May 15 Coalition meeting: notes available for all members to review.

2024 coalition meetings (register at the links below): 
Campaign Working Group: Wednesday, June 12 @ 10-11:30 am
Coalition meeting: Tuesday, September 17 @ 2 – 3:30 pm
Coalition meeting: Wednesday, November 13 @ 2 – 3:30 pm

BCPRC

News

BCPRC Sweet Sixteen Ice Cream Social (in-person)
July 4 from 4 – 6 pm
Lake room at the Trout Lake Community Centre, Vancouver BC
RSVP: email sacia@bcpovertyreduction.ca

Join us for an afternoon of ice cream, commiseration, and connecting about the work ahead of us. With sixteen years of work behind us, we know we’re in the long game of policy change. Come enjoy some Earnest Ice Cream with us as we unveil newly developed videos and visuals and leave with some strengthened connections!

Call for board nominations

Interested in serving on the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition Society Board of Directors? Deadline to apply: June 21st, 2024. Board members will be voted in at the 2024 Annual General Meeting: July 23, 4pm on Zoom. Read the call for board nominations and consider applying today!

Advocacy

• BC got a D+ in Food Banks Canada’s latest assessment of well-being in the province. Dragging down the province’s mark are several F grades, including the exorbitant cost of housing, trouble accessing health care, inability to keep up with the cost of living, and poor food security and poverty rates.
• We’re gearing up to hold to-be-elected hopefuls to account during the BC election this fall, particularly on topics of housing, transit and transportation, and social assistance rates. If your team is working to advance policy asks in these areas or in other poverty-reduction goals, get in touch with our Campaign Manager: chantelle@bcpovertyreduction.ca! We are open to collaborating on social media posts, speaking at your events, and co-writing op-ed pieces, among other approaches to amplification.

Calls to Action

• We would love for members to join us at a community table to talk to voters about why poverty reduction policy benefits everyone! Fill out (and pass along to your team) our quick survey about your availability in August, September, and October. 
• Since May 1st, over 78,000 Canadians have been boycotting Loblaws and its affiliates over increased prices — and they’re making waves in the media. Will you call on your MP to rein in grocery greed?
• Hold Big Oil accountable for its climate pollution. Did you know there are no limits to the amount of climate pollution Canada’s oil and gas industry can emit? We must regulate it if we’re to stand a chance of meeting critical climate targets, which ensures a livable future for all.
• It’s a good time for Big Oil accountability around here. Bill C-372, a private member’s bill tabled by New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, would ban the promotion and advertising of fossil fuels just like tobacco advertising is banned. Encourage MPs to support Bill C-372!
• Let us know what you’re doing to celebrate Pride month where you are (whether in June across BC or in August in the lower mainland)! We’re dedicated to ensuring that queer folks across the province are supported and look forward to connecting with our community at Pride events throughout the summer.

Ps: we are always welcoming “calls to action” from members! Please note that our newsletter typically goes out the first week of each month. Send action items to our Digital Media Manager to be featured.

Upcoming Events & Training

Building Resilient Communities (in-person)
June 6 from 5 – 7:30 pm
638 Fisgard St, Victoria BC
Registration is free and includes a shared meal!

Join the Victoria Community Social Planning Council, climate experts and community members for an evening of learning, conversation, and good food. Speakers from the Pacific Impacts Consortium and Victoria will share climate projections for Victoria and how communities can be ready to adapt.

Forward! For a Frack-Free Future (in-person)
June 7 – 9, 2024
SFU Harbour Centre, Vancouver BC
Registration is open on a sliding scale between 0-$50

Community organizers, activists, volunteers and everyone in between will gather for a weekend of trainings, conversations and socials to re-energize and inspire the growing movement against fracked gas.

This Changes Everything: film screening (in-person)
June 15 from 1:15 – 3:30 pm
Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre, Vancouver BC
Registration is open and free

Join youth-led initiative Solastagia for a free film screening! This will be a community event to radically reimagine our climate futures. Together folks will watch the thought-provoking documentary This Changes Everything to hear stories of hope and climate action. Please bring your own blankets or a yoga mat to sit on, anything that will help you feel comfortable watching the movie.

Resources

🎧 What is the role of Transit Security (according to Translink)? We’ve been listening to Translink’s podcast, What’s the T to gain some insight on the framing used by the Lower Mainland’s SkyTrain service provider. We’re taking notes on the ways that transit providers in BC talk about their riders (err… customers?) and workers to better imagine new ways of thinking about transit as a dignified, accessible public good.

🚀Do you work with clients or people who may be looking to develop career skills in Early Childhood Education? Pathways to Childcare Careers, run by the Pacific Immigrant Resource Society, is welcoming a new cohort!

📈Momentum’s Rural, Remote and Northern Queer Advocacy Leadership Program is for anyone based in a rural, remote or northern community looking to grow their 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy capacity and connect with other advocates/organizers, with priority for Black, Indigenous and Racialized 2SLGBTQIA+ advocates. The program includes a $30/hr honorarium and is spread over six sessions between June and September 2024. The application deadline is June 7, 2024 at midnight EST.

🏡Two reports on housing may be of interest: first, the final recommendations from Canada’s very first human rights-based review panel on the financialization of purpose-built rental housing. Testimonials in this report highlight the connection between financialization and unreasonable rent hikes, evictions, poor maintenance, and more. Secondly, a new report by the Aboriginal Housing Management Association explores the lived experiences of extreme heat among Indigenous households in the province.

💸The latest Living Wage Gap Report shows that 1 in 3 workers in BC don’t earn a Living Wage. That’s more than 740,000 people who are trapped in a gap between how much money they make and how much they need to earn to pay for rent and other essentials.

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