your thirst-quenching beverage change the world? Yes, actually, and in a big way.

Picture 174 full-sized pick-up trucks, payloads filled, dropping off their contents at dumps in British Columbia every day for a whole year. That’s 63,354 trucks dumping their contents in BC landfills. What are they carrying? Garbage? Items that can’t be recycled? Nope. They’re carrying 130 million plastic water bottles and plastic juice and soda containers. 100% recyclable plastic drink bottles that British Columbians have thrown in the trash.

Sean Griffin, research coordinator for Toxic Free Canada pictured this waste (and the 478 million plastic bottles that are recycled each year in BC) and decided to do something about it. Sean researched the problem; he wrote a report about the problem; and, with the Toxic Free Canada team, came up with a plan to solve the problem – a campaign called “Getting off the Bottle.”

“From the petroleum used to fabricate and transport the bottles, through the greenhouse gases created, to the toxic pollutants released during manufacturing, and the plastic waste accumulating in landfills, the health and environmental effects of bottled water linger long after the water has been consumed,” asserts Sean, “Reducing our use of bottled water is one of the easiest changes we can make to protect our own health, to protect the environment from plastic waste and to protect the planet from global warming.”

By supporting this project through an enviroFund grant, Vancity shows its commitment to protecting the environment and finding solutions to climate change.

With a concrete goal of reducing British Columbian’s use of plastic water bottles by 20%, Toxic Free Canada was keen to partner with an organization that could engage youth in the campaign, to engage a population who have both influence over their parents’ purchase decisions and a great deal of purchasing power themselves. Catching the Spirit Youth Society stepped up to the plate – or water fountain, as it were!

Catching the Spirit is a hands-on leadership and environmental program that provides youth with opportunities to create and deliver meaningful projects in Metro Vancouver Regional Parks. The Getting off the Bottle campaign was an easy fit, according to Program Coordinator, Nat Haltrich.

“When you give our youth tools like the Getting Off the Bottle report and the opportunity to share what they learned with others, they come up with really creative ways to get the message out: games made with bottles they picked up around the park; posters informing park visitors about the negative health and environmental impacts of water bottles; even a competition to see who could get the most park visitors to sign a pledge to reduce plastic water bottle use. It’s empowering for youth.” says Nat.

Making the switch from buying bottled water to drinking tap water is a no-brainer in Metro Vancouver, since our tap water is stringently monitored and is required to meet a higher standard than bottled water. Taking the Getting Off the Bottle pledge isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for people, too.

Visit www.ToxicFreeCanada.ca to find and sign their pledge to Reduce Plastic Water Bottle Use. By drinking tap water you can make a difference and help protect our environment.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports Your Local Farmer’s Market through grants and advice to help grow this social enterprise that brings food from the farms to your table.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.  As your chest expands, your head rises just a little, your eyes close and, it’s hard not to smile. Mmmm! Fresh peaches, picked just hours ago. And along with the sensational smell comes a flood of childhood memories of fruits and vegetables that smelled and tasted like nothing you find in the grocery store these days.

Tara McDonald, Executive Director of Your Local Farmers Market Society (YLFMS) says that “a peach, during peach season, will transform how anyone thinks about food.”

Tara has been Executive Director of YLFMS, which runs the Vancouver Farmers Markets, since 2005 and over the last four seasons has watched as visitors to the city’s farmers markets triple year-over-year. In 2009, over 250,000 people from all over the Lower Mainland made their way to farmers markets located throughout the city year-round.

What’s driving this growth? According to Tara, “the farmer’s market offers the opportunity to get back to real food; how it should taste and smell; the way we remember it from years ago. But more than that, the farmer’s market is about authenticity. Lots of people say that the farmer’s market serves the basic human need for community. It’s the place where people come to meet their neighbours People complain that Vancouver doesn’t have a town square, but where that’s enacted every week is at your local farmer’s market.”

Vancity supports Your Local Farmer’s Market and other community markets because we want to make a difference by preserving agriculture land and creating a sustainable food system. Farmers markets are operated as social enterprises – businesses that have an environmental mission to connect people in the community with locally produced food.  As part of Vancity’s focus on the environment and a strong local economy, our support for farmers markets achieves both goals of environmental and economic change.

Chris Bodnar of Glen Valley Organic Farm credits farmer’s markets with more than just building community. As a farmer he knows that local farmer’s markets have reshaped the face of local food and agriculture in Greater Vancouver.

“Fifteen years ago it would have been impossible to run a mid-sized organic farm in the Lower Mainland that sold its produce locally. Back then, the only market was high-end restaurants that wanted organic greens. Today, there’s a solid customer-base of people who want sustainably grown, organic food. Farmer’s markets helped educate people about the value of knowing where their food is coming from, buying locally and supporting the farmers who are growing their food,” says Chris.

Tara would be considered an “early adapter” to the attitudes shared by many farmer’s market shoppers, having worked on food security issues for over twenty years. With work opportunities having moved her family several times over the last decade, she said that each time she arrives in a new city the first thing she looks for is where the local food sources are, such as farms that sell locally. Arriving in Vancouver in 2004, she said it was difficult to find anything, so she got involved with Your Local Farmer’s Market Society.

Tara explains that like many shoppers, “We go to the farmer’s market to find great produce that’s in season. We don’t go with a shopping list; we go with open minds because we never know what we’ll find and we’re always surprised. The unfortunate thing in Vancouver is that we only have insecure, temporary market locations around the city. We need not only to secure these neighborhood sites for the long-term, but also to develop a Local Food Hub that will create permanent, multi-purpose infrastructure giving the Vancouver public greater “farm to table” access all year long.”

Farmer Chris Bodnar agrees that having a permanent, year-round location where people can buy locally grown food directly from producers would go a long way to reshaping how Lower Mainland residents view food – and to ensuring the sustainability of local farms.

“I’m from Saskatchewan where the definition of success is leaving the family farm to get a job in the city. But there’s a new generation of younger farmers, like myself, who are looking for a vocation that’s both connected to the land and that allows you to make a living,” says Chris. “The innovative work being done by the Farmer’s Market Society is making farming a more attractive career option for more people.”

Tara acknowledges that Vancity’s long-term and consistent support of the growth and development of Vancouver’s neighbourhood system of farmers markets played a signiificant role in helping the Society reach as many people as they have over the last five years.

She adds,  “Vancity’s recent enviroFund award will enable us to give a boost to the winter season markets by moving to a larger, more accessible location and running the Winter Farmers Markets every week. Plus funds will allow us to partner with leading Vancouver chefs and organizations to teach folks how to simply and easily preserve the best of the summer harvest in order to continue to eat locally right into the winter.”

As a Vancity member and enviroVisa card holder, the next time you shop at a farmers market, you can be proud that you have supported these social enterprises that are an important link between farmers and the consumer.  Enjoy the fresh produce during the summer months and soon you will be able to shop year-round for local food.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Can a calendar build community? Break down stereotypes about a neighbourhood? Improve lives? If that calendar is Hope in Shadows, then the answer is a resounding yes.

Vancity supports the work of the Hope in Shadows Society working to provide low-income individuals with training and employment through their social enterprise, the Hope in Shadows calendar.

Peter Thompson, a thirty-year resident of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, is no stranger to hard work. Originally from Boston Bar, Peter moved to Vancouver at twenty years old with his carpenter’s ticket and a desire to build a life on the coast. In 2006, an accident left Peter with his leg broken in five places, so badly that he needed to have his femur, shin bones and ankle all pinned back together. His three decades working as a carpenter came to an abrupt halt. For a man used to doing a hard day’s work, sudden unemployment – both the free time and the significantly reduced income – was a difficult adjustment.

Peter says, “It was pure luck that I found out about Hope in Shadows. I just happened to be walking by when the Hope in Shadows people were handing out cameras. I enjoy photography so I grabbed one. ‘What the heck,’ I thought, ‘I don’t expect to win a prize but it will be fun to take some pictures of my neighbourhood.’”

Hope in Shadows is a community project based around a photography contest for people living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The prize-winning photos are featured in an annual calendar that residents themselves sell for a profit. It’s a multi-faceted social enterprise that provides flexible jobs to over 200 individuals who, in 2008 earned a combined total of $130,000 through the sales of the Hope in Shadows calendar and book.

Although Peter didn’t walk away with the top prize that year – having one of his photos included in the calendar – he did win an honorary prize, “the first time I’ve won anything since my elementary school science fair,” Peter laughs.

Selling Hope in Shadows calendars was an easy decision for Peter who is naturally outgoing and enjoys meeting new people. It was also a great way for Peter to replace some of what he’d lost in having to give up his carpentry career.

“Selling the calendars helps me out, not only financially, but it gives me some sort of security, self-esteem, building myself up again. All of us calendar vendors set goals for ourselves; we’re proud of what we’re doing. It’s real work. You have to be out there every day selling,” Peter shares.

By investing in Hope in Shadows, Vancity shows its commitment to social enterprises that provide employment opportunities for individuals who need a supportive work environment.  Vancity is committed to helping individuals become more economically self-reliant and move out of poverty.

Carolyn Wong, the Hope in Shadows Project Coordinator, says that Peter’s experience is common and adds, “the reason that Hope in Shadows is so successful is that it works on many levels. It creates dignified employment that is accessible for people who, for any number of reasons, don’t have full-time jobs. It also creates positive social change by providing images that challenge the stereotypes of the Downtown Eastside community and the people who are impacted by marginalization. The photographers and calendar vendors are like human rights ambassadors for the neighbourhood. When residents are given an opportunity to tell their stories – through the photographs and conversations they have selling the calendars – they have the opportunity to effect social change.”

So, is the calendar accomplishing its goals? Signs indicate great success. Sales of the 2009 calendar almost doubled those of 2008, from 5,500 to 10,000 calendars sold by 220 vendors who, between them, earned $130,000 (including sales of the Hope in Shadows book).

Carolyn Wong attributes some of this success to the increased role that Vancity has taken on each year, “Vancity’s involvement with Hope in Shadows started in 2003. This past year they became a critical partner to our growth and our success. We received grants; seven branches became calendar depots, making it easier for our vendors to access the calendars close to where they were selling them; staff volunteered to do camera hand-outs; and they provided workshops for our vendors, to help them learn money management skills. Since Vancity is a credit union, it’s an amazing fit for us since we share so many of the same goals as our social enterprise.”

The impact of Hope in Shadows continues to grow, both on a community level and at the personal level for all of the people involved in taking pictures of the Downtown Eastside and selling the calendars. Peter Thompson, for instance, says that “Finding negative people is very rare. Most people are happy to help and support the vendors and the calendars.”

And how did Peter use the extra income he earned selling 2010 Hope in Shadows calendars?

“First, I bought myself some new warm clothes and shoes. The rest of the money,” he says, “I spent on my family. I paid to bring everyone together for Christmas – even my family who still live in Boston Bar. I  bought the dinner for everyone and gifts for all the kids.”

As a Vancity member, you have helped to make this social enterprise a success.  Look for the vendors near you and buy a Hope in Shadows calendar – it is a gift that gives back to the community.

This is a story I wrote for Vancity in 2010. Part of a series of 18 stories about their grantees.

Vancity supports Street Youth Job Action, a social enterprise that provides work skills training and life skills support to homeless youth,  by providing two years of funding and coaching support through our Social Enterprise Fund.    

At 31 years old, Ange Myers exudes the energy of a teenager and the compassion of a dear old auntie—with facial piercings and dreadlocks.

Ange is the go-to youth worker with Street Youth Job Action (SYJA), a social enterprise initiative of Directions Youth Services Centre, that provides jobs to young people who are living on the streets.

By investing in social enterprises, Vancity believes that not-for-profits can operate successful businesses that will train and hire individuals who need skill development and support.  Street Youth Job Action makes a difference in the lives of homeless and at-risk youth by giving them a chance to work.  It is a hand-up not a hand-out.

Watching the SYJA crew picking up needles, washing graffiti off garbage bins or cleaning the streets around St. Paul’s Hospital, one might not see the great accomplishments each employee had to achieve to become employed by SYJA.

Ange is a passionate cheerleader for SYJA. “We’re working with 15 to 24 years olds. Even youth this age who have good, healthy home lives, as a rule, have yet to learn many of the skills needed to get and keep a job,” she says. “With the population I work with, we have the added challenges that most are sleeping outside at night, have addiction issues and have never lived with the structures that most of us take for granted.”

Most SYJA workers come from a background that involved some relationship with Family Services. But as soon as they turned 19, they were considered adults and their support programs disappeared, leaving most with little hope for moving on from their situation to a better life; a life with stability, good health and love—the same life we all strive for.

SYJA is the only employment program that provides support to these young people. And the support goes beyond simply providing waged work to anyone who can show up by 9:00 a.m., who slept the night before and who has not done drugs in the 12 hours before the five-hour shift.

“We have a place for their dogs to stay during the day, with food donated by the SPCA and vet care once a week, and we’ll hold onto their pay cheques if they ask us to, so that they can save money,” Ange explains. “We help them learn how to do grocery shopping, how to do laundry and clean a bathroom and, possibly hardest of all, when they decide to sleep indoors, we help them adjust to living inside four walls. It’s incredibly hard to make that adjustment.”

Ange knows. Both she and her husband of ten years lived on the street. Ange has empathy for the youth she works with, and knows that the rules and structure she imposes on them is both tough love and critical to their success. To the youth in the program it’s “the place of umpteen chances,” which means they can screw up time after time and still be welcomed back to try again, but they won’t get a free ride.

“If they don’t show up on time, well-rested and drug-free, they don’t get work that day. They’re still welcome to come in, have breakfast with the crew, take a shower and get warm,” says Ange. “If they go out on a job but don’t work, they don’t get paid. The deal is they have to show pride in their work and have a good work ethic.”

And the long-term impact of Street Youth Job Action? All SYJA graduates have moved from street life to mainstream lives. Here are their words “SYJA really made a huge difference in my life. Having them on my resume is what allowed me to get off welfare. They gave me much more than a daily pay cheque. I got more confidence in myself since they trusted me. Also I learned that responsibilities are not necessarily a bad thing!”

Another graduate, who now owns her own environmentally-friendly lawn-care business and is raising four children, credits SYJA with having given her the skills she needed to land her first salaried job. “When I lived in Vancouver, SYJA was the only thing that got me out of bed and doing something on a daily basis,” she says. “All the time I was on welfare and had no hope of getting a decent job.

Vancity knows that running a business is hard, and even more challenging when you are trying to employ individuals who need training, skill development and support.  We will be there to support SYJA to become a successful social enterprise through grants and business coaching by our staff.

As a Vancity member, the next time you walk through the West End and appreciate the clean streets you know that you have made a difference by supporting this enterprise.  And Street Youth Job Action has made a difference in the lives of young people – helping them to become more self-reliant and move out of poverty.

Vancity supports the Abbotsford Community Services Community Kitchen, a space where small groups of people pool their food resources, cook together and take healthy meals home to feed their families.

Having access to a food bank ensures that people living on a low income will eat well, right? Not necessarily.

Staff of the Abbotsford Community Services, who run the Abbotsford Food Bank noticed a disturbing trend in the food that many of the clients using their services were taking home. Month after month, people would choose the same foods; not the most nutritious offerings but the pre-packaged, prepared foods. The staff and the volunteer Board of Directors (including two Vancity staff) sat down to talk about this situation. Although they were providing access to affordable and nutritious food, people who didn’t grow up with the benefit of having watched Mom or Dad prepare meals, had never learned to cook nutritious options. And so, the Abbotsford Community Kitchen was born.

Janna Dieleman, Donor and Community Relations Coordinator, describes the kitchen, “It’s a bright, airy space with lots of windows and buttery yellow walls. It’s a warm and welcoming space, made even more so by our Community Kitchen Coordinator and cooking teacher Mary (Marge) Margison. Under her guidance groups learn how to eat a healthy and varied diet on a budget and take an active role in improving their health and well-being. We’re addressing our community’s food security issues in a really grassroots and meaningful way.”

By supporting community kitchens, Vancity shows its commitment to helping individuals learn more about local food and become more economically self-reliant.  Through the Community Project Grants program, Vancity supports initiatives that happen close to home and make a difference in people’s lives.

It is said that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and this community kitchen is becoming the heart of Abbotsford. It’s a place where parents learn how to feed growing kids; youth learn skills to start living independently; recent immigrants are introduced Canadian food (and share their own food traditions); job skills are acquired by people with disabilities; and where individuals of all ages and backgrounds master the art of eating healthy meals on tight budgets. The Community Kitchen also provides a place for people to connect and create networks of support.

Yolanda, a single mom with a teenage son and an 11-year old daughter, took her kids to the Kitchen’s Intergenerational Cooking Class, and together they learned to prepare chili and a side salad with homemade dressing. While Yolanda admits to being nervous watching her children wield knives to chop garlic and onions, she says that her prayers were answered, observing their enthusiastic participation.

“The experience in the Community Kitchen not only created the opportunity to meet new people, it also brought my own family together, sharing some learning and building positive memories. This session also validated my own cooking skills; and having my children see that I cook in a fairly standard and common fashion was valuable for us all. As a single mom with permanent disabilities, I don’t get much validation. Now, my kids and I just have to bring our experience into our own kitchen!”

Food security is an issue for low-income people.  And through community kitchens, residents can learn to shop and cook on a budget – an important step towards financial literacy.  Combine this with learning about healthy, local food and there is a recipe for success.