Community Journey
ABOUT:
The Community Journey will take delegates through the city of Surrey to explore a series of in-community site visits that are designed to provide diverse and contrasting perspectives on community issues, opportunities, and collaborations. Thematic areas include First Peoples', health, philanthropy, K-12 education, social inclusion, and responsible urbanization.
T O P I C S & S I T E S
Engaging Surrey’s Indigenous Communities – Youth Matters
Located in the heart of Surrey – on the unceded shared traditional territory of the Kwantlen, Semiahmoo & QayQayt, the Fraser Regional Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association (FRAFCA) provides an array of social and well-being programs to serve the region’s growing and diverse indigenous communities. Indigenous youth engagement is a significant part of FRAFCA’s work. The visit to the Centre is an opportunity to meet the youth, and hear first-hand their stories, experiences, challenges and successes settling and integrating in Surrey.
First Peoples
Authentic Engagements, Authentic Relationships: A Conversation with Cst. Troy Derrick, Surrey’s First Nations RCMP Officer
Up-close and personal talk with Surrey’s First Nations RCMP officer Constable Troy Derrick
on his personal and professional experiences engaging with Surrey’s indigenous communities, and the opportunity to develop and strengthen collaborations and partnerships.
Philanthrophy
John Volken: The Story, Impact & Partnerships In Surrey
Through a dialogue and tour, a look at how philanthropist, John Volken, has changed the lives of people troubled by drug and alcohol addiction and is creating meaningful opportunities to integrate them back into the community through three of his social enterprises:
Surrey Schools: Approaches To Engaging & Supporting Vulnerable Youth
How Surrey Schools (BC's largest school district) is successfully engaging with and supporting vulnerable youth through their Expressive Arts program, which uses arts-based expression and exploration to engage new refugees and children with cognitive/intellectual disabilities, and Focus TREK, an adolescent youth program that works with students requiring intensive behavioral support to help them re-engage and succeed in their education.
Education
(K-12)
Social
Inclusion
(Newcomer Settlement &
Integration)
Coming Together: Welcoming & Engaging Newcomers To Our City
Join the
Surrey Immigrant Advisory Roundtable (IAR) in a candid discussion about their successes and challenges in representing the voices of new immigrants and refugees in the city of Surrey. The IAR is part of Surrey’s Local Immigrant Partnership (LIP; videos to view here); made up of local immigrant/refugee residents from 16 source countries. The group will also share how programs such as Community Leaders Igniting Change (CLIC: a local residents’ leadership training program) is fostering leadership capacity and supporting resident engagement.
The Power of Grassroots Organizations: United as One
Often grassroots organizations have the in-depth know-how and strong community connection to deliver successful programs, yet funding remains a challenge, i.e., perceptions that larger organizations are more efficient, have the capacity to manage larger funds and can serve more people. Do these perceptions hold true? By exploring Umoja
(a leading newcomer settlement agency in Surrey) and the vision of its founder (once a Ugandan refugee himself), there will be an opportunity to delve into the world of grassroots organizations: the struggles, the triumphs, and challenging the idea that 'bigger is better’!
Whalley Walking Tour of 135A Street
An RCMP walking tour of 135A Street (an area of downtown Surrey troubled by crime, drug addiction and homelessness) to witness the social and economic development challenges, and learn about the efforts being made by the RCMP and other social service providers to engage and assist the inhabitants, and address the needs and concerns of local residents and businesses.
Image source: Vivian Luk, CBC
Let’s Talk Business & More! Coffee & Conversation With Elizabeth Model, Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association (DSBIA)
A conversation with Elizabeth Model, CEO, DSBIA
on the local business community’s perspectives and experiences on the issues and successes of Surrey’s growing City Centre, and the importance of community partnerships in supporting innovation and collaboration in economic development, community building and addressing social issues in Surrey’s downtown.
Social & Economically Responsible
Urban
Development
(Needs, Challenges & Opportunities)
Health
A Health Innovation Agenda: Innovation Boulevard Society – Programs, Partnerships & Community
Through dialogue and showcasing of client projects, take a closer at the Innovation Boulevard Society as model for advancing business, health and research innovations, and how diverse community partnerships and collaborations in Surrey are contributing (sometimes in the most unexpected ways!) to social and economic enterprise in the region, as well as the community’s health agenda.
Surrey’s Healthier Community Partnerships - The Live5210 Healthy Living Framework
An examination of Fraser Health’s (Surrey’s public health authority) collaborative approach to health promotion in the region, the learnings to date from Surrey's efforts to champion a healthy living program for children and their families, and the challenges and opportunities we face in building community capacity to address the needs of vulnerable groups and neighbourhoods.
