Projects
There have been many projects I have developed with volunteers. Here are a few of the “special ones".
Age-friendly Communities
This project started with an invite from the Ministry of Health, asking me, as Chair of Healthy Saanich, to present the various projects we were doing around our older residents, to the W.H.O. executive meeting in Vancouver. The meeting was to develop their “Age-Friendly Cities” initiative across the world.
The Provincial Government put out a call for municipalities to bid on being BC’s representative in this exciting project. I worked with our CAO to put a report to Council and a bid was created. There were 32 global cities selected and Saanich was chosen to represent BC.
The Global Age-Friendly Cities initiative was to design our communities so that programs and services are friendly to adults and seniors as they age.
Through a number of focus groups, eight priority topic areas were identified:
outdoor spaces and buildings,
transportation,
housing,
respect and social inclusion,
social participation, communication and information,
civic participation and employment,
community support and health services.
Saanich was been recognized by the Provincial and Federal governments and the WHO, and to this day continues to use the Age-Friendly lens in various areas.
This term a Japanese reporter and photographer came to Saanich after the WHO recommended they contact me to explore what Saanich had accomplished.
Almost one year later I was contacted by officials from Matsumoto Japan, who had read some of the News articles and met with the reporter to get my contact info.
They wanted me to be a keynote speaker at their annual World Health Capital Conference. Little did I know I would experience my first Typhoon, Hagibis, it was very scary and the damage done underground, especially to their transportation system, was significant.
Although our atmospheric river experience last year was unbelievable, the amount of steady falling rain Tokyo experienced when I was there during the Typhoon was something I had never experienced.
Saanich News article on the Student Municipal Council.
Saanich Student
Municipal Council
Through our work with youth and Healthy Saanich committee an idea emerged and the “Saanich Student Municipal Council” was borne. This was a twelve-week program for students in grades 8-12. We believed that the energy of youth had great potential to effect change in Saanich.
“It’s amazing what youth can do at the municipal level. This has provided me with an opportunity to voice my opinion.”
The Program objectives were:
To identify and address youth issues through the municipal process;
To impart knowledge and experience to youth on community involvement and municipal government decision making;
To impart an understanding of municipal government operations and the services Saanich provides;
To increase youth participation in local elections and voter turnout;
To encourage participation by fostering interest, debate and research;
To facilitate the development of informed, competent and trained leadership.
The students identified an important and relevant issue. They then described the issue, researched the process through Saanich and senior staff. Finally prepared a written report. From there they constructed a logical argument concerning the issue in debate while sitting as a member of Saanich Council (student version) in Council Chambers. The real Council and family members were in audience.
The first agenda developed included the following issues:
Bike lanes on Shelbourne Street
Bike lanes on Mackenzie Avenue
Traffic calming policy
Street lighting on Arbutus
Protection of the Garry Oak habitats
School Use Agreement
Adopting a Galloping Goose section
Involvement of Youth in Municipal Council
I, and all members of Council, were so impressed with this Agenda … a lot of the same topics today, still come up!
While I was Chair of Healthy Saanich we ran this program. The program even received recognition from Union of BC Municipalities.
Getting ready to head out on the ride.
Bikes parked while riders take part in the festivities.
Saanich Cycling Festival
This event came when I was Chair of Saanich's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Committee members wanted to celebrate cycling in Saanich but they really wanted to highlight the need to move Shelbourne forward. We formed an event coordination group. The first year we had 700 riders, all ages, congregate at Gordon Head Recreation Centre, with Police support and business support, we rode up Shelbourne to Shelbourne Plaza, the festival site. The turnout of cyclists was so large that as the first riders were pulling into the Plaza, the line continued all the way up Shelbourne with riders still leaving the Gordon Head Rec Centre. We did it a few more times with the Festival site moving to UVIC and the start moving to Camosun College.
The committee thought we needed to move this event so other areas of Saanich could be covered, like our trail connections to schools, shopping etc. We moved the event to Saanich Municipal Hall and more families came and the challenge was to get to as many celebration stations and get your map stamped. The more stations you visited, the more entries for gift baskets. Music and food and activities abound at the Hall.
At the Event one of the participants was showing a grandfather where the trail went. He had ridden to event with his grandson and was amazed at the trail network in Saanich. With Shelbourne Valley Plan approved and the pedestrian, cycling and transit improvements being done over the next five years, I'd like to think the "awareness" we brought to the need of safety and connectivity of Shelbourne, helped move it forward.
"Healthy Saanich" map.
Healthy Saanich
first Green Map
The Saanich Green Map Project was where we invited older adults and youth to draw some of their special places in Saanich. The sharing and drawing and the many conversations in the room was so exciting. Just over 50 maps were drawn and I asked Brionny Penn (a friend) if she could take these maps and create a "Healthy Saanich" Map, here was the result.
Life in Saanich Then & Now
Giving pioneers and students the chance to come together, hear each others' memories, dreams and all they have in common, was the original intent of the memories project- that we have a way to share those Saanich memories with others through this book is value added.
I have always enjoyed intergenerational projects and this project was just that. We created a series of questions for seniors and youth. Then we provided places within different schools where seniors and youth met. Each group was given a tape recorder to record answers from the questions we had prepared. The seniors would ask the questions of the youth and visa versa. We had a volunteer who transcribed and then worked with a graphic artist to put the book together. The book "Saanich Then and Now" is in our archives.
I remember one of the questions we created was "What was the most memorable world event for you." The seniors said the War but the youth said the death of Princess Diana. This book is special and a number of the pioneers in it have now passed but their families still have this book to remember their contribution.