BCPRC Advocacy
- First thing first: a BIG thank you to the members who did the *heavy lifting* of advocacy during a provincial election. Together we sent hundreds of postcards and emails to the new BC government, improved public political literacy on key poverty-reduction issues, and dared to imagine a hopeful kind of politics.
- The Understanding Precarity project recently featured our collaborative work with the project. Check out the conversation with our Provincial Director.
- We endorsed the Migrant Rights Network’s recent campaign for Permanent Residency & Rights, Not Cuts. If your organization has not endorsed yet, now’s a great day to do so.
Coalition Member Advocacy: action items
We strive to ensure our newsletter is a space of information and advocacy! That’s why we have this tidy to-do section for you to individually and organizationally support our collective efforts.
🏠 Encourage your MP to take action on homelessness: Tell the Prime Minister, your MP, and the National Housing Minister that Canadians are looking for urgent action to address the crisis of homelessness.
🌷 Ask the new BC government to prioritize biodiversity: Protecting landscapes and watersheds can help communities facing threats from wildfires, droughts, and other escalating impacts of climate change.
🏠 Support Bill C-398: This bill aims to stop cruel encampment clearouts and ensure that the federal government works with the provincial and local governments, and encampment residents, for alternatives that ensure everyone has a safe and secure place to live.
🚽 Remind Vancouver City Council to support washrooms for all: Widely available public washrooms are essential to a healthy and inclusive city – but we’ve all experienced Vancouver’s lack of safe and clean washrooms.
Ps: we are always welcoming “calls to action”. 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
Uplifting or Gentrifying? Community Conversation (in person)
November 6 from 7 – 9 pm PST
Japanese Language Hall in Vancouver, BC
Event is free to attend and open to all
Join the Carnegie Housing Project for a panel discussion on a City of Vancouver motion to “uplift” the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. City Councillor Rebecca Bligh will join a panel of community leaders to discuss the motion and navigate it’s impact on the community. This event is in partnership with the Heart of the City Festival.
Rally for the Public Post (in person)
November 7 starting at 2 pm PST
10688 King George Blvd, Surrey, BC
Event is open to all who want to stand in solidarity with postal workers
Postal workers are seeking fair wages, safe working conditions, and the health and safety of every worker. Stand in solidarity with the folks who keep the mail moving across the country. Bring your loudest members, noise makers, and flags.
Zine Workshop: Getting Around to Feed Ourselves Well (in person)
November 12 from 1 – 2:30 pm PST
312 Main in Vancouver, BC
Event is free, registration is encouraged
Participants will contribute to a zine on access to food, transportation, and food justice. We will explore community art-making that engages participants in collage, drawing, poetry, and map-making to tell the story of how they access food and food systems. The BCPRC will use this resource to tell the story of how we access food as a tool for advocacy and public education.
2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada Project Community Consultation (in person)
November 20 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm PST
312 Main in Vancouver, BC
Registration is free and open to 2SLGBTQ+ attendees
Share your input on the first national project on 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada. This free event will include food for attendees.
Youth-led Community Consultation on Environmental Protection (in person)
November 17 from 1 – 4 pm PST
Applications open to people aged 18 – 35 & due November 15
Shake Up The Establishment is co-hosting a national youth-led public consultation campaign to gather youth input to help shape Canada’s approach towards protecting everyone’s right to a healthy environment under Canada’s Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). Can’t attend an event? Share your thoughts through the online survey.
Hot Pink Paper 2-Year Report (online)
November 19 from noon – 1 pm PST
Registration is open and free to all
Halfway through their term, are Mayor Sim and Vancouver City Council moving forward or backward on their equity commitments? Women Transforming Cities (WTC) are holding council accountable to their commitments and tracking how councillors have voted on decisions that impact equity-deserving communities on key topics like affordable housing, climate action, and public washrooms.
Climate & Labour Justice Webinar (online)
November 19 from 4 – 6 pm PST
Registration is free and open to all
Join Change Course for a webinar exploring how we can connect our struggles as workers and climate organizers. We’ll learn about the history of union solidarity with other movements, how climate can show up better for workers, and we’ll hear directly from workers being impacted by climate on the job.
Care Not Cops: Nurturing Seeds of Decarceral Care (hybrid)
November 23 & 24, all day
Registration is open on a sliding scale
Care Not Cops is a grassroots community group of healthcare workers organizing to remove police from healthcare settings and advocating to end healthcare policies and practices that promotes the involvement of police in health-related matters. This year’s convergence theme invites care workers and community members to consider what strategies and models we have dreamt, nurtured, and grown through the fires of interconnected global crises.
Bonus: what we’re reading
📰 For folks looking for the template for an engaging and dynamic annual report – Mom2Mom has it dialled with their latest!
💡In this Five Good Ideas session, Sarada Peri – a communication strategist and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama – shared concrete tools to improve your communication and become a more effective advocate.
🚫 Better the legislator you know than the one you don’t, right? With the new BC government makeup confirmed, we’re doing a deep dive into who’s who in Victoria. Some of the distracting and dangerous rhetoric we saw during the election came from folks who now hold the title of MLA.
📉 The 2024 report of the National Advisory Council on Poverty demonstrates a backslide on progress to reduce poverty in Canada, and outlines the way forward.
🌎 Yellowhead Institute’s new Treaty Map provides an engaging format for connecting with the colonial processes that dictate land relations and use in this country.
Coalition Meeting Logistics
September 17 Coalition meeting: notes available for all members to review.
2024 coalition meetings (register at the links below):
Coalition meeting: Wednesday, November 13 @ 2 – 3:30 pm. View meeting agenda
2025 coalition meetings TBC! (Don’t worry, you’ll get an email just about 2025 meetings soon).
–
Want to stay up-to-date between newsletters? Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!