Skeena Diversity Society Plans to Make Terrace a More Welcoming and Inclusive Community
Skeena Diversity Society has been awarded funds to launch a Demonstration Project as part of the Welcoming and Inclusive Communities and Workplaces Program. The Project will focus on citizens’ engagement in shaping the future of Terrace.

This project is made possible through funding from the
Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

The Society is currently seeking candidates to form the new WICWP Cultural Advisory Group that will work in collaboration on making Terrace a more welcoming and inclusive community. Download application and submit before January 2, 2010.

The project will increase the community's capacity to:

• Welcome immigrants and make it easier for them to access a wide variety of settlement and immigration services
• Ensure that Terrace has the capacity to be welcoming and inclusive community
• Develop bridges between sectors to provide opportunities for collaboration
• Strengthen relationships and collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people

This will require:

• A committment on the part of newcomers to adapt to life in Canada
• A committment on the part of Canadians to welcome and adapt to new people and cultures
• A committment on the part of the community to build positive relationships and partnerships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and communities.
  

Movie Night & Discussion
every month on Saturday mid-month this event will feature a National Film Board film and discussion. Organized in parthership with Terrace Public Library

• July 17:
  Beating the Streets
  film by Lorna Thomas, 1998, 48 min.
  Beating the Streets traces six years in the lives of Marilyn Brighteyes and Lance Marty, two inner-city Aboriginal teenagers struggling to turn their lives around. And it is the story of Joe Cloutier, the teacher -- and former dropout -- determined to help them.
  
  
• June 12
  Between: Living in the Hyphen
  film by Anne Marie Nakagawa, 2005, 43 min
  Anne Marie Nakagawa's documentary examines what it means to have a background of mixed ancestries that cannot be easily categorized. Finding a satisfactory frame of reference in our 'multicultural utopia' turns out to be more complex than one might think. Between: Living in the Hyphen offers a provocative glimpse of what the future holds: a departure from hyphenated names towards a celebration of fluidity and being mixed.

Potluck Dinner & Presentation
every month on the last Saturday this event is open to anyone who would like to share a meal and learn about someone in the community or a visitor. The presentation can be about a trip, experience or person's story.
Contact us if you would like to share your story or experience or if you would like to suggest someone.

• July 31: First Nations History of Skeena Valley
• June 26: Ireland
• May 29: Skeena Band returns from Cuba
• April 24: Introduction to WICWP concept
• March 27: Latin Night for Chile
  
  

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This Demonstration Project is designed as an inclusive community engagement project that will provide residents, primarily immigrants and Aboriginal people, with an opportunity to become active members of their community by planning a future “Unity in Diversity Centre” in downtown Terrace.
Throughout the Project, Terrace citizens will engage in defining the city’s cultural identity and gaining a better understanding of how culture contributes to improved quality of life and to building a sustainable welcoming and inclusive community where social, economical, environmental and cultural aspects of life work together in harmony to create a model of a vibrant diverse community that is creative and productive.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The Demonstration Project takes a grassroots approach to formulating the concept, developing a detailed plan for the building of a much-needed welcoming multi-purpose community centre/town square. The Project will specifically focus on City-owned former Co-op property that is strategically located in downtown Terrace. A proper development of this site will provide the community with a meeting place, place for business, information and culture, place to live and place to visit. It has the potential to unite the community.

Throughout the Project, Skeena Diversity Society will facilitate community engagement in defining what it means to be a welcoming and inclusive community based on linking economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects of life to ensure holistic sustainable future. The Project will focus on connecting people, initiatives and programs that currently work separately but would multiply their impacts by joining forces.

 It will focus on mobilizing and engaging the community during all phases of the Project - research, planning, implementation and evaluation.

The Project includes “hands-on” activities that will provide participants and the community with tangible outcomes as well as educational opportunities. These include Faces of Terrace book (Dec 2010), Tastes of Terrace culinary tour (Aug 2010), Multicultural Week Fair (Feb 2011).
The Project builds on the efforts of a small group called ASK Terrace that showed us that it is up to us as citizens to make things happen if we are given the encouragement and opportunity.

PROJECT ELEMENTS

• Find common vision for the Centre that reflects Terrace’s cultural identity
• What do the four pillars of sustainability mean in the multi-purpose centre/town square? Gain a better understanding of the 4 pillar concept
• Economic engine
• Overcoming prejudice and racism in the open concept of town square
• Multi-purpose use – sharing a space
• Workplace equality
• Environmental lens
• Arts & Culture
•  Exploring the importance and aspects of the Built Environment
• Leadership in a Welcoming and Inclusive Community

The Demonstration Project runs till May 2011.