As part of International Development week, BCCIC staff conducted short interviews to learn more about the work of their members. See the clips below – and enjoy!
How can we show international solidarity from BC?
What does ‘universality’ mean?
The ‘reverse test’
For more like this visit BCCIC’s website here!
Filed under Leading
We are ready to accept applications for the YWLP – Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat! As a result of strong interest from North Island College and partners in the Comox Valley, we’re hosting this retreat at Mt Washington on Vancouver Island.
Please share with your friends/networks…
YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat Application Information
YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat
YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat Application Form
Additional spaces have been opened for the YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat; applications accepted until March 1st or until all spaces have been filled.
YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat
March 11-13, 2016: Mt Washington, Vancouver Island
Join Caroline M. Berinyuy and a group of others interested in local/global leadership for a retreat this spring. You’ll spend a weekend on Mt Washington in the Comox Valley on the unceded territory of the K’moux people. As a group, you will get to know each other, learn more about Caroline’s work, consider ways to be in solidarity – and have fun!
Caroline M. Berinyuy, program director of the Young Women’s Leadership Program (YWLP) in Cameroon, completed her PhD in Education at the University of Virginia. Global Solidarity Retreat organizer Mali Bain has connected with her in relation to her visit to Vancouver to present at the 2016 Comparative and Intercultural Education Society (CIES) conference; Caroline is thrilled to be co-facilitating the YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat.
The retreat will be an opportunity to
We welcome a diverse group of participants, both those new to this work and those with significant experience/training. You will benefit most from this retreat if you have one or more of the following:
Please share widely, and be in touch with questions / comments!
– YWLP-Cameroon Global Solidarity Retreat Co-facilitators: Caroline, Mali, and Colleen
globalsolidarityretreat@gmail.com
Contribute to the retreat or pay for your retreat:
Filed under Leading
After weeks of holiday time and considerable procrastination, I’ve finally had the opportunity to follow a few more of the many rabbit-holes of research available through ancestry.com. I’ve written those down, mixed in some of my thinking / process around colonization, and come up with a ‘something’.
This first piece is a start of what I see as a larger project – a project that races back the many roots of my ancestry, not just through the patrilineal line that gave me the name ‘Bain’ – but through the many branches that lead back through my great-grandmothers to others before me.
This is a very new and fresh first-draft, and open to editing. If you happen to stumble across this page and have some interest, please do send your frank feedback and comments!
Filed under Researching, Thinking
Global Solidarity Retreat
with Sandra Moran, Artesana
September 26-28, 2014; ongoing solidarity into 2015 and beyond
summary report (pdf) | full report (pdf)
The Artesana Global Solidarity Retreat, held Sept 26 – 28th on Gambier Island, provided an opportunity for people from the Lower mainland to explore issues related to international solidarity with feminist, artist and activist Sandra Moran from the Guatemalan women’s rights organization Artesana. Sandra is also the representative for the Americas for the World March of Women. The retreat was coordinated by CoDevelopment Canada.
A diverse group of 11 women gathered to build relationships between each other and Sandra, build understanding of the work of Artesana, deepen understanding of global solidarity, and make plans for how to work together over the next 6 months. We shared delicious meals and thoughts on solidarity, went swimming / kayaking, learned about Sandra’s work, played in the night-time phosphorescence, sang songs around a campfire – and made plans for ongoing work with Sandra Moran and Artesana.
For more background on Sandra Moran, see Sandra Moran and Artesana – background. For a copy of the participant application form, Global Solidarity Retreat – application package.
The following goals were established prior to the retreat by co-facilitators, in collaboration with staff at CoDevelopment Canada:
There were a total of 11 people in attendance, ages 18 – 60+. Four of those participating were supporting the overall project: Sandra (co-facilitator), Kathi (Canadian contact and co-facilitator), Carmen (interpreter), and Mali (supporting facilitator). Participants were asked to contribute a fee.
The other seven participants were from a wide variety of backgrounds. Two were teaching at universities (Capilano and Vancouver Island university), one as a nurse in the downtown eastside. Two participants were students – one high school and one undergraduate – and one participant brought along her 1-year-old son. Participants, all living in British Columbia, came from Mayan, Guatemalan, Chilean, Scottish, Korean, and German heritage. All of the participants learned of the event through their networks: three through CoDev’s networks; two through Capilano’s Global Stewardship program; and one through Amnesty International’s listserv.
Over the course of a 3-day retreat, the group had an opportunity to gather and share inspiration and energy. The weekend was woven together by opening and closing circles, including a candle ceremony lead by Sandra. At some point almost everyone took to the water – kayaking, canoing, or swimming.
The weekend began by coming to a collective understanding of ‘solidarity’ and understanding Sandra’s approach and work, and moved toward collective action, identifying solidarity directions and ideas that those in the room were willing to invest time into. By the end of the afternoon on Sunday, participants had come up with a long list of ways they aim to continue to work in solidarity. Some of those plans include meeting again as a group, building collaboration with women’s, planning fundraisers with the Vancouver Mayan community, setting up an art project exchange, and supporting Artesana’s research priorities in Guatemala.
Overall, it seems the structure and process of the weekend worked well – moving from big-picture visioning on Saturday into action-planning on Sunday. Some aspects of this retreat are unique to the context: a relationship of more than 20 years between Sandra and Kathi; Sandra’s strong English language ability, meaning interpretation needs were minimal; and multiple strong relationships between Sandra and solidarity work in British Columbia. In addition, Sandra and Kathi both have previous experience facilitating retreats.
The September 26-28 retreat was framed as building solidarity in a general sense with Sandra’s work, rather than supporting the work of any one organization. CoDevelopment Canada took the lead on making the solidarity retreat happen and has a 10-year relationship with Sandra and Artesana; other groups also connected include the Highlands United Church and BC CASA. The intention of the solidarity retreat is to build solidarity, and this retreat had three potential outcomes – solidarity directly through CoDev, through BC CASA, or independently of either group. As it turns out, all three of these avenues are being pursued by the current group. Finding a way to ensure participants are familiar with significant and existing solidarity work underway, as well as ways that participants can become involved in this work, is an important area of focus for the current group and for future solidarity retreats.
A future retreat may include both men and women, and may involve a more substantive presence from CoDev, or the organization involved, would be beneficial to participants and the organization.
While recognizing that the ongoing process of being in solidarity has just begun, this combination of a remarkable group of women, skilled facilitation, and an idyllic getaway made for a truly remarkable weekend. The ideas shared and relationships built are a foundation for ongoing solidarity not only in the months but in years to come.
For more background on Global Solidarity Retreats in general, see this page. If you have thoughts about the Artesana retreat, suggestions for future retreats, or just want to be in touch – email global.solidarity.retreat@gmail.com.
Filed under Facilitating, Leading
Harry Foote: A British Settler
He arrived on the dock with a single bag, leather clasp closed carefully. A cold wind blew raindrops onto his face and soaked the corners of his hair. Piled high in burlap-covered stacks was the precious cargo – a cast-iron stove, two stacks of wood, roofing tin. Mary had the box with his lunch, two slabs of bread and ham, an apple from the pantry polished and clean. Today was the big day, the journey day.
In the next year he planned to build a house, a home, a place to call his own, on a small island off the coast of BC. It had been one of his first purchases, a whim of a moment – arriving fresh from the prairies, crisp black top hat on head and cash in hand. Mr. Stubbins, an early contact, said “It’s practically free – a chance to really start fresh”. Small enough to walk across, large enough to feel like home. A few conversations later, Harry made the buy – 3 islands ‘up the coast’, with the promise of fresh soil, untilled land with a gentle rise and resident goats. Mary called it his pipe dream – an irrational purchase at a time when the children needed clothes for school and Cecil’s shoes barely fit anymore. But time passes, and things change – just over 15 years after purchase, it was time to finally build.
Harry Foote wasn’t the only BC resident to build a house in rural BC at the time. British Columbia – the ultimate Western paradise for those who chose, those who qualified, those escaping elsewhere. Up the coast in Sointula, a small group of Finnish coal miners had purchased land and set up a utopian commune. Further up the coast, the colony of Cape Scott, with a school house and dance hall. By comparison, Harry’s dream was small and rather private – just a small island, just a single home, a mere day’s journey up the coast.
Yet here’s the question: who was he to stand on the dock as if he owned it, board a ship for another peoples’ land? What gave this man the privilege to go from place to place with ease? By what right did he own land and build homes on the territory of others? After thousands of years of Indigenous care for this land, the story was disrupted by a young man with a utopian dream, a man who in his own way was settling his imagined frontier.
Who was he? An early settler with a funny name. Who was he? Yet another white settler in early BC. It’s British Columbia, a British settler colony, and this British man was my great-great grandfather. His act of settlement started my family’s story – and that is the story I’m beginning to tell.
Filed under Researching, Thinking
Having worked for years in the non-profit sector, I have seen community development professionals work hard with very limited resources. Now, as I transition to working within the post-secondary context, I meet more and more intelligent people who could have significant time and resources to provide to issues they care about. They ask good questions and are looking for authentic contribution and connection, not a mass-produced experience.
Options for being involved in community development part-time are limited. The most common ‘ask’ is for financial contributions, in a variety of forms. Many organizations suggest international or local volunteerism. There are a range of volunteerism opportunities – some as simple as manual labour, others focused on mentorship of clients/participants. What I do not see are ways for those interested in positive social change to build relationships with, learn from, and significantly support the work of community development professionals.
That’s where I’ve come to this idea what I’m (tentatively) calling “Part-time Changemakers”. It’s about articulating ways to connect those interested in positive change in the world with those who are doing this work full-time. The premise is that those who do community development work full-time have ideas, initiatives, and potential work that is currently not happening for lack of time, resources, or specific expertise. Those who want to contribute part-time can offer their skills, expertise, or networks for a defined period of time.
International Solidarity Retreats are a way to connect those interested in positive change in the world with those who are doing this work full-time. The journey starts with an ‘Launch’ –a getaway to the Gulf Islands, it’s a workshop on Bowen Island – that connects a group of people, an issue, and a full-time community development practitioner/leader. The weekend is a mixture of strategic planning, collective outdoor adventure, and social time. The focus, structure, and content of the Contribution Launch are co-created by a facilitator and project leader. More about those ideas here.
Mt Pleasant Drinks is a social evening with several purposes. The first is to bring together people who live in the same geographical neighbourhood for regular social gatherings, thus building a sense of neighborliness and connection. The second goal is to share ways that those gathering might be able to connect with project leader, and to begin to build relationships and connections with those people. The evening is primarily social – however, at one point in the evening there is an opportunity to say ‘cheers’ and gather briefly. An organization representative shares a bit about their current work and their ideas they’re interested in working on for the next Launch. After the event, someone follows up with those interested to set up further conversation or connection – primarily to see if participants are interested in the next Contribution Launch dates, and if so to determine whether they’re a good fit. Target audience for this event would be working professionals.
Although I first conceived of Mt Pleasant Mondays as a way to connect people to solidarity efforts, in the end the Mt Pleasant Monday idea has taken form as a community-building space, as shared in this post.
The Strategic Supporters of Change Series is designed for those who know they want to be involved in making change in a substantive way, but haven’t yet articulated what that looks like. Those who participate in this series may already be involved in local and/or international volunteering, charitable contributions, and support of the work of friends/relatives, but are looking to take a more thoughtful approach to their contributions. Participants ideally have an openness to learning, willingness to choose one or more areas of focus, and desire to take action. The ‘Strategic Supporters of Change’ series is designed to lead conversations about the following:
The strategic supporters of change series could be offered as two full-day workshops (complete series), five evening sessions (complete series), or a single ‘taster’ workshop. Target audience for this would be retired or soon-to-retire baby boomers. The work on this idea has not yet begun, except through collaborative work to teach this course at the Vancouver School Board.
All of these ideas are emerging and evolving, as I find ways to blend my interest in international solidarity with my desire to facilitate and lead programs.
I am looking for those who have similar interest and willingness to be involved in articulating these ideas, designing sessions and curriculum to match, and leading the sessions in various venues.
Filed under Building community, Facilitating, Thinking