Feb 28 Meeting Minutes

Meeting Minutes – February 28, 2011
(City of Williams Lake 11:30 am - lunch provided)

Attendance (from sign-in sheet): Kimberly McLennan, Michelle Daymond, Ryan Desjardins, Jan Fichtner, Jay Goddard, Cindy Davis, Annie McKitrick, Deb Radolla, Bruce Mack, Jocelyn Wood, Dave Dickson, and Jessica Knodel.

Lunch & watch the short video everyone is talking about - Changing Education Paradigms with speaker Ken Robinson

As part of our transition back to being less program based, we are having short presentations at the start of each meeting. This month we showed the video entitled “Changing Education Paradigms” with speaker Ken Robinson.

This film is both engaging and entertaining and provides a good encapsulation of 21st learning. It provides a different perspective about how we can support moving towards new learning structures within our education system.

Some discussions that followed included:

Within post secondary institutions there is too much emphasis on judging students based on marks alone.

The school system is only one institution among many that need to promote new ways of learning. Shifts in schools need to be accompanied by shifts everywhere else. Parents, employers, coaches, mentors, counsellors all need to work together.

For those of you who missed watching the video we featured at this meeting please see the link below:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Review and acceptance of the Jan 24/11 meeting minutes and Feb 28/11 agenda

Review and discuss the City's draft Social Well Being Sections (4.11 - 4.16) with Annie McKitrick, Acting Manager of Social Development for the City of Williams Lake.

In April Council is scheduled to adopt the OCP which will be used to assist in decision making. The City of Williams Lake used an innovative way to create their OCP that included gathering input from groups and individuals directly which resulted in ten priority areas including Social Well Being. Final drafting of the City’s OCP is almost completed and the City has asked for continued feedback during these final stages.

The Social Planning Council distributed copies of the Social Well Being Section 4.1 to their membership and email groups prior to the Feb 28 meeting and copies were also provided at the table.

Some discussions and comments included:

This is a more comprehensive OCP than most - it includes very detailed social, environmental, and food security sections. Overview provided by City Staff included the following points:

One objective is to make the downtown the heart of the city. Create a more vibrant downtown that does not “get deserted” at 5 pm and on the weekends. Mixing residential with commercial can help encourage this.
Creating a greater sense of neighbourhood communities, and using the land for residential commercial and industrial in a coexisting but non intrusive way.
Creating more housing alternatives and residential areas that include more options than just the stereotypical “four bedroom home with a garage”.
Increasing accessibility including transportation, wheelchair access and parking.
Broadening the scope of Williams Lake as a central hub for nearby rural communities and even those further away such as Anahim Lake. Williams Lake serves the needs of over 15K residents including the outlying areas.
Develop land use around the airport and promoting Williams Lake being a world class recreation destination.

Before the document is finalized, complete a survey today - visit the CRD or City Website to let your voice be heard.

Discussions which followed:

Under Coordinated Planning – should include encouraging the participation of younger citizens to ensure keeping capacity within current organizations as the population continues to grow and older generations are starting to retire.

Within the City’s children and youth population there is still an enormous amount of racism prevalent. We need to start encouraging diversity from a very young age.

Poverty and access to employment – can this section be linked to the economic sections of the OCP?

Can the Literacy section be moved to coordinated planning?

Many people would like to see more development of parklands.

Action: The SPC Board meet to discuss the sections further and make recommendations.

4. Updates on CTC (see below), FPC, the Living Wage Project, BC Rural Network Conference and the presentation to City Council on Feb 22/11.

a) Communites that Care Program: see update provided below

January/February 2011

Williams Lake

January 24-26: Reclaiming Youth Conference. Courses included Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to potential with challenging youth and Response Ability Pathways: Restoring bonds of respect
Ordered Positive Action materials for the Resource Library at the Women’s Contact Society
Ongoing meetings with the Youth Engagement team re: Art mural project at the Friendship Centre. Tasks have included:

Renaming the group: SWOT – Strong Women of Tomorrow
Designing the mural for the front entrance of the Friendship Centre. The design will be a large tree with dream catchers listing all the Friendship Centre programs, and a logo for the name Strong Women of Tomorrow
Purchasing painting supplies
Creating a face book page for ongoing communication and progress with the project
Painting began the week of February 7th

February 7 – Evaluation survey was emailed to Board Members in WL and Anahim Lake. The deadline was extended till February 25th. The results will be discussed at the next CTC Board meeting on March 7th, 2011
February 8 – Telephone conference call with provincial CTC groups: Williams Lake, Anahim Lake, Prince George, Quesnel, Kelowna, Victoria and Squamish
Event planning for the Dr. Gabor Mate evening event on March 1st at TRU
Set up a shelving unit for the Positive Action Resource Library, transferred each kit into individual totes and created an inventory for the library
February 14 – Meeting with MCFD to discuss upcoming CTC contract
February 15 – Oversight working group meeting
February 16 – First Nations Education Council presentation
February 21 – CTC Board meeting. Welcomed new members and had a discussion on three questions:

What do you see as the benefits of working together for our community?
What are your ideas for assisting CTC in expanding the dialogue and the circle?
What do you need to feel welcomed and valued to join in while working together?

February 25 – Positive Action Open House at the Women’s Contact Society. 19 people attended including the newspaper media

Anahim Lake
Parenting Wisely is now being implemented as an outreach program, in connection with the Head Start program
Roots of Empathy is having a strong impact in both the AL and Nagwuntl’oo schools
Girl Power group on Monday nights and the afterschool programs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings are going very well, with meals provided by the Ulkatcho Band
Positive Action program is going strong. Christian Academy had some staff turnover and new teachers were trained
A funding application was written for the RBC Grant in partnership with the AL school
February 16 – Community Board meeting. The evaluation was discussed along with an update on next year’s contract
February 17th – Youth Basketball tournament as part of the afterschool program
February 18th – Roots of Empathy training in Williams Lake

Administration Update: The CTC program is going to RFP and the SPC will continue to administer the CTC program until the end of June.

b) Food Policy Council Update: see update provided below

UPDATE FROM WILLIAMS LAKE FOOD POLICY COUNCIL
For Social Planning Council Meeting
February 28, 2011

TERMS OF REFERENCE

A Terms of Reference has been tentatively approved by the Food Policy Council, pending additions by Tatjana re: role of Interior Health (to be completed by March FPC meeting)

Our approved Mission Statement is:

To develop food security policies and a strategic action plan that will move Williams Lake towards a place where all community members obtain a safe, culturally acceptable and nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes self-reliance and social justice.

COMMUNITY GARDENS
Contracted Chris Robinson, owner and farmer, Road’s End Vegetable Company, as a Consultant to design and help build the Carson Community Farm/Garden
Draft proposal and budget for Carson Community Farm/Garden has been submitted for review to FPC on Wednesday, Feb. 23.
Currently seeking out an interested agency to eventually run the garden (long-term planning for turnover from FPC)

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB PARTNERSHIP
Michelle mentors 3 youth 4 days per week. We are working on local farms, in Cariboo Growers, the Food Bank and Drop-In Centre and the SPCA
This program goes until end of May 20, 2011

SEEDY SATURDAY
Confirmed date, Saturday April 16, 2011
To be held in the Cariboo Growers Parking Lot, in conjunction with 1 year anniversary party of Cariboo Growers

COMMUNITY ROOT CELLAR
A working group has been set up to discuss the feasibility of creating a Community Root Cellar in WL

For more information on the Williams Lake Food Policy Council, or any of our projects, please contact Michelle Daymond, Food Action Coordinator
250-267-2085 candoitconsulting150@gmail.com
or Tatjana Bates, Community Developer
250-302-5010 tatjana.bates@interiorhealth.ca

c) Living Wage: see provided report below

What is a Living Wage?

Living wage refers to the hourly wage that is deemed necessary for a household to achieve a basic standard of living, once government transfers have been added to the family’s income (such as the Universal Child Care Benefit) and deductions have been subtracted (such as income tax and Employment Insurance Premiums). The Living Wage is calculated so as to ensure that the family has the income to:

Feed, clothe and provide shelter for their family;
Promote healthy child development;
Participate in activities that are an ordinary element of life in a community; and
Avoid the chronic stress of living in poverty.

A living wage differs from a minimum wage, which is the legal minimum employers must pay, in that a living wage accounts for expected expenses and their actual costs in a community relative to an individual’s family situation. Hence, a living wage will vary from location to location, and within a community, from person to person.

The “living wage” is based on a mathematical formula that calculates expected expenses and their actual costs in a community. The formula used for the purpose of this study was one used by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and other groups.

The goal of the project is to provide information to assist our city to measure the ability of working persons to meet the needs of their families. Meeting our living wage standard will help to promote Williams Lake as a great place to choose to live.

Why is a Living Wage Important?

The concept of the living wage dates back to Pope Leo XIII, who published a public letter in 1891, in which he insisted on a living wage as a protection against poverty. The living wage is based on the notion that those who work full time should not have to live in poverty and that by paying a living wage workers need not rely on the government for basic services. The purpose of the living wage is to reduce the number of working poor and reward hard work with sufficient pay.
What is the Living Wage for Williams Lake

The results of the analysis indicate that a living wage in Williams Lake is as follows:

For a single person: $13.45/hour
For a single parent with one child: $14.06
For a two parent, two children, two income household: $15.77/hour

The hourly wage is based on a 35 hour work week. In total, 234 employers representing the full scope of employers within Williams Lake were surveyed through participation in a direct survey, or by collecting data from collective agreements. Overall, the participation rate was 51%. We are pleased with the rate of participation, and feel the scope is such that we have a representative sample of the businesses. Contrary to media reports, specific information on participant wages/benefits will not be published. Businesses were assured of anonymity.

Next Steps for the Study

The study will also incorporate employee benefits when the final report is concluded (release expected at the end of February). Based on data collection, 43% of local employers provide a certain degree of employment benefits.

A summary of what other communities are doing with their living wage information will also be presented (ie, implementation of living wage policies etc.).

Recommendations on how our community might consider using the living wage information (ie; not-for-profits, who generally receive funding from governments, could use the information as leveraging to increase their funding, thereby ensuring that they can offer a living wage to their employees, which increases their service capacity, increases staff retention turnover, and helps with recruitment).
Study Funded by CBAC, with Support from the Communities that Care Program and the City of Williams Lake.

d) BC Rural Network Conference

Being held over two days at TRU on May 23 & 24th, this event’s focus is Rural Community Economic and Environmental Development. Both the SPC and TRU are being represented at this event and at the end of the conference the SPC and South Cariboo Social Planning Commitee are holding a joint meeting together. There will be a formal presentation on food security and open ended discussion as well as a presentation on the Living Wage inititatives.

e) Presentation to City Council

The presentation to City Council on Feb 22, 2011 provided a current update from the SPC and will be continued on a quarterly basis.

5. What do you want to see? Conversation about what type of information members want made available on the web. How can we best utilize the site to serve all the needs of our membership?

Topic tabled to next month’s meeting agenda.

6. Round table updates and networking between table members and organizations.

Jay: TRU is in the process of revitalizing their academic plan. It includes attracting local students to study in Williams Lake as well as recruiting students from outside our region. Creating an innovative niche program exclusive the Williams Lake TRU campus is one initiative being pursued as well as developing the BA program. There is also a lack of non-profit management training within the province which is a future area TRU should consider.

Annie – the active Junior Council program is successfully moving forward. On May 28 there is the Childrens Bike Rodeo in joint partnership with the Success by Six program and the City of Williams Lake. More information will be available soon.

Jan – There is an upcoming Pro-D day on Mar 4 with Tom Swanke presenting on the Chilcotin Wars 9 am at WLSS. On Mar 15 there is a Teaching and Community Presentation – Jan to send out a sign-up form and poster with more details.

Cindy – There is a free family concert at the TRU Gym from 5 – 7 pm April 2, 2011. There is also the annual Children’s Festival upcoming on May 29th at Boitanio Park. It will be a fun family event to attend and if you want to partake in the festivities please contact Cindy at the Women’s Contact Society. On February 25 there was a Positive Action Open House at the Women’s Contact Society with more than twenty people in attendance. There are CTC Kits now available at the Library.

Bruce - Partners for Literacy used survey results from families with children aged 3 – 5 to create travel kits with literacy activities. A lack in literacy skills is linked to the activities of children outside of school. One example is while travelling – this travel kit initiative provides a valuable alternative activity for parents to offer which encourages and promotes continued learning and reading outside the classroom.

Kimberly – the Volunteer database is up at running at Williams Lake Employment Services. Volunteer request forms are available to any organization looking for volunteers. People wanting to volunteer do not need to be unemployed (as many programs often require). For more information or to request forms please contact Kimberly (or the SPC).