ANNUAL REPORT September 2014 – August 2015 Table of Contents Territory Acknowledgement ...... 2 About VIPIRG ...... 3 Mandate ...... 3 Focus and Priorities...... 3 Where to Find Us ...... 4 Organizational Structure ...... 4 Coordinating Collective ...... 4 Coord Report...... 5 VIPIRG Staff ...... 5 Programming and Events ...... 6 Dis/Orientation Days 2014...... 6 Art of Resistance Workshop Series 2014 ...... 7 Community Projects and Campaigns ...... 8 Research & Action ...... 11 Community Grants ...... 13 Financial Summary and Statements ...... 15

Territory Acknowledgement

VIPIRG is located on unceded Territories, specifically of the Lekwungen and W̱ SÁNEĆ peoples. The term Coast Salish is used to encompass a number of Indigenous peoples, including Esquimalt, Hul’qumi’num, , Lekwungen (), MALAXEt, Musqueam, OStlq’emeylem, Pentlatch, Scia’new (Beecher Bay), Sliammon, , Skxwú7mesh-ulh Úxwumixw, Stó:lo, Straits, Tsleil-Waututh, T’Sou-ke, W̱ SÁNEĆ (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum), and Xwemalhkwu.

As well, we would like to recognize all of the ecosystems, ancestors, communities, and people who continue to make VIPIRGs work – and our personal and collective learning – possible.

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About VIPIRG

Mandate

The Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) is a not-for-profit, student-funded, volunteer-driven community research and organizing group. VIPIRG operates a resource centre that is independent from the University of Victoria (UVic) and student society. Both students and community members are welcome to make use of our space and resources as well as participate in VIPIRG projects.

We occupy space on the territories of the Lekwungen people and are committed to decolonization. We strive to raise awareness and support and engage in grassroots activism around social and environmental justice issues. We root our work in an anti-oppression analysis and practice. VIPIRG seeks to make connections between campus and community and inspire social change through engaging, inclusive, and non-hierarchical approaches.

VIPIRG is committed to struggling against all forms of discrimination and oppression, and working through the ways we are implicated in them. We are also committed to being open and accessible to all who aspire to these principles. Ultimately, we aim to more deeply practice the lessons of political movements around how to relate to each other and the earth.

Focus and Priorities

Our current areas of focus are poverty, decolonization, and student engagement. We work to politicize the systems of power that influence poverty and strive to assist community empowerment to resist and transform them. We attempt to practice settler responsibility to decolonize through solidarity with

3 indigenous struggles to defend people and the land. Finally, as a campus based group, we continually work to engage with, and learn from, students to build capacity to organize together.

Where to Find Us University of Victoria, Student Union Building (SUB) B120 and B122 Box 3035, Stn CSC, Victoria, BC, V8W 3P3 Lekwungen and W̱ SÁNEĆ Territories

Email: [email protected] Web: www.vipirg.ca Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VIPIRG Twitter: https://twitter.com/vipirg

Organizational Structure VIPIRG is comprised of both paid staff members (permanent and student staff) and volunteers, particularly the volunteer Coordinating Collective (or board) members.

Coordinating Collective The Coordinating Collective (commonly called the Coord, to rhyme with Board) provide oversight of VIPIRG operations, including: developing policy, setting organizational goals and priorities, reviewing all funding and collaboration proposals, hiring and supporting staff, and assisting with community outreach and events.

The previous 2013-2014 Coord made a decision to change the date of the AGM from the Fall to the Spring, which meant that VIPIRG went a year and a half without a Coordinating Collective election.

Committees: Outreach Committee; Grants Committee; Finance Committee; Personnel Committee; Library Committee.

Coord members:

September 2014-Spring 2015: Aida Mashari Caleb Beale Gail Kelly Golda Lewin Jennine Downie Kelly Black Maddy Wilson Mark Willson Paul Castrodale

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After Spring 2015 election: Boma Brown Caleb Beale Emily Bellinger Jennifer King Katrina Woollgar Nathan Butz Noah Ross Paul Castrodale Selina Beltran Susan Abells Wulf Zapf

Coord Report

A new Coord was elected in March 2015. A one day Anti-Oppression and Consensus Based decision making training was held for the Coord and staff. Some members of the Coord expressed concern that the training was not anti-colonial and anti-racist in its design and implementation, something that has begun to be addressed through further board training.

However, throughout the summer multiple safer spaces concerns were raised, and some Coord members resigned or were asked to leave. Coord energy was thereafter directed to building community and addressing weaknesses in safer spaces policy and implementation.

Other organizational weaknesses were also highlighted and a strategic planning process was taken on. However, the strategic planning process was cut short as it was obvious that the Coord needed to address internal issues and visioning before it could work on strategically addressing issues at the organizational and public level.

VIPIRG Staff VIPIRG staff provide resources and support to students and community members who are working on various projects and campaigns. Staff members pursue research, education, and advocacy in the public interest. Staff are also responsible for monitoring financial accountability of the organization.

Permanent / Term Contract staff:

Internal Coordinator - Meghan Jezewski Research Coordinator - Stefanie Hardman

Work Study and Canada Summer Jobs:

Outreach Assistant - Julie Gennai Library and Office Assistant - Emily Comeau 5

Research and Communications Assistant - Dani Cooper Community Health Network Coordinator - Melanie Nichol Dis/Orientation Days Coordinator - Kat Palmateer

In August 2015, Meghan Jezeski wrapped up her three year contract with VIPIRG. Meghan worked with and supported VIPIRG for many years in various roles: as a Coord member, volunteer, and staff. We want to thank Meghan for all of her dedication and commitment, as well as maintaining institutional memory and consistency.

Boma Brown, former Coord member, was hired as the Internal Coordinator in August 2015.

In December 2014, VIPIRG staff and their union representation, United Steelworkers Local 2009, renegotiated their Collective Agreement, from 2015-2018.

Programming and Events

Dis/Orientation Days 2014

Dis/Orientation Days is a radical welcome for the beginning of the academic year at the University of Victoria, on unceded W̱ SÁNEĆ and Lekwungen territories.

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Highlights of VIPIRG coordinated events:

Facilitation and Holding Space in Groups – Monday, Sept. 8th 5pm, UVIC Student Union Building, Room B025 This is a participatory workshop to share questions, skills, and resources for facilitating meetings and attending to group dynamics. It’s open to everyone—from people who are brand new to organizing and other meeting spaces, to people who’ve spent lots of time in meetings and collective decision-making processes. We’ll explore the concepts of ‘taking up space,’ ‘holding space,’ and ‘creating space’ and how they shape the ways that we feel and how we treat each other in meetings.

Why We Need Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) in Victoria – Tuesday, Sept. 9th 1pm, UVIC Student Union Building, Room B025 Members of the Street College Steering Committee will present on the need for Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) in Victoria, part of a broader ‘yes2scs’ campaign for SCS in Victoria. Street College is a partnership between the Society of Living Illicit Drug Users (SOLID) and AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI) that provides a space for People who Use(d) Illicit Drugs (PUID) to learn from one another, grow together as community organizers, and challenge the pervasive stigma and oppression experienced by PUID. Presenters from the Street College Steering Committee have taken part in all stages of this program, design and facilitate Street College courses, and provide leadership in advocacy for issues impacting PUID in Victoria.

Transportation Justice: Lessons on Community Based Research and the Fair Fare Coalition, Tuesday, Sept. 23rd 3-5pm, Nellie McClung Branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library (at Cedar Hill & Mackenzie) Stef Hardman, member of the Fair Fare Coalition, will present on transportation justice, addressing both distributive (the unequal distribution of “benefits” and “burdens”) and procedural (inequity in decision- making processes) justice issues of transportation. Stef will then speak about the role of community- based research in addressing transportation injustice, referring specifically to the Fair Fare Coalition’s community-based research project on transit fare equity for low-income riders in Toronto.

Art of Resistance Workshop Series 2014 In the fall of 2014, Outreach Assistance Julie Genai coordinated a series of workshops exploring the Art of Resistance. These hands on workshops explored the radical potential of a different art forms, facilitated by different artist practitioners each time.

● #1 Improv: Featuring Whistling Kettle Improv Troupe ● #2 Storytelling: with Aubrey Burke of the Story Booth Project ● #3 Music and Activism with Chris Fretwell + Daniel Cryderman ● #4 Shadow Puppetry + Radicalism ● #5 Filming the Movement

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Community Projects and Campaigns VIPIRG dedicates resources, including financial resources, staff time, and in kind donations, to support community projects and campaigns that align with VIPIRG’s mandate and areas of priority.

Street Community Action Dinners

This year, VIPIRG provided ongoing support to the newly-initiated Street Community Action Dinners, a monthly dinner gathering members of the street community to discuss and plan action on issues that impact them.

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Microhousing Events

On May 11 and 12, 2015 VIPIRG, alongside the Committee to End Homelessness Victoria, co- sponsored events to host visiting planners and architects from two Oregon Microhousing

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Villages: Mark Lakeman from Dignity Village in Portland & Andrew Heben from OpportUNITY Village in Eugene.

Other groups VIPIRG partnered with:

Community Action Plan on Discrimination (CAP-D) CAP-D is a group that came out of a partnership between VIPIRG and the Victoria Youth Council, and is a city-mandated group to work to end discrimination, racism, and social profiling in Victoria, made up of a coalition of service agencies, advocacy organizations, and more in Victoria

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Research & Action

In September 2014, VIPIRG published a research publication, Low Income Market Housing in Victoria, by Seb Bonet and Gail Kelly. The report was launched at St. Andrew’s Church at one of the first Street Community Action Dinners, a now-monthly dinner and discussion night with members of the street community which VIPIRG has been supporting through its community partnerships budget.

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Canada Summer Jobs Community Health Network Coordinator, Melanie Nichol, produced a community- based research report on gaps in mental health services in Victoria, “All or Nothing: Experiences of Mental Health in Victoria, BC”

The purpose of this research was to explore how experiences of self-identified mental health problems and disabilities intersect with broader systemic issues in the community of Victoria, BC (Lekwungen and W̱ SÁNEĆ territories). Research focused on privileging the voices of those who have been silenced due to their mental health struggles and honouring the epistemological significance of their lived experiences. By exploring lived experiences of mental health in Victoria, BC, broad systemic issues could be situated within “our own backyard.”

This research process revealed larger systemic issues surrounding mental health in and Canada, including barriers to access and restricted resources in the mental health system, experiences of stigma and discrimination from various levels of society, and multiple intersections of people’s experiences of mental health with other experiences of marginalization.

The overarching concern that was discovered during data analysis was that Victoria’s mental health system is designed to deal solely with extremes. If crisis and wellness were placed on a spectrum, it is clear that there is a distinct lack of resources for those who fall within the middle or the “wellness” end of that spectrum. Within this middle ground, community organizations that approach mental health from a “recovery” perspective and others that serve marginalized populations carry the burden of filling this gap in both access and resources.

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Solidarity Village / Microhousing Victoria research

VIPIRG Research Coordinator, Stefanie Hardman, assisted Microhousing Victoria with conducting surveys as a part of its community consultation activities, in order to understanding the needs and concerns of the unhoused and underhoused communities in Victoria when it comes to a microhousing village.

The Outreach and Inclusion Committee (OIC) of Microhousing Victoria coordinated a series of community consultations at various service agencies throughout Victoria in June and July of 2015. These consultations were a chance for the architects and others working with Microhousing Victoria to hear directly about the needs and desires of those we might house. The sessions were made up of an initial presentation on how micro-housing has been used in other communities, followed by a focus group to garner input. The OIC led three of these sessions at Our Place, one at Rock Bay Landing, one at Sandy Merriman House and two at the Mustard Seed. In total more than 100 people provided us with direct input.

The OIC developed a comprehensive survey aimed at gathering tangible and quantifiable input from participants about community needs. The survey's 20+ questions gauged the interest level of living and participating in the Microhousing community and identified community needs and concerns. Members with lived experience of homelessness distributed and collected completed surveys from July to September 2015. Over 50 respondents completed the survey.

This input has been actively incorporated into shaping Microhousing Victoria and the housing design that has been produced.

Community Grants VIPIRG worked on establishing a Community Grants Program, which opened in January 2015. VIPIRG offered small grants up to $500, and large grants up to $3000 to support community projects, events, and organizing.

● SOLID / Indigenous Women Who Use Drugs Action Group ● Social Coast’s Trouble Makers Cabaret ● Strolen Sisters Memorial March ● Social Coast Community Action Bus ● CSPT’s Human Being Human Conference ● Movie Monday: Film screening & director’s visit (Brian Lindstrom) ● Marwo Abdi’s Super T Training ● Camas - The Mighty Oaks of Today Were the Nuts of Yesterday Art Show ● VIRCS “Encounters” ● UVic Sustainability Project: The Community Cabbage 13

● AVI Peer Convergence ● Imperial No More ● Media Democracy Days ● Scw’exmx Territory Sovereignty Gathering ● Mary’s Farm and Sanctuary Indigenous Youth Programming ● “Human Rights: Water’s not included” film project ● YES2SCS Peer Advisory Committee ● Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network’s Caravan to Unist’ot’en

Total Grants awarded = $ 30,741.00

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Financial Summary and Statements

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