4. South Vancouver Neighbourhood House: Designing a Framework for Meaningful Community Engagement

Project Description

Note: This project will take place online and in person

Context: What challenge or issue does the project aim to address?

Food insecurity, social isolation, and inequitable access to support and community are issues that face South Vancouver residents. Food assets and programs are fewer and far between in South Vancouver, which comprises the Sunset, Victoria-Fraserview, and Killarney neighborhoods and is home to over 100,000 people (the majority is racialized and newcomer households). Language, cultural, and transportation barriers are substantial, which makes providing support that is community-driven challenging.

In December 2020, South Vancouver Neighbourhood House established the South Vancouver Community Food Hub based at the Langara YMCA. We currently operate a community food distribution program for residents across 7 locations, working with our partners from other agencies (called spokes). We strive to provide accessible, culturally appropriate services for all our neighbors. The Food Hub's goal is to meet immediate food security needs while developing neighborhood-specific community hubs and long-term food security strategies.

Having operated food distribution for the last year and a half, we are now scoping out how to meet our long-term goals towards food justice and community leadership. This project will support our first step of listening deeply and meaningfully to the community, so we can learn, build trust and create our roadmap. Our Reframing South Vancouver Engagement Action Plan is a long term, multi department project. We are currently in the planning phase of the project.

Main Project Activities and Deliverables

We are in the exploration and development phase of the project. Students will be involved with our Framework Design for Meaningful Community Engagement program. We are currently designing a new system for gathering meaningful information from the community in a respectful non transactional manner, we want to partner with the community members and establish long term relationships with them, in order to design and advocate for long term solutions that are community centred and community driven to create a resilient neighbourhood. Students will have the chance to co-create different culturally appropriate engagement and data collection mechanisms/frameworks (e.g., focus groups scripts,  surveys questionnaire design, group discussion facilitation guideline).

Anticipated activities include:

• Work with SVNH staff on developing decolonial, community-engaged approaches to gathering data
• Staff will suggest a range of engagement approaches, and students will choose one to focus on (e.g. focus group or survey, only according to their interest and potential deliverables)
• With staff, develop a framework for community engagement that supports community leadership and food justice
• With staff, develop a framework for program evaluation and volunteer feedback systems consistent with our Hub and Spoke Values (including updating survey guides for volunteers and partner agencies)

Students will not be expected to be part of every aspect of the project, or to directly engage with the public because of time constraints. However, we anticipate future volunteer opportunities in the implementation phases of the project.

Student Assets and Skills (preferred or required)

• Cross-cultural communication and understanding of equity issues in racialized communities
• Interest in asset-based community development
• Interest/experience in sustainability and food networks
• Strong writing skills
• Interest in project evaluation design
• Languages skills, including Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish, and Tagalog (asset, but not required)

Are there any mandatory attendance dates (e.g. special event)?

• No

Is a criminal record search (CRS) required?

• No

 How much self-direction is expected from the students?

• Deciding on the project deliverable(s): equal leadership between students and community partner
• Developing the activity plan and timeline: Equal leadership between students and community partner
• Scheduling and initiating the communication plan (e.g. weekly Zoom check-in, biweekly email update, etc.): Equal leadership between students and community partner
• Implementing the activity plan (e.g. surveying stakeholder groups): Equal leadership between students and community partner
• Finalizing the deliverable(s): Led by students

Preferred Days of Week and Hours

• Flexible
  

Related Community Service Opportunities for Students

• We welcome our project students to volunteer in person at our Food Hub to get a deeper understanding of our program and the South Vancouver community.
• We have a variety of volunteer shifts on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays for grocery box packing/sorting and direct community distribution and outreach.
• We are also throwing a daytime Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 29th, through our South Vancouver Food Network with games, food, and more, and we would love your help then!
• For students who would like to volunteer for these opportunities, we require a Criminal Record Check that we will initiate for the student.

Required Reading

Project/Partner Orientation Materials

Students should review the following materials prior to the first partner meeting. Additional orientation materials may be provided at the first partner meeting.

• Review our website for program information: www.southvan.org
• Review our Program Manual for background information on our current operations and program scope. We will send manual to students ahead of the first meeting.
• McKnight, John. Asset-Based Community Development: The Essentials

Additional Materials

• Killarney Neighbourhood Social Indicators Profile (2020). City of Vancouver
• Sunset Neighbourhood Social Indicators Profile (2020). City of Vancouver
• Victoria-Fraserview Neighbourhood Social Indicators Profile (2020). City of Vancouver
• Resilient Neighbourhoods Toolkit. City of Vancouver
• Activating Inclusion Toolkit. UBC Equity and Inclusion Office
• Checklist for Accessible and Inclusive Event Planning and Respectful Dialogues Guide. UBC Equity and Inclusion Office
• What does facilitation mean to us? Reflections from POC youth (2020). hua foundation
• The Engagement and Approval Pathway (process by which the First Nations Health Council and First Nations Health Authority gathers input and guidance and builds consensus on key decisions)
• First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) community resources, researcher resources, researcher guides

Click here to learn about the global settlement and neighbourhood house movement. For information on neighbourhood houses in our region, visit the Association of Neighbourhood Houses (ANH) website. Note that some local neighbourhood houses are independent (not overseen by ANH) and therefore are not listed on the ANH website.