Quarterly Member Spotlight: March 2023
Promotion and amplification of coalition members' campaigns and work is crucial to our shared success. To this end, we have begun a new series. Welcome to the first Quarterly Member Spotlight!
Four times a year we will highlight 2 - 3 member organizations working across a broad range of fields in poverty reduction. This month, we are featuring three organizations working in Housing & Legal Services: Homelessness Services Association of BC; Pivot Legal Society; and West Coast LEAF.
Homelessness Services Association of BC
HSABC is an umbrella organization of shelters, drop-in centres, homeless outreach teams and other service providers addressing the needs of persons experiencing homelessness with the goal to ending homelessness.
Current Campaigns, Reports, & Services:
HSABC’s goal to ending homelessness is embedded within the right to adequate housing and acknowledges the Indigenous Definition of Homelessness in Canada. See HSABC's Advocacy Framework for more details.
HSABC provides our over 250 Member Organizations with access to regular workshops and webinars, participation in regional and provincial coordination and research initiatives, and benefit from advocacy on behalf of our sector.
Throughout the spring & fall of 2023, HSABC and the BCPRC will be co-hosting our 3rd series of Anti-Oppressive Workshops. This series bring together thought and action leaders in the field to address the critical topics that make up anti-oppressive practice. Keep an eye on our social media channels for dates, speakers, & topics!
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Pivot Legal Society
Pivot works to fight against the institutions, laws, and policies that hurt people living in poverty, especially those who use drugs, do sex work, rely on public space, and face police violence. These systems disproportionately harm Black and Indigenous people, and must be interrupted and decolonized.
Current Campaigns, Reports, & Services:
In 2022, we introduced an Anti-Stigma campaign to develop and act on concrete ways of addressing poverty discrimination, drawing on lessons learned through our report, Project Inclusion, which centered the daily experiences of people who experience barriers and institutionalized harms when accessing public services.
Pivot has produced several know-your-rights cards over the years related to the criminalization of survival activities for people living in poverty. These cards are wallet-sized so people can have easy access to legal information. Our most recent card provides succinct information about the province-wide decriminalization of the “simple possession” of illicit drugs, meaning that carrying up to 2.5 cumulative grams of certain drugs for personal use should not be investigated or prosecuted by the police or the courts.
To address the stigma of living in poverty, we are working on a campaign to have the province amend the BC Human Rights Code to protect against discrimination based on a person’s social condition (aka class) in all areas of daily life. This matters because people who live in poverty experience higher levels of criminalization and involvement with various carceral systems than people who do not live in poverty. These harms include interactions with the police, prisons, psychiatric wards, immigration detention, and child apprehensions through the family policing system, to name a few.
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West Coast LEAF
West Coast LEAF works to deepen justice and substantive equality for women and people who experience gender discrimination.
Current Campaigns, Reports, & Services:
The 2021/2022 Gender Equality Report Card assesses BC’s progress in advancing gender equality in economic security and access to healthcare. The report card reveals that from January 2021 to November 2022, the BC government’s actions have not responded to the scale and urgency of persistent gender inequalities in healthcare and economic security.
West Coast LEAF is currently running a campaign challenging the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s culture of risk and surveillance. The family policing system in BC is profoundly harming families. Join us in calling on the BC government to stop tearing families apart! Add your voice by sending a letter to your MLA.
In an effort to shift culture, West Coast LEAF recently created the short documentary Kids Are Only Kids Once in collaboration with parents with firsthand knowledge of the family policing system, as well as other advocates. We thank them for speaking out about the devastating impacts of family separation on children, families, Nations, and communities, and for sharing their vision for change. We believe that their powerful voices will increase viewers’ understanding and inspire them to action.
Apr 3, 2023 01:00 PM PDT Upcoming Webinar: Anti-Racism and Addressing White Supremacy in Legal Practice: Parent’s Counsel Session. In this webinar, legal practitioners will discuss how they integrate anti-racism and cultural safety into their legal practice. Panelists will share their experiences identifying, and addressing racism and white supremacy in the child protection system, also known as the family policing system. Participants may claim up to 1.5 hours of CPD with the LSBC.
Want to see if Coalition membership is a good fit for your organization? Connect with our Operations and Partnerships Manager, Victoria.
Next up: we’re looking to profile member organizations that work Food Security, Education, and/or Childcare. If that sounds like your team and you'd like to snag a spot in the next feature, get in touch!
