Community Engagement
Our H4H Community Engagement Committee (CEC) is the lead in this work, and was formed as a Committee of our Board of Directors in 2019.
The CEC meets to discuss, reflect upon and offer creative and constructive suggestions and feedback on: program content, accessibility, relevance and community engagement for the Society.
This committee builds tools to share with the public through embodied, iterative creative project development and is made up of Urban Indigenous, racialized, and white community organizers who conduct our work on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam),Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh(Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. We continue to deepen this model of community engaged organizing and seek to transform our Society in alignment with our commitment to decolonising our governance, work and selves. We model slowing down our bodies, to set our own pace, to build the worlds we want to live in.
Artist in Residence, K’emk’em’elay Garden
On the 100 block of East Hastings in what is colonially known as Vancouver, British Columbia, and which has many other names, including K’emk’em’elay, the Place Where the Maples Grow, the unceded lands and shared territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Wau’tuth Nations since time immemorial, time out of mind - there is a garden.
It is from here that we explore themes of community care, sensory respite, ground truthing, growing governance and ask: beyond survival, beyond isolation - What is 'enough'? What helps in the struggle? What can we accomplish in a season? In a year? In a lifetime? And, how might we envision a world beyond capitalist exploitation? Beyond policing?
Check out the map and stories here!
Resources:
If you’re interested in inviting your board to step into community-engaged governance or welcome us into a consultation process and would like support implementing these resources, please get in touch for our workshop packages!
Empowering Informed Consent Card
Manifesto for Ethical Research in the DTES
Hastings Folk Garden Medicinal Plants Zine
Community Engaged Governance Toolkit (preview)
