Transcript Building Welcoming and Inclusive Neighbourhoods (BWIN)

Building Welcoming and Inclusive
Neighbourhoods (BWIN)
Best Practices in Action
Paula Carr and Koyali Burman
presenting on behalf of the
BWIN Consortium of Neighbourhood Houses
BWIN - Infrastructure
Pilot project conception and initiation:
the Consortium of Neighbourhood
Houses
 Sponsor: Immigrant Integration Branch
of the Ministry of Advanced Education
and Labour Market Development
 Funder: Government of Canada
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BWIN - Vision
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Innovative approach exploring the
leadership role of Lower Mainland
Neighbourhood Houses in building local
community capacity to:
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Be welcoming to all
Address racism and social exclusion in
creative and responsive ways
BWIN – Research
Research shows that with integration
immigrants and others experience:
 Improved health and wellbeing
 Safer communities
 Welcome through employment
 Personal/social networks
 Community cohesion
 Neighbourhood activities
BWIN - Goals
Expand the role of Neighbourhood
Houses in building community capacity
 Engage the host community,
newcomers, immigrants and other
socially excluded groups about creating
a welcoming community
 Build capacity at all levels – individual
family/peer, organization, institution and
business – in an integrated way
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BWIN - Goals
Identify meaningful ways to promote
dialogue about exclusion and racism
 Support learning about barriers to
inclusion and changes needed to
address them
 Evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot
project delivery model
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BWIN - Activities
Community outreach and mapping
 Volunteerism and leadership
 Community Gatherings and Cultural
Inclusion
 Organizational Capacity Building
 Collaborative Planning
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BWIN – Participant Data
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From over 30 countries, every
continent
Canadian citizens and/or living here
for three-plus years
Female to Male 3:1
19-54 years largest group; under
19 second largest
BWIN - Experiences
Participant involvement part of a
process
 Contact with BWIN or Neighbourhood
House led to deeper involvement
 BWIN perceived as part of the
Neighbourhood House
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BWIN - Experiences
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Themes in participants perceptions:
 BWIN / Neighbourhood House is
accessible and approachable
 BWIN staff and other participants recognize
them as a whole person and for their skills
 BWIN offers opportunities to learn about
Canadian culture and other cultures
 BWIN offers an opportunity to give back
Dialogue Circle- A Promising Practice for Building
Welcoming & Inclusive Neighbourhoods
Dialogue
Introduction to Dialogue Circles
Circle provides a welcoming and safe
platform for newcomers and long-time
residents living in the neighbourhood to make
connections, share their life experiences and
build an inclusive community
Introduction to Dialogue Circle
To stimulate awareness of community
issues among residents and build local
leadership capacity to foster change
How and where Dialogue Circles are
conducted?
Dialogue Circles are conducted at
various locations such as
Neighbourhood Houses, Libraries,
Family Places, Schools, Community
Centres, BC Housing etc
Various Dialogue Circles are Conducted
South Asian Women’s group
Seniors’ group
Various Dialogue Circle are Conducted
Spanish Speaking group
Karen speaking refugee group
from Burma-Thailand border
Various Dialogue Circles are conducted
Youth led Dialogue Circle
A success story to share…
Moberly Elementary School
Short-Term Outcomes
Intermediate Outcomes
Newcomers and immigrants
feel acknowledged and
invited to be part of the
community
Our Neighbourhood
welcomes newcomers and
immigrants in all aspects of
neighbourhood life
Volunteers learn form each
other and play a leadership
role in supporting newcomers
and immigrants and promoting
cultural inclusion
Our organization reflects
the cultural fabric of our
neighbourhood in
participation, leadership,
policies and direction
Community members have a
clear direction of building an
inclusive communities
Neighbourhood
residents play an active
role in fostering
welcoming
environment, policies
and institutions
The community has a
greater awareness of the
neighbourhood as Home
to many
Staff understand what
inclusive practices are an
dhow to implement in their
work
Immigrants and newcomers
play a leadership role in all
aspects of our community
Long-Term Outcome
British Columbia
neighbourhood welcomes
immigrants and newcomers
and provide full opportunities
for engagement in all aspects
of community and civil society
BWIN - Outcomes
Participants’ perceptions of the BWIN project
to evaluators have been highly positive – they
report feeling welcomed and included:
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Practical and useful information
Training and opportunities
Relationships and connections
Engages recent and long term immigrants
Recognizes skills and sees whole person
BWIN - Outcomes
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Develops initiatives based on needs and
desires.
Fosters citizenship and promotes increased
civic engagement for participants and their
children.
Gained cross cultural communications skills
and enhanced their knowledge about
Canadian, as well as other, diverse cultures
and customs
Increased self-confidence
BWIN - Outcomes
Evaluator Found BWIN:
 Promotes Neighbourhood Houses as a
resource for immigrant and newcomers
 Could present Neighbourhood Houses as a
focal point for integration into Canadian
society
 Major strength is its Community-focused,
community development nature
 Serves as an integrating focus for
neighbourhood houses’ programs
BWIN - Challenges
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Related to participation
 Language barriers
 Child care
 Winter weather
 Time commitment
Related to Neighbourhood Houses’
organization
 Staff workload demands
 Limited space
BWIN - Challenges
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Funders’ requirements and evaluation
 Outcome timeline out of sync with the
nature of community development
 Evaluation process time-consuming
 Quantitative information at odds with
BWIN goals
BWIN - Recommendations
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At least two more years of funding and
sustainability planning
“Promising” practices compilation
Communications
Focus on social exclusion, racism
Focus on men, more recent newcomers
Translation and interpretation services
Implications for Policy
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Invest in neighbourhood capacity building
Recognize and support grassroots social capital and
community development i.e. community dialogue
Invest in community leadership development
Design public spaces to facilitate interaction and
meeting places
Support integrated approaches- programs, community
development and resources
Defining newcomers in neighbourhoods and
communities- within Canada and outside Canada
Encourage and resource appreciative and positive
approaches to address difficult issue like racism
Resource community building tools
Recognize the impacts some policies have on other
policies
BWIN - Conclusions
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Community development requires time and
resources. Especially true for community
development involving multi-lingual, multicultural communities
Community building and outreach with
newcomers aiming to address serious
challenges is complex and time-consuming
A full Dialogue Circle Documentary to be released and Toolkit
will include more information
For further information contact:
Koyali Burman at 604-324-6212(ext 136)
[email protected]
www.southvan.org
Building Welcoming and Inclusive Neighbourhood Initiatives
For more information contact:
Natalie Taylor at 604-875-9111(ext 106)
[email protected]
Thank you to WelcomeBC for making the Welcoming
& Inclusive Neighbourhoods initiative possible