Community Artist Yvonne VanderKooi spent the day creating a painting to recognize the strength and resilience that exists in the Harewood community. At the end of the event, the painting was unveiled and the CYC team posed with the completed work of art.
May 12, 2016 - 1:30pm
First annual community forum showcases Child and Youth Care student research
From School District 68 to the RCMP, Island Health, and non-profit organizations like the Nanaimo Family Life Association and Kwúmut Lelum Child and Family Services, a wide range of representatives came out to Vancouver Island University (VIU) to participate in the first annual Harewood Community Forum.
The forum was hosted by VIU’s Centre for Community Outreach and Care, which was established by the Child and Youth Care department (CYC) in 2013 to provide practical, experiential learning experiences to CYC students while strengthening ties to the community.
“It was our first community forum and it was organized and run by students. They facilitated the event as part of their final practicum placement and presented on the unique community issues they were engaged in,” said Centre coordinator and CYC professor, Ashleigh Martinflatt. “The event was a way to help them build relationships with a wide range of community partners and a space where they could share the knowledge they gained while working in the community.”
RCMP Youth Officer, Const. Sherri Wade, is on a committee of service providers that came together to identify service gaps in the neighbourhood. She said she was pleased to see how the projects that were highlighted at the forum addressed those gaps.
“I enjoyed participating in the forum and felt inspired by the students’ community focused projects,” said Wade. “For example, we have quite a few youth in town who are not attending school. It would be an asset to our community to have outreach workers in public spaces like coffee shops, buses, and playgrounds where they could safely connect with those youth. A forum like this allows us to meet with people who could come together and make things like that happen.”
Seven CYC students were on the agenda with ‘TED Talk’ style presentations with titles like Supporting Healthy Minds, Building Better Youth Programs, and Power of Leadership. CYC student Josh Grossgardt’s talk, called Limitations of Transportation, showed how transportation can act as a barrier to people accessing services, getting to important appointments or even to work.
“During my practicum I was out in the community looking at the barriers that exist to those who might not have a car,” said Grossgardt.
“I wanted to focus on how transportation can be a factor that prevents people in our community from accessing services, supports or even businesses. This is about things like getting to school, going to doctors, and getting to afterschool clubs and it affects a lot of people.”
Trails, busses, sidewalks, adequate lighting to see at night, street signs, and wheelchair ramps were all things he looked at for his study. He also gathered information from an online survey the City of Nanaimo conducted.
“One solution we came up with was to request that service providers ask their clients what their experiences are like just getting to their organization,” said Grossgardt. “Many don’t ask that question even though most have issues with people not showing up for appointments. If they identify a need or challenge that people have, then we can work with them to find alternative methods that might make things easier on them.”
As for the future of the Harewood Community Forum, Grossgardt says it will only continue to grow.
“I loved the TED style Talks that our outreach team put together and I was surprised by the in-depth discussions that took place after each one,” said Grossgardt. “It was great to see how many people were comfortable sharing their opinions from such different backgrounds and to hear how they interpreted what they were seeing. More than 40 came out for this one and we expect that number to grow in the years to come.”
The Harewood Community Forum was made possible thanks to support from Island Savings, the Health and Human Services Student Council, and a grant from the VIU Research and Scholarly Activity Office Community Engagement Accelerator Grant program.
Visit the Centre for Community Outreach website for more information.
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Media Contact:
Dane Gibson, Communications Officer, Vancouver Island University
P: 250.740.6288 | E: Communications@viu.ca T: #viunews
Tags: In the Community
