general interest « Donna Barker Writes

Abbotsford Community Kitchen – Food for the Soul

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 [...]

Asking the right questions to get a great story

Here’s an article I just wrote for the upcoming Canadian Society for Social Development newsletter. They are a great organization that supports entrepreneurs with disabilities – and other people, too!

I recently did a project with a granting organization, to write stories about twenty of their grantees. The project was great fun – [...]

Fun with frugality – a new book review

My latest book review for Rabble.ca.

Thrifty: Living the Frugal Life with Style by Marjorie Harris (House of Anansi, 2009; $19.95)

I was fortunate enough to be raised in a home where being thrifty was second nature, thanks entirely to the creative talents of my mom. Although we had enough money to buy things new, [...]

90-minutes on the keys to market research

What: the last Vancity seminar in the Advice to Go! series. When: Monday, December 21 from 9:00 to 10:30 AM Where: Vancity head office, 183 Terminal Avenue, Vancouver, right downstairs from the Main Street / Science World SkyTrain station. Who: Anyone (small business or not-for-profit) who would like to reach more people

More info and [...]

Seminars for new and aspiring entrepreneurs

A project I developed for Vancity a year ago is being re-delivered from October 19 to the end of December:

Advice to Go! Seminars were created to provide new entrepreneurs with information and tools to help make your young business more financially stable and sustainable. That stability, we believe, will be supported by having skills [...]

Slow Death by Rubber Duck

My first book review. And for the great Canadian news site, Rabble.ca!

Seven killer chemicals Are you a toxic time bomb? The authors of Slow Death By Rubber Duck investigate

I have to admit: when I picked up Slow Death By Rubber Duck, the new offering by Canadian environmental activists, Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, [...]

Soleil de nuit

Ma vie n’est pas derrière moi ni avant ni maintenant Elle est dedans.

Jacques Prévert

Words worth taking time to translate, absorb and embody. One of my favourite poems. The meaning even more profound as I continue to prepare for my marriage dissolution ceremony.

Self-Employment Explorer

I had the great honour of creating both the content plan and then writing the content for the Self-Employment Explorer: An online resource for youth (ages 14-24) with disabilities or other barriers to explore entrepreneurship as a career option, including exercises, worksheets and the steps to creating a solid small business plan.

Kudos to [...]

Vaccines and informed consent

Okay, so the title isn’t catchy and absolutely needs work, but my passion project – to launch an information website about childhood vaccines that is neither for nor against shots; that does not resort to fear-mongering language about either the possible negative impacts of either vaccines or vaccine-preventable diseases; that is a resource to help [...]

F*Cancer!

I had the great privilege of facilitating an all-day storytelling workshop for the Hollyhock Leadership Institute yesterday. What a great group of change-makers in that room!

One woman who really grabbed my attention was Susan Fiedler and the bracelet that she designed to help her deal with her fight with cancer.

My dad-in-law is [...]