mr.x
Nov 1, 2007, 3:01 AM
Poverty 'deepening,' group says
Seriousness of social ills compared to Downtown Eastside
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
SURREY - Surrey has problems with homelessness, poverty and aboriginal issues as profound as those in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, says a Surrey coalition of non-profit groups, businesses and government.
"There are deepening signs of poverty in this, one of B.C.'s fastest-growing municipalities," said the Vibrant Surrey coalition in its first report, issued on Tuesday.
"[There are] increasing rates of homelessness and . . . close to 20 per cent of residents without sustainable incomes."
The report notes Surrey is growing at an explosive rate and many of those moving in are poor, aboriginal, single parents, or new immigrants, which the city will have to deal with.
But the facts in the report are only part of the story.
Equally important for some is that Surrey has built a broad-based coalition that is aggressively highlighting its social problems and looking for innovative ways to grapple with them.
That's after years in which the sprawling city, three times the area of Vancouver, has been relatively silent on those topics.
"There's been a whole shift in the last couple of years," says Al Vigoda, a former community-development consultant who has worked in Asia, Africa and eastern Europe and is now the director of Vibrant Surrey. "Surrey is coming of age as a community."
Vigoda says that's happened for a couple of reasons.
"One is the issue of critical mass. There are now enough organizations all talking about this and the last few years, they've coalesced," he said.
And Surrey's image of itself has changed.
"I think it thought of itself as a rural community. Ten or 12 years ago, when I came here, Surrey was much more like talking to folks in rural communities where I've worked. Now it's a city."
That shift has been underscored by Mayor Dianne Watts, who is an enthusiastic supporter of Vibrant Surrey.
"I think it's really important to bring an issue to light and focus on it," she said. "We have 1,000 people per month moving in and we need to make sure the social infrastructure is there. We know we have the largest urban aboriginal population in the region."
And Watts says the people she talks to like that approach.
"What I normally get is, 'Thank goodness we're finally starting to deal with these issues.' "
But, even though Surrey sees itself more as a city, it's still tackling its problems in a different way than Vancouver.
Its approach is more like Calgary's, where businesses, governments and non-profit agencies formed a foundation to tackle homelessness 10 years ago, when the problem emerged there.
Those involved in the Vibrant Surrey organization say what's remarkable about it is the level of collaboration among different groups.
Its operating committee consists of people from non-profit groups, Coast Capital Credit Union, the Surrey Board of Trade, United Way, the city's social-planning department and Vancity Community Foundation.
Susan Keeping, director of the Newton Advocacy Group Society, said that's enabled the community to problem-solve together, instead of having non-profit groups labouring away on their own, getting support only by applying for government money.
Her group, working through Vibrant Surrey, came up with the idea of trying to help a group of homeless people -- mainly men working as day labourers --who were using its services, to establish more stable lives.
After a group lunch with all the partners and a subsequent meeting with construction companies working in Surrey, the society came up with a plan to get the men permanent jobs in construction.
The construction companies, which are desperate for labourers, had said: "We need these guys to have ID and I don't want to hire someone living in a bush and I don't want someone who's drug- or alcohol-addicted," and they needed boots and hats.
Using money contributed by the companies, the society dealt with all those issues, interviewing its clients for the best candidates, finding them apartments, calling on local citizens to contribute furniture, and doing whatever was necessary to bring together those who wanted to work and companies that wanted workers.
So far, the society has placed 50 people in jobs.
Those kinds of innovative programs are possible in part because Surrey has been able to work out of the spotlight, unlike places such as Vancouver, say coalition members.
But, Keeping stresses, it's also the impetus from the national Vibrant Communities organization, which is providing half of Vibrant Surrey's $200,000 budget.
fbula@png.canwest.com
Seriousness of social ills compared to Downtown Eastside
Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
SURREY - Surrey has problems with homelessness, poverty and aboriginal issues as profound as those in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, says a Surrey coalition of non-profit groups, businesses and government.
"There are deepening signs of poverty in this, one of B.C.'s fastest-growing municipalities," said the Vibrant Surrey coalition in its first report, issued on Tuesday.
"[There are] increasing rates of homelessness and . . . close to 20 per cent of residents without sustainable incomes."
The report notes Surrey is growing at an explosive rate and many of those moving in are poor, aboriginal, single parents, or new immigrants, which the city will have to deal with.
But the facts in the report are only part of the story.
Equally important for some is that Surrey has built a broad-based coalition that is aggressively highlighting its social problems and looking for innovative ways to grapple with them.
That's after years in which the sprawling city, three times the area of Vancouver, has been relatively silent on those topics.
"There's been a whole shift in the last couple of years," says Al Vigoda, a former community-development consultant who has worked in Asia, Africa and eastern Europe and is now the director of Vibrant Surrey. "Surrey is coming of age as a community."
Vigoda says that's happened for a couple of reasons.
"One is the issue of critical mass. There are now enough organizations all talking about this and the last few years, they've coalesced," he said.
And Surrey's image of itself has changed.
"I think it thought of itself as a rural community. Ten or 12 years ago, when I came here, Surrey was much more like talking to folks in rural communities where I've worked. Now it's a city."
That shift has been underscored by Mayor Dianne Watts, who is an enthusiastic supporter of Vibrant Surrey.
"I think it's really important to bring an issue to light and focus on it," she said. "We have 1,000 people per month moving in and we need to make sure the social infrastructure is there. We know we have the largest urban aboriginal population in the region."
And Watts says the people she talks to like that approach.
"What I normally get is, 'Thank goodness we're finally starting to deal with these issues.' "
But, even though Surrey sees itself more as a city, it's still tackling its problems in a different way than Vancouver.
Its approach is more like Calgary's, where businesses, governments and non-profit agencies formed a foundation to tackle homelessness 10 years ago, when the problem emerged there.
Those involved in the Vibrant Surrey organization say what's remarkable about it is the level of collaboration among different groups.
Its operating committee consists of people from non-profit groups, Coast Capital Credit Union, the Surrey Board of Trade, United Way, the city's social-planning department and Vancity Community Foundation.
Susan Keeping, director of the Newton Advocacy Group Society, said that's enabled the community to problem-solve together, instead of having non-profit groups labouring away on their own, getting support only by applying for government money.
Her group, working through Vibrant Surrey, came up with the idea of trying to help a group of homeless people -- mainly men working as day labourers --who were using its services, to establish more stable lives.
After a group lunch with all the partners and a subsequent meeting with construction companies working in Surrey, the society came up with a plan to get the men permanent jobs in construction.
The construction companies, which are desperate for labourers, had said: "We need these guys to have ID and I don't want to hire someone living in a bush and I don't want someone who's drug- or alcohol-addicted," and they needed boots and hats.
Using money contributed by the companies, the society dealt with all those issues, interviewing its clients for the best candidates, finding them apartments, calling on local citizens to contribute furniture, and doing whatever was necessary to bring together those who wanted to work and companies that wanted workers.
So far, the society has placed 50 people in jobs.
Those kinds of innovative programs are possible in part because Surrey has been able to work out of the spotlight, unlike places such as Vancouver, say coalition members.
But, Keeping stresses, it's also the impetus from the national Vibrant Communities organization, which is providing half of Vibrant Surrey's $200,000 budget.
fbula@png.canwest.com