Game On!

Two very important schedules were set today: the Stanley Cup finals and Vancouver Foundation’s Community Conversations. The timing wasn’t an accident – although we expect our sessions to be popular, we didn’t want to go head to head on dates with a hockey crazed region!

The first Community Conversation will take place in Maple Ridge on Thursday, June 9^th from 6:00pm til 8:30pm at the Maple Ridge Public Library. The event is free to attend but we are asking people to pre-register here.  We are finalizing the exact times for the other sessions and we will be posting these in the next day or two.

Although we wanted to wait to finalize the community dates, it doesn’t mean we haven’t been hard at work preparing for the sessions. We have been out meeting with individuals and organizations in all six communities to find out what communities are doing well to facilitate belonging and a sense of social connections, and where the opportunities are for improvements.

And along the way we have heard many inspiring stories of community connections and places of belonging: the amazing youth centre in Maple Ridge with its range of programs running every afternoon and evening seven days a week; the library in White Rock with regular gathering for Grandmothers for Africa to chess and debate clubs. InNew Westminster, we learned about a seniors centre and a youth centre built side by side so not only could facilities be shared, but also stories and activities between the generations.

We look forward to holding the Community Conversations and hearing from attendees about their stories of community belonging.

*Written by Trina Prior, Manager, Vital Signs Team

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May 26, 2011

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Donald Brenner

 

It was with shock and great sadness to hear about the sudden passing of Donald Brenner, a former Supreme Court Chief Justice and Vancouver Foundation Board Member.  In his 11 years with Vancouver Foundation, Brenner worked tirelessly and devoted countless hours to improving communities. He always approached life with enthusiasm and an easy smile.

For a glimpse into Donald Brenner’s amazing life and life-long devotion to justice, please see his profile from Vancouver Foundation magazine, which recounts his early years as a helicopter pilot and the many years of giving back to the BC community.

Our deepest condolences to his wife Robin and his two daughters for his loss; our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

For more:

• A tribute from the Vancouver Sun
• A tribute from the Province

 

Written by Onjana Yawnghwe, assistant, Vital Signs Team

 

 

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March 14, 2011

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When you picture a healthy, connected community, what does it look like?

The Vital Signs team has been busy over the last couple of months holding preliminary conversations around the model and topic for our Community Conversation series. One of the biggest findings from the 2010 Vital Signs report is how a strong sense of belonging contributes to people’s quality of life. Building on this information, we are interested in exploring what communities are doing well to encourage and support social connections, and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Using small table discussion groups, residents will have the chance to contribute to conversations on Vital Signs issue areas as they relate to belonging. Where are the opportunities for seniors to pass along their skills and knowledge to younger generations? What is possible to further encourage children and youth to participate in sports and outdoor recreation? Where are the spaces for neighbours to gather at street parties, community gardens and cultural celebrations?

The Community Conversation Series will launch in the spring of 2011. We look forward to hearing from metro Vancouver residents and deepening our understanding of what contributes to healthy, happy communities.

Locations and dates will be announced shortly.

*Written by Trina Prior, Manager, Vital Signs Team

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March 4, 2011

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Vital Signs Community Dialogues

Our approach to the Vital Signs differs greatly this year than in previous years. In the past, the report was considered the ‘end goal’, and there was little done after its release. However, the consequent question after the report’s release was a big ‘So what?’ In an attempt to answer this question, this year we wanted to actively engage the community and meet people where they’re at, whether it’s twitter, Facebook, or through our blog.

This is why, for the very first time, Vital Signs will be holding a series of community dialogues throughout metro Vancouver in the spring of 2011. The dialogues will give the public a chance to come together with Vancouver Foundation and the area’s own Community Foundations to discuss the advantages, challenges, and hopes that are unique to various communities. We’re also looking for a way to integrate one of the biggest learning from this year’s Vital Signs: the importance of the sense of belonging in people’s lives.

To help our team plan the community dialogues, we formed an advisory group consisting of Vancouver Foundation staff members to advise and give feedback about our approach to the dialogues. With backgrounds ranging from Donor Development, to Granting, to Communications and Investment, each member of the advisory group brings a cache of knowledge about the community and their experiences with public meetings.

In our initial discussions about the community dialogues, there was a clear consensus that the event should be a welcoming one where people are inspired to become involved. There was also unanimous agreement that the dialogues should create a space that allows people to listen to one another. How we do this is a little trickier; we are currently exploring different dialogue models and approaches to create this welcoming space.

The issues that we address in Vital Signs – like affordability, arts and culture, housing—are present in our everyday lives and people’s experiences.  While the report and website are valuable sources of information, there is opportunity to use Vital Signs as a way to engage people in our communities, and to explore their passions and concerns.

In the New Year, we’ll let everyone know about dates and venues. Stay tuned!

*Written by Onjana Yawnghwe, Assistant, Vital Signs team

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December 17, 2010

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Virginia Greene: June 22, 1944 – December 2, 2010

We were saddened to learn that Virginia Green passed way last Thursday, December 2^nd from ovarian cancer at the age of 66. She had been a wonderful ally and friend to us here at Vancouver Foundation. Virginia was involved in both the Vital Signs project and the Vancouver Foundation joint initiative Streetohome, dedicated to tackle the problem of homelessness in Vancouver.

As a member of Vital Sign’s Leadership Advisory Group, she inspired us with her vigorous presence, and always sought to bring the project to its full potential. Yet even while struggling with her health near the completion of the project, Virginia always expressed her commitment and excitement about the report. We consider ourselves incredibly fortunate to have had her input.

Virginia’s accomplishments have been incredible. In addition to being the President and CEO of Business Council of British Columbia, she served on many boards, including the UBC Board of Governors, the Salvation Army Advisory Board, and VGH Hospital Foundation Board.  Her efforts as Chair of the BC/Yukon Division of the Breast Cancer Foundation boosted awareness and raised enormous funds for breast cancer research.

Without a doubt, British Columbia will mourn her loss because Virginia has always been a champion for the people of this province. From promoting our region to the world in Expo 86, to serving as Deputy Minister, to running the Olympic torch for North Vancouver in 2010, Virginia was always devoted to making her community a better place.  In an interview from 2008, Virginia stated, “I’m a British Columbian by birth – in fact, we go back almost four full generations on both sides of my parents – and I’ve just always been very passionate about this province… My objective was always the same, and that was to try and improve outcomes for people.”

Virginia’s passion for community grew even larger during her battle with ovarian cancer. In September of this year, she raised $300,000 at a sold-out lunch event for Ovarian Cancer Canada. It is characteristic that even in the midst of personal illness, Virginia extended herself toward the larger community. It is this giving spirit and ceaseless energy that we will remember. We will miss her greatly.

A memorial service was held today, Friday, December 10 at 2pm at Christ Church Cathedral on 690 Burrard Street. Please donate to Ovarian Cancer Canada (www.ovariancanada.org) in lieu of flowers.

http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/bcb/people/2008/02/01/virginia-greene
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Virginia+Greene+motto+home+guided+life+career/3928237/story.html
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010PREM0210-001533.htm
http://www.bcbc.com/Documents/Obituary_VG.pdf
http://www.theprovince.com/health/Ovarian+cancer+takes+Virginia+Greene/3920448/story.html

*Written by Onjana Yawnghwe, Assistant, Vital Signs Team

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December 10, 2010

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A Generous Heart: Gordon Dunn

This month, many metro Vancouver men are sporting brand new moustaches for ‘Movember’ in support of prostate cancer awareness and to raise funds.  Yet few are aware that one of the most passionate prostate cancer activists, Gordon Dunn, lives right in our region. Gordon founded The Vancouver Advanced Prostate Cancer Support Group in 1998, the first support group in Canada for men with advanced prostate cancer. Since being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, Gordon has made prostate cancer awareness his cause, and has become an expert on new research in the area.

Unfortunately, Gordon Dunn is nearing the end of his journey. Yet even while under palliative care in his home, he opened his doors to Pete McMartin of the Vancouver Sun for a feature story that chronicles his struggle with prostate cancer. Please take a look at the article here.

Many people don’t know that in addition to his activism, Gordon has been a donor for Vancouver Foundation for several years. Because of his generosity, many non-profit organizations have benefited, and the effects of these gifts are immeasurable in the community. Recently, Gordon contacted Kristin, a manager in Development and Donor Services at Vancouver Foundation, to make a donation to his fund; even with his failing health, Gordon made a point of thanking Vancouver Foundation for the work that we do.

We, in turn, thank Gordon for all the work that he’s done as a crusader to raise awareness for prostate cancer, and we salute him for his past and continuing generosity to our community. His courage and spirit has inspired many, and his charitable gifts will live on.

For more information about prostate cancer awareness, please visit:

http://www.prostatecancerbc.ca/home/

http://www.prostatecancer.ca/

*Written by Onjana Yawnghwe, assistant, Vital Signs Team

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November 26, 2010

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A Social Media Integration Challenge for Royal Roads University

Lidia Kemeny, Director and I are honoured to present a organizational communications challenge to Masters students in Professional Communications at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC. We will be presenting a communications challenge on social media integration at Vancouver Foundation. There will be three other organizations presenting as well and we are all hoping to receive feedback and potential solutions from the students when we meet with them again next week.

Below is the slide show presentation that will be shared today:

Here is the prezi presentation that will be shared with them this afternoon.

*written by Meriko Kubota, Manager, Vital Signs Team

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November 15, 2010

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#FollowFriday www.Signals.ca

Signals help to steer us in the right direction and that’s exactly what our Vital Signs team was fortunate to experience with the guidance of the phenomenal communications and design firm Signals.

It’s not the same until you put some faces to this so here we go:

Barbara Baker: the communications and design team lead. When we first met the Signals team, we were overwhelmed with a portfolio that exemplified this firm’s ability to bring clarity to complex issues. We thought we knew what we wanted, but Barbara continued to provide us with alternative options and creative solutions we could never have come up with on our own. It’s thanks to Barbara’s creative recommendations that we have such a great final product to share with you.

John Belisle: the graphic and design lead. John quickly became “the most talented person we’ve worked with”. His artwork was awe-inspiring and captured the importance of our data. Not only were his drawings fantastic, but he understood how to illustrate the data. John’s graphics transported us from the challenge of 2-dimensional photos to lively and relatable character representations of our region.

David Belanger: the website and coding lead. David made all of the Vital Signs social media, interactive, and engagement dreams come true. His expertise went into the technical backend of the site.  Although we didn’t know what he was doing, we could trust every code he directed. To the last minute, and through to the late night launch of our website, David was beside us with his calm demeanor to help support a successful launch and well-organized website.

We can’t thank Barbara, John, David and the rest of the Signals team enough for a wonderfully positive experience of working with them and for the final product which we have been sharing since our launch on Oct. 5^th, 2010. It has been rewarding for the Vital Signs team and our Communications Team at Vancouver Foundation to work with this dynamic and engaging communication and design firm.

If you’d like to see some other great examples of clarified complex issues and work in our community, please take a look at Signals portfolio HERE.

*written by Meriko Kubota, Manager, Vital Signs Team

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November 5, 2010

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Gathering Community Responses

Our evening launch of Vital Signs on October 6, 2010 at the Roundhouse Community Centre was filled with engaging speakers, an animated informational video, touching granting stories, and even electronic polling. However, we still wanted to know what the audience felt and thought about living in metro Vancouver. After all, individual voices make up the richness and diversity of our region.

We crafted three questions for evening. As people arrived, they were given a pack of sticky-notes, and were encouraged to write down responses and post their responses onto three large, free-standing walls outside the theatre. The walls were a beautiful sight to see at the end of the evening, all covered with white slips of paper.

The first question was: “What do you appreciate most about your community?”, and there were a number of great responses:

“The diversity, openness, freedom to express in many ways”

“The Balance of our nature & our metropolitan city landscape”

“The willingness to change and the natural world”

To the question “What is the most important priority in metro Vancouver that you would like to see addressed?” some people wrote:

“More spots in high quality daycare”

“more affordable housing”

“The drug & homelessness problem”

Finally, we asked “What is the one thing you can do to make your community better?” and many answers were pretty inspiring:

“Get to know my neighbours”

“Volunteer, Vote, Lead by example”

“Being connected! Being involved!”

Growing through the responses, we noticed that there were many commonalities to the answers, and we thought it might be interesting to create a ‘word cloud’ type image for each answer. With the help of Wordle, we arrived on these beautiful images.

 

 

*written by Onjana Yawnghwe, Assistant, Vital Signs Team

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October 26, 2010

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#Follow Friday @VIAwesome

Today we would like to dedicate a #FollowFriday post to Vancouver Is Awesome, (VIA) and specifically to Bob Kronbauer, Founding Editor and Executive Director of VIA.

photo by: Randy Laybourne

Vancouver is Awesome has recently been crowned the 2010 Best Local Blog by The Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver Awards. The VIA mandate is to celebrate everything awesome about Vancouver and Vancouver Foundation feels proud to collaborate with VIA, given the theme for this year’s Vital Signs report, “vitality”.

Our public opinion survey found very positive results that showed the majority of us feel the quality of life in our region is good or excellent, we feel a strong sense of belonging, are happy and interested in life, and have a bond of trust in our communities. Bob’s work and the role of VIA in our community helps to foster all of these elements. The individuals who help create this region are all of the residents who live, work, and play here in metro Vancouver and many of them have been featured on VIA. VIA celebrates community engagement, fosters participation and gives us all many reasons  to be proud and happy to be a part of our community and what is created here. Bob’s leadership is his ability to see the greatness in the contributions of our residents and his desire to share them with others. It is from this place he helps to create where we can also feel a sense of hope and optimism to tackle the challenges our region faces such as:

54% of our youth don’t eat the recommended amounts of fruits & veggies

44% of our bus stops are inaccessible for seniors and people with disabilities

6% increase in obesity and rising faster than the Canadian average

2,660 people are homeless

 

 

We would like to congratulate Vancouver is Awesome for their ongoing work in helping the metro Vancouver region build the communities we are a part of. It has been a pleasure working with Bob and VIA to feature various posts from our Vital Signs report: http://vancouverisawesome.com/?s=vital+signs. We will have a blog post per month from now until March 2011 so please keep an eye out for us.

 

*written by Meriko Kubota, Manager, Vital Signs Team

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October 15, 2010

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