Newsletter from Greater Victoria Acting Together - Oct 2nd Homes for All Community Assembly
Welcome to the September 2022 Newsletter from Greater Victoria Acting Together
Highlights:
Invite your friends! GVAT Homes for All Community Assembly SUNDAY OCTOBER 2, 7:00 - 8:30 PM Christ Church Cathedral & Online.
WIN! Gorge View affordable housing proposal gains unanimous Council support
Profiles: Meet our fabulous summer intern Samantha and her lovely cat
Meet volunteer Jane Welton
Learn something with us!
Ideas for what to do with this newsletter! Spreading the word!
Do the Loop to support GVAT member group Threshold Housing Society
Affordable Housing
Save the date! Invite your friends and family!
We invite GVAT member organizations, and all supporters of our housing vision, to join us October 2nd to show your support at our Homes for All Community Assembly (event details here; no RSVP required).
Everyone deserves a home within their community. Municipalities play an important role in facilitating non-profit and affordable housing. That’s why, this election, GVAT is asking mayoral candidates in the region to embrace a human rights approach to housing, and to lead by committing to bold policies that preserve and create new non-profit and affordable housing for all of our neighbours.
What: GVAT’s Homes for All Community Assembly
When: Sunday, October 2nd, 7:00-8:30pm (doors at 6:30)
Where: Christ Church Cathedral, 930 Burdett Ave, Victoria
Who: You! GVAT members and allies that share our vision
No RSVP required | event will be livestreamed | masks required & provided
We need to come together in big numbers to show mayoral candidates that there is strong support for local governments in the region to champion bold policies to accelerate development of non-profit and affordable housing.
This assembly is a critical opportunity for GVAT members to come together and take action in service of our mission to advocate for a more just, equitable and climate-safe community. Find out more at www.gvat.ca/calender-events/gvat-housing-affordability-assembly
WIN! In July GVAT Housing co-chair Lynn Beak appeared at the public hearing to speak on behalf of GVAT organisations and their tens of thousands of members to support the Gorge View Housing Society (GVHS) Master Plan rezoning application for Chown Place. Victoria City Council unanimously approved GVHS’s project to build over 300 more affordable homes for seniors and families on their 5.6-acre property between Gorge Road and West Burnside. GVHS plans for a staged development, so current residents can move directly from their current units into their new housing.
Climate Justice
On August 9, it was heartening to see our call to welcome mobility scooter and wheelchair users to Victoria’s bike and roll network taken up by Liveable Victoria in this Times Colonist column by Trevor Hancock. We are keeping the pressure on as we wait for City staff to report back to City Council on this issue.
Member organisations have embraced deep conversations about climate anxiety and hope. If your organisation is interested, get in touch with Jane Welton janew@gvat.ca , co-lead of the Climate Justice Team.
Mental Health and Addictions
Housing First! is good mental health and addictions policy, so we are working hard to make our Homes for All Community Assembly on October 2 a big celebration, as people with lived experience shape decision making in our region.
If you missed our preparatory work with the Existence Project, see our blog post. We continue to work with the community team helping to establish Victoria’s new Peer Assisted Crisis Team, which will start responding to mental health and addictions crises later this summer.
Building leaderful communities
GVAT is full of leaders who support other leaders to step up. All of us are busy and all of us know community work is like running in a relay or singing in a choir. We participate when we can and when we cannot, others are there to take their part. This means we train a lot of leaders!
Profile: Jane Welton, co-chair of GVAT’s Climate Justice Action Research Team
Name: Jane Welton
Organisational connection to GVAT: Sierra Club of BC
Roles within GVAT: Climate ART Co-Lead, member of Planning Committee and External Communications Team and Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, delegate for Sierra Club at Strategy Hub
What keeps you awake at night or is of special concern to you these days?
The appalling future that my one-year-old grandchildren are facing if we don’t get a handle on climate change. I pay special attention to the destruction of forests and other wonders of nature that, if left intact, would be protecting us from climate change.
What gives you hope or gets you up in the morning?
Nature and children. Both are wonderful and resilient, but it is up to us to provide them with protection and stewardship.
Tell us about a hobby or interest
Camping road trips – I recently returned from 3 weeks exploring as far east as the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota and returning via Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Lots of wonderful scenery and hiking.
What motivates you to leadership in GVAT?
Playing in nature was a wonderful and key part of my childhood and I want the same opportunity for all children always. I fear a future in which children have little access to nature and are terrified of it, due to extreme weather and wildfires.
Participation in civic life is a value that my parents modelled for me when I was a child. The GVAT broad-based coalition makes sense to me because decision makers cannot dismiss us as “radical environmentalists”.
What is one favourite action you have taken as a result of being involved with GVAT?
Launching Tuesdays for Trees. It was exciting to watch the variety of ways each GVAT member group “Made their own Adventure” events. One of the most memorable was a tree-themed evening of poetry which hatched the idea of sending tree-themed poetry written by children to the Minister of Forests.
Any special thoughts to share with other newsletter readers?
There are so many different ways of being involved with GVAT, such great people to work with and so much to do. Please join in to make the world a better place.
Meet Sammy our fabulous admin intern!
Why did you choose to work with GVAT?
I am highly passionate about mental health, climate change, and affordable housing so when I saw that GVAT has a focus on all three, I was interested! From expanding mental health services in schools, to addressing the housing crises in Victoria, and seeking to protect our environment, I love that GVAT strives to make a positive impact in the community.
GVAT also gives me a variety of projects, an opportunity to gain administrative experience and a greater understanding of how organisations can take on different campaigns.
What are some of your responsibilities?
I keep order in our electronic records and am ironing out some software bumps. I support the over 50 active volunteers within GVAT by, for example, helping keep track of what happens in our many meetings, managing the website and helping out with fundraising and communications. If you write to GVAT, I will most likely be the person reading it!
Make your summer more fun and meaningful! Come join us:
This GVAT member group provides housing for young adults transitioning out of foster care. Explore your community while you help improve youth mental health! Do the Loop is Back… with more trails and more fun! Get your friends and family to sponsor you as you walk, run, scoot, bike, roll or jump your way around your favourite 25km loop in the Greater Victoria area. Every $25 provides a youth with access to an in-house counselling session. This will help youth with their mental well-being and goals related to family re-connection, relational stress, school and career anxiety, grief and loss, isolation, complex trauma, and more.
More details here: Do The Loop! - Threshold Housing to register or donate today!
Learn along with us!
GVAT is full of lifelong learners. We learn from each other and from those with lived experience of the issues we work on. We value expertise that is informed by lived experience and relevant to our context. Here is a TED Talk with a planner who is helping breathe life into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 11: Sustainable cities.
Spread the word!
Civil society has power if we are many working together for the common good. If you belong to a GVAT member group, why not include highlights and a link to www.GVAT.ca in your organisation’s newsletter?
Help more people find out about us! Join our Facebook group and share our stories. With so much bad news these days you can lighten the load with our good news! If you use Twitter our handle is @ActingGreater.
How does GVAT work?
GVAT’s direction is set by Strategy Hub, delegates from each member organisation who meet every month. Our hard-working Board keeps the legal and accounting basics going.
Our campaigns are shaped and designed by Action Research Teams on each of our priority areas - Climate Justice, Affordable Housing and Mental Health and Addictions. Come join us! You can be sure of a warm welcome from thoughtful people working together to make life better for us all.
We are often working on issues that also concern members of our sister organisations in Vancouver (Metro Vancouver Alliance), Calgary (Calgary Alliance) and Edmonton (Edmonton Alliance). Look for opportunities for us to learn from each other and add our collective voices to provincial and national conversations.
GVAT External Communications Team - Jane Welton, Eric Doherty, Peggy Wilmot, Amalia Schelhorn & Patricia Lane
We recognize GVAT conducts its business on the lands of First Nations across this region: Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees) and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations in the core area, the W̱SÁNEĆ Nations {W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), SȾÁUTW̱,(Tsawout) and W̱SIKEM (Tseycum)} on the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands, Sc'ianew (Beecher Bay), T’Sou-ke, and Pacheedaht in the west , and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) in the north.
