WTC In Action

Earlier this year, WTC spoke with Watch Council participants on what they found valuable about the program. WTC launched Watch Council’s new vision and activities with many ways for members to participate in community. This includes drop-in sessions, field trips, member learning series, a dedicated Slack channel, Watch Council alerts, and civic engagement resources!

WTC presented a workshop on how to speak to council to engage and influence local government. We shared best practices on engaging and influencing city councillors, and practiced speaking using a writing template!

WTC facilitated a workshop to kick off South Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Advisory Committee cohort at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. Together, we brainstormed strategies to overcome identity-based oppression and learned  all about the history of intersectionality. ⁠

WTC spoke with Stephen Quinn on council’s motion to review advisory committees for “efficiency” and why, given this council’s track record, many were concerned this could be the first step toward removing advisory committees. WTC also raised public awareness by encouraging members to send letters to council to commit to preserving advisory committees. ⁠

WTC shared a letter template for everyone to use to email mayor and council telling them "integrity is non-negotiable." City council backed down from their plan to remove the Integrity Commissioner. 

Ahead of September 30th, the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, we delivered a learning series for our members to help equip and inspire them to advocate for more progress on the Calls to Action.

WTC delivered a workshop to Translink that explored how to put an equity lens on community engagement. Participants discussed some of the common challenges they face including engagement fatigue as well as time/budget limitations. Together we brainstormed strategies to try to overcome those barriers.

We asked community members, “what does a city where we all belong look like to you?” and collected signatures for our petition to call on Mayor Sim and Vancouver City Council to increase funding for public washrooms across Vancouver.