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February 7, 2018
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Since 2011, Vancouver Foundation has invested significant time, energy, ideas and money in bringing together foster care youth and immigrant and refugee youth, listening to them, and empowering them to address issues that affect them. Now that important progress has been made, including meaningful...
March 31, 2017
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What happens when youth from foster care turn 19? In BC, approximately 700 youth age out of the foster care system each year on their 19th birthday. Leaving government care – their “public parent” – youth are cut off from the support they need, are thrown into adult life, and often have no-one to...
March 14, 2017
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Each year, Vancouver Foundation’s Grants and Community Initiatives team works closely with our volunteer Advisory Committee members to make discretionary grants to charities and other qualified donees across the province. We do this primarily through our broad-based and responsive Field of Interest...
September 2, 2015
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Do you know an inspiring young person that is making British Columbia more welcoming for newcomers? Now is your chance to say thank you. Fresh Voices, in partnership with MOSAIC and Vancity , is hosting an awards evening to recognize the inspiration and leadership of immigrant and refugee youth in...
December 19, 2014
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We'd like to offer a hearty thank you to those who attended our learning exchanges on youth transitions December 13th and 14th. Over a two-day period, approximately 170 service providers, youth, allies and advocates joined the dialogue, offered feedback and shared their questions, experience and...
December 1, 2014
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You may have seen the picture or read the story: homeless youth from foster care, huddled in a needle-strewn alley, dirty and helpless. Youth in foster care have seen it – often. And it’s this damaging “foster-care porn” that they want off the table. Stories and images have the power to either...
November 28, 2014
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Vancouver Foundation is hosting a day of learning and dialogue in New Westminster Thursday December 4th, 2014. Follow along on Twitter: @FosterChangeBC & #FosteringChange Explore the Schedule: [ Click for PDF ] Participants, teacher, mentors and allies include: Tracy Sherlock and Lori Culbert,...
November 22, 2013
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Lovable is a photography program for young women. Organized by two young photographers – Nicola Hodges and Sylvia McFadden – its goal is to empower women to fight back against unrealistic beauty standards and the ad campaigns aimed at women’s bodies. According to Hodges and McFadden, Lovable will...
October 30, 2013
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Taking the pulse of young people in metro Vancouver Like many young people starting out, Rahul Walia is charting his career course. The 20-year-old Vancouver resident, who is studying life sciences at the University of British Columbia, is hoping for a career in medicine. But until he’s licensed to...
October 29, 2013
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Azza Rojbi moved to Vancouver from Tunisia in 2010 Azza Rojbi moved to Vancouver from Tunisia in 2010. She and her parents and two brothers left behind friends, careers and their extended family in search of a better life. Rojbi, in particular, had her own dreams of a new beginning and a new way of...
June 17, 2013
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Throughout the year, visitors flock to parks in British Columbia for the fresh air and lush greenery, along with the opportunity to walk, hike, camp, swim and reconnect with nature. But now, our parks are also becoming a popular stomping ground for a growing trend called “geocaching” – a high-tech...
June 3, 2013
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One of Alexandra O’Donaghey’s first memories is of her drug-addicted and alcoholic parents splitting up. She was only four, but already smart enough to know she would be staying with her grandmother. Not long after the split, her father gave up drugs and drink. But the party went on for her mother...
January 12, 2013
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Fostering Change developed out of our commitment to addressing homelessness. Far too many homeless youth have been associated with the child welfare system – so we committed to strengthening the supports and opportunities available to youth leaving care at age 19. Since 2012, Vancouver Foundation...
December 17, 2012
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The summer sun streams into the Teen Lounge at Surrey’s City Centre Library. The “hangout” room is designed specifically for youth. It’s a fitting location to interview Saad Al-Samarrai, a participant in Vancouver Foundation’s youth engagement work. With his dark eyes and round cheeks, Saad has the...
December 17, 2012
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When Yosef Spivak laughs, he makes a sound like warm wind, and his eyes completely disappear behind red, round cheeks. He’s a cheerful guy. It’s his nature, even though, at 22, he’s had a lifetime’s worth of hardship. Spivak first went into foster care when he was seven years old. He’s a little...
November 18, 2012
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Community Research Our research tells us that people today feel a lack of togetherness in community life. A lack of belonging. Through community consultations and independent research, we’ve heard a hunger for social connections, and a desire among people from different ethnicities, cultures,...
June 18, 2012
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When Diego Cardona was four, his father went to a meeting... and never came back. The meeting was with members of a Colombian insurgent group to discuss a parcel of family land the insurgents had appropriated. His father is presumed to have been murdered. Cardona’s remaining family moved to another...
December 17, 2011
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It’s hard to believe that Cia Ramirez is 23 years old, much less the mother of a seven-year-old girl. With her wide, cherub face, warm eyes and infectious giggle, Ramirez could easily be mistaken for a high school student. “My mom is Cree, from Saskatchewan and my dad was Mayan, from Guatemala,”...
December 18, 2010
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By the time Nicole reached Grade 11, she was “completely out of control.” There was the drinking and the drugs; there was the binging and purging; and there was her dysfunctional family who put padlocks on the fridge in a misguided attempt to save her from herself. By the time she was 18, she was...
December 17, 2010
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Young women face enormous pressure to be thin, to be sexy, to be beautiful. “We are bombarded by media images from a very young age,” says Carly Geistlinger, who has been through it all and is now trying to help other young girls avoid the pitfalls of adolescence as a volunteer for Go Girls!...
December 17, 2010
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Alleys are the back end of urban life. Unlike the shiny, clean-scrubbed storefronts they serve, alleys are places rubbed raw by delivery and transport: goods in and garbage out. They’re full of wires, poles and mysterious containers; the sounds of exhaust fans and dripping water – the haunts of...
December 14, 2010
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“Our Kulture,” a duet by local rapper Discreet Da Chosen 1 and the Sto:lo band Ostwelve, blares in the background as 27-year-old Orene Askew gets everything in order behind the scenes, preparing to go live for her weekly show Sne’waylh on Vancouver’s Co-op Radio. Unlike the song, Askew doesn’t belt...