Priorities & Projects

#3 Social and Civic Inclusion of Newcomers

Social connections of newcomers to their community are an important measure of their sense of belonging and affect health outcomes. To support newcomers in fully participating in their community, stakeholders can identify actions on how to reduce barriers to inclusion. 

Goal:

  • Tri-Cities newcomers feel connected to their community and have increased opportunities to connect with other residents.

Civic participation enhances community members’ sense of attachment to their community. Research findings indicate that newcomers have low levels of participation in the political sphere. Engaging newcomers in civic participation enables community stakeholders to provide resources and services that reflect the needs of the community.

Goal:

  • Newcomers have an increased understanding of civic participation and are able to participate in local civic opportunities.

Using an Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) lens, the Civic Engagement working group identifies opportunities to engage diverse voices in local civic opportunities. From collaborations with municipalities to learning about voting and elections, by engaging with newcomers and other diverse voices, our communities become stronger and more inclusive.

Civic Engagement of Newcomers

One of the barriers to inclusion is racism. Using an equity, diversity & inclusion lens, the Tri-Cities Together: Coalition against Racism & Hate is a Resilience BC spoke that engages community leaders and stakeholders to plan and direct anti-racism activities in the Tri-Cities.

Anti-Racism Initiatives

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated social inequities and highlighted the need to address the systems that enable these inequities to persist. In order to gain a deeper understanding of these issues, TCLIP is collaborating with community partners, residents from diverse communities and facilitators on creating safe spaces to learn, discuss and co-design solutions that will address racism in our communities.

Anti-Racism Initiatives

Addressing Racism: Virtual Community Dialogues

TCLIP presented a series of Virtual Community Dialogues on Racism between June 24th – July 20th, 2020 and was honoured to have guest speakers Dr. Ismaël Traoré and Priscilla Omulo for the series of dialogues that addressed three important questions:

What Does Racism Look Like?
In the first dialogue, held on June 24th, Dr. Ismaël Traoré and Priscilla Omulo talked about the manifestations of racism and the impacts of systems of oppression that enable racism to persist.

Why Does Racism Still Exist?
In the second dialogue, held on July 9th, participants were able to learn about how psychological defense mechanisms can play a role in the existence of racism. Dr. Ismaël Traoré and Priscilla Omulo spoke about strategies to combat these mechanisms.

How do we address racism in our communities?
In the third and last dialogue, held on July 20th, Dr. Ismaël Traoré and Priscilla Omulo talked about allyship principles that can empower us to stand in solidarity to address racism in the Tri-Cities.

The Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership endeavours to develop safe spaces for our communities to learn together to address racism. Education is a key component in building the capacity of our community to grow together and to embrace empathy, respect and inclusion to strengthen our community. Join us at one our many events! Read more on our events page.