TV partner helps Victoria Foundation spread the word about Vital Signs

By Stephanie Slater

On Sunday, Jan. 22, CHEK TV News aired a special feature story about the 1000 x 5 Children’s Book Recycling Project in Greater Victoria’s Saanich Peninsula.

The next morning, the phones started ringing at The Victoria Foundation, which had sponsored the story – the first in a weekly series called Vital People. 

1000 x 5 is a project supported by the foundation that aims to ensure every child in their region has a minimum of 1,000 books read to them by the time they are five years old. Callers wanted to donate books – and not just a few! Two callers each had collections of hundreds of books. Jim Munro, owner of Munro’s Books, asked for a meeting with the 1000 x 5 project leader. Other callers asked about replicating the program in their communities. One call came from an organization that works with people who have developmental disabilities. They arranged to bring some of their clients to the weekly sessions where the books are cleaned and sorted.

All this from one, three-minute television story! It was an immediate affirmation of the value of the project – a partnership between the foundation and CHEK TV. For a fraction of the regular cost of advertising, Vital People provides a weekly profile of people and organizations working on the vital issues outlined in Victoria’s Vital Signs® report.

“Vital People spreads the messages highlighted in the Vital Signs reports about needs and opportunities to make a difference in our communities,” said Sandra Richardson, CEO of The Victoria Foundation.

The series not only keeps Vital Signs alive throughout the year, it reinforces the community report card as a project of The Victoria Foundation, helping to boost awareness and understanding of the foundation’s breadth of work.

Vital People stories are posted on the foundation’s website and are also available to the organizations profiled for posting on their websites. These stories will also be featured as part of the soon-to-be-launched Community Knowledge Centre – the searchable database that will showcase registered charities that have received grants from the foundation. Stay tuned for more developments!

For another example of bringing the Vital Signs message forward, see the new Vital Signs checklist featured in the January edition of The Victoria Foundation’s Philanthropy page – a monthly newspaper feature sponsored in partnership with Black Press.

Stephanie Slater is Director of Communications with The Victoria Foundation

Affordable housing, poverty top issues for youth, says Victoria’s Youth 2011 Vital Signs

Victoria, B.C., Nov. 21, 2011 – Affordable housing and poverty are the top issues for youth in the Capital Regional District according to the Victoria’s Youth 2011 Vital Signs report issued by the Victoria Foundation.

Like Vital Signs, an annual community report card produced by the Victoria Foundation, the Youth Vital Signs report is a combination of public opinion and statistics that provides a snapshot of livability and well-being in Greater Victoria. In this report, which is sponsored by the TELUS Victoria Community Board, youth ages 15 – 24 were asked for their opinions on issues critical to their quality of life.

Of the 12 issue areas covered by the survey, youth housing and homelessness tied with poverty as the top issues that need attention, with respondents giving them a C and C- grade respectively. Seventy-one per cent of respondents called for more affordable student housing, 65 per cent called for more affordable housing, and 55 per cent called for a higher minimum wage.

Transportation (B-) and youth voice (C) tied for second place in the list of top concerns. Respondents called for more frequent (54%) and more late-night bus service (55%) and lower bus fares (50%). They also said governments could better recognize and include youths’ perspective by increasing awareness of options and opportunities for involvement (57%), providing more education about the political system (46%) and consulting youth at all levels (43%).

“We know youth have valid opinions, good ideas and a concern for the future of their communities,” said Sandra Richardson, CEO of the Victoria Foundation. “We also know there are many decision-makers in the public, private and non-profit sectors who want to know how youth understand the world and are willing to provide support and resources to make sure youth are heard. This report gives youth the opportunity to influence change by sharing their experiences and perspectives.”

Richardson said the Victoria Foundation has used the Youth Vital Signs reports to make funding decisions, supporting programs to help youth coming off the streets, to keep kids in school, promote literacy, and to prevent and treat drug and alcohol addiction. Vital Signs is also used to guide granting decisions by participants in the Vital Youth philanthropy program sponsored by the foundation in seven areas high schools.

This is the third year the Victoria Foundation has conducted a Youth Vital Signs survey and the first that results have been published separately from the Victoria’s Vital Signs report – an initiative to celebrate the foundation’s 75^th anniversary. The report was released at the TED-X Victoria Conference Nov. 19.

The full Victoria’s Youth 2011 Vital Signs report is posted at www.victoriafoundation.bc.ca.

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Background: The Victoria Foundation manages funds gifted either in perpetuity or for specific purposes. The funds or the earnings from them are then distributed as grants for charitable or educational purposes. Established in 1936, the Victoria Foundation is Canada’s second oldest community foundation and its sixth largest. To date it has invested more than $100 million in people, projects and non-profit organizations that strengthen communities. Read more about The Victoria Foundation’s vision and mandate.

 

Vital Youth initiative cultivates leadership, philanthropy in Victoria

By Leah Baade

The Victoria Foundation’s Vital Youth initiative is currently entering its eighth year. Working with more than 100 students in seven local high schools, the Victoria Foundation is pleased to offer this experiential learning program that teaches community leadership and philanthropy.

Previously named Youth in Philanthropy, the program has been renamed this year to reflect the valuable community impact of Victoria’s Vital Signs® Students are encouraged to identify their individual and group values and then use the Vital Signs® report to explore challenges and opportunities within their communities.

Victoria's Vital Signs

“This group of students was exceptional – smart, provocative, challenging and engaged. We met early in the morning and in spite of busy schedules one of the team members was able to visit READ,” said Claire Rettie, Executive Director, Victoria READ Society.

“In a social and funding climate that is increasingly challenging, working with these young people provided me with a much-needed burst of energy.”

Last year, student committees granted a total of $17,500 to 16 local charities. Each of the grants made a valuable contribution to various issue areas identified by participants of theVictoria’s Vital Signs® survey.

Participating schools include Belmont Secondary, Frances Kelsey Secondary, Oak Bay High, Reynolds Secondary, Victoria High, St. Michaels University School, and, in partnership with the Saanich Peninsula Foundation,  Stelly’s Secondary School.

For the first time ever this year, and with the support of TELUS, the Victoria Foundation will launch the Youth Vital Signs report as its own publication. The launch will take place on Saturday, November 19th at the TEDx Victoria Youth event.

Leah Baade is Vital Youth and Social Media Coordinator with Victoria Foundation 

Preschool program promotes healthy development for Aboriginal youngsters

When Victoria’s Vital Signs 2009 revealed a dire lack of child care – only 5,244 registered spaces for 18,126 children five and younger in the Capital Region – the Victoria Foundation decided it could help bridge that gap in a unique way.

By supporting the establishment of Little Paws Preschool, the foundation is addressing that finding while also helping Aboriginal children grow and develop in culturally sensitive surroundings.

Children at Little Paws Preschool in Victoria benefit from a caring, culturally sensitive environment

“This helped the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, which serves 20,000 Aboriginal residents living off and on reserve, expand its continuum of services,” says Sandra Richardson, Victoria Foundation CEO.

Little Paws Preschool is a licensed facility that accepts children aged 3 to 5, some of whom are in government care. The school provides an excellent link to family and culture. It has a Little Big House built by a local Aboriginal builder and a donated Mi’kmaq canoe in its playground.

The children are more prepared for the next level of education and are healthier because of their interactions with their peers and culturally safe adults, says the centre’s Executive Director, Bruce Parisian.

“The funds from the Victoria Foundation mean that 20 Aboriginal children had the ability to attend preschool this past year, learning about their culture and the world around them,” he says. “It’s impossible to pick just one story because there were so many successes this past school year!”

Congregation connected to community through Victoria’s Vital Signs

By Leah Baade

Reverend Allen Saunders is a get-things-done kind of man. He finds a need and he fills it. As lead minister at First Metropolitan United Church, he is full of energy for our community – members of the congregation and the city he lives in.

The church houses the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) in the low-income housing complex on the church property. It’s also a stepping-off point for many of the church’s outreach endeavours. From supporting initiatives such as Our Place, Inner-City Dinners and Out of the Rain Shelter for street youth, to recreational outlets for youth in the form of a basketball team, or for drop-in recreation. Still other initiatives focus on the environment and sustainability, health and wellness, music, and youth.

Rev. Saunders leads an active congregation of 627 households at the downtown Victoria church; the 1915 heritage building is a hub of belonging and leadership in our community.

So what’s the connection to the Victoria Foundation? Rev. Saunders regularly bases his Sunday sermons on the findings of Victoria’s Vital Signs.

To coincide with Rights of the Child Day, he highlighted some of Victoria’s challenges and achievements that were identified by our youth respondents. And just last month, his sermon took a serious look at what Victoria graders identified as the top five issues in our community, noting that homelessness, cost of living, addictions, housing and mental illness are all interrelated.

The Vital Signs indicators play a valuable role in how the congregation at First Metropolitan decides where there are challenges that need to be met. They help to prioritize opportunities for outreach. A shortage of funding for the arts in Victoria-area schools means an extra-special opportunity for a music program at the church. Cost-of-living constraints find Rev. Saunders pondering a community kitchen program that would facilitate community building and a sense of accomplishment as participants cook for themselves and each other.

Victoria’s Vital Signs is a key tool for the church in its strategic planning process. While putting together its vision for 2020, First Metropolitan is able to examine future staffing needs and identify the church’s greatest potential for redevelopment.

It’s evident that Rev. Saunders has an inspiring effect on his congregation. Parishioners travel to this church each week from as far away as Sidney and Sooke. First Metropolitan’s message reaches much further than the back pew as he encourages each and every member of the congregation to put their faith into action as soon as they step out the doors.

Leah Baade is Youth in Philanthropy and Social Media Coordinator with Victoria Foundation.

Victoria’s Vital Signs spawns Happiness Index

A group of eight organizations from Greater Victoria, called the Happiness Index Partnership, announced the results of a well-being survey that says citizens of the region rate highly on an international scale used to measure happiness.
Happiness is getting used more as the notion of well-being is recognized as being central to our conceptions of health and healthy communities. More…