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Captured Futures of Climate Politics

by | Jan 6, 2022 | Uncategorized

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

We are thrilled to be copresenting our friend Maarten Hajer’s return visit to Vancouver on January 26, 2022. Maarten is a distinguished professor of Urban Futures at Utrecht University, member of the International Resources Panel, and will speak on ‘The Captured Futures of Climate Politics.’

With the pandemic, Maarten’s return visit will be virtual, and is a highlight of a new series we are helping produce with Voor Urban Labs’ client CAANS, the Dutch cultural organisation for BC.  Titled ‘Dutch Perspectives on Tackling the Climate Crisis,’ the series of public talks runs November 2021 to March 2022, with acclaimed Dutch experts and local actors on the climate crisis and perspectives on solutions. Hajer will provide an inspiring and provocative talk followed by Respondent Dr. Sybil Seitzinger, Executive Director, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions. There will be lots of opportunity for audience dialogue. Pick up a ticket and join us.

January’s event is produced by CAANS Vancouver and presented by One Earth, Voor Urban Labs, and Wild Bird Trust of BC, and sponsored by the Netherlands Consulate in Vancouver.

Professor Dr. Maarten Hajer is familiar with Vancouver, and was keynote for our Munch! Event in partnership with RayCam Cooperative Centre back in October 2019. That conversation addressed how neighbourhoods can collaborate on their solutions.  Having agency and equal partnerships between residents, social innovators,  academic and government partners means cocreating urban futures that are more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive.  

Maarten is director of the Urban Futures Studio and was a professor of Public Policy at the University of Amsterdam, Director of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, and Chief Curator of the 7th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.

Urban Indigenous Governance

by | May 5, 2021 | Uncategorized

NUICC + VOOR URBAN LABS

For many Indigenous populations, storytelling is governance. Storytelling communicates values, community priorities, and important histories that are part of identity, power, and self-determination. And for so long, the voices and stories of urban Indigenous Peoples in Canada have been unheard or ignored. 

In 2019, a number of individual urban Indigenous coalitions in cities across Canada recognized the need to federate in order to generate a common voice for the hundreds of community-facing organizations and municipal urban Indigenous advisory councils. 

When coalitions in each city come together in their regions, provinces, and federally, Indigenous populations can share their experiences and successes, and an urban Indigenous national strategy can be defined by the community itself. 

Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) acknowledged the need for a consultative table for the urban Indigenous communities self-organizing in 32 Canadian cities. Why? Because 73% to 84% of Indigenous Peoples who live off-reserve reside in Canadian cities and urban centres.

Formed in response to ISC’s call to action, the National Urban Indigenous Coalitions Council (NUICC) mandate is to steadily advance the work of impacting federal urban Indigenous policy development and action. Supporting policy development that is built from the best available data and research can help individual coalitions in municipalities, as well as regionally, provincially and federally.      

NUICC approached Voor Urban Labs to support its communications and policy amplification needs to inform changes to federal action plans directly impacting urban Indigenous populations.

Voor has deep experience working alongside urban Indigenous community members in Vancouver’s inner-city, what is often considered the urban rez, where the Indigenous community members face homelessness, a two-decades-long national public health crisis, and premature death. Economic justice, housing justice, and safety for women and children are solutions we have worked for across Coast Salish lands. The Voor team is grateful this track record of community experience positions us to be tapped for this cross-Canada work.     

We look forward to supporting communications and production work for conferences and gatherings, council and committee meetings. We anticipate helping animate the stories from each of the 32 Canadian cities organizing urban Indigenous coalitions and sharing them across the country to inspire and bring change. Voor will help amplify NUICC voices in multiple formats including policy proposals, community-engaged research, podcasts, videos, website, social media, virtual events. 

We are excited and deeply honored to be of service to NUICC as we believe in the power of collaboration, of mutuality, and amplifying innovative community solutions. 

 

Build Social Research project to launch in January 2021

Build Social Research project to launch in January 2021

by | Nov 20, 2020 | Uncategorized

Voor Urban Labs conducting first-ever Canadian study to measure social value, productivity and community impacts from the construction industry employing workers who face barriers.

We are thrilled www.BuildSocial.ca will be launched in January 2021 to measure the benefits of social procurement in the Canadian construction industry. Build Social is a platform and research study which has received approval from Simon Fraser University Research Ethics Board.

The $170 billion Canadian construction industry employs some 1.4 million people across Canada, but on the horizon is an increasing labour shortage of tens of thousands of workers. This research examines the Canadian construction industry employing workers who face barriers to employment.  Commencing January 2021, Voor Urban Labs will launch three quantitative and qualitative research phases and take place on construction sites in different Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax, and elsewhere. Voor Urban Labs has been contracted by Buy Social Canada to conduct the research with a projected one thousand submissions. 

Build Social examines the productivity and work readiness of various temporary construction workers brought on job sites from market and non-market labour suppliers. It examines worker evaluation, training and supports, as well as broader ‘social value’ to workers and their communities. It also explores the experience of workers who face barriers as they are hired through private and community-based temp worker agencies. Workers are often brought into the industry through social enterprise labour agencies that hope to improve the lives of workers who face barriers to landing well-paid secure work. 

The research will determine if labour from socially-procured suppliers is perceived to deliver comparable productivity standards to other workers on similar construction acts on the same construction site. In addition to worker productivity comparisons provided by supervisors, we will learn about the social value benefits of social procurement in the construction industry and in the communities where it builds public infrastructure. As the sector faces a major shortage of skilled workers, and moderately continues through this Covid19 economics disruption, the research will  provide timely data and analysis as precarious workers are especially vulnerable and impacted.  The research site at www.buildsocial.ca communicates to the construction industry as well as the research community participants regarding the study, communicates the benefits and provides access to participants. Follow along and read blog updates on the Build Social website.

Voor Urban Labs is researching the impacts of North America’s largest social enterprise cluster

Voor Urban Labs is researching the impacts of North America’s largest social enterprise cluster

by | Oct 28, 2020 | Uncategorized

Voor Labs is conducting research on the community economic impact of the social enterprise sector in Vancouver’s inner-city. This is the second year our team is conducting a survey and producing data and analysis for Buy Social Canada, with financial support from the City of Vancouver.

For 20 years, social enterprises in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside have created employment opportunities for thousands of residents, ensured access to affordable goods and services for community residents, and generated millions of dollars in economic activity.

Too often, we see the DTES portrayed as a community of desperation. While there are certainly structural challenges to overcome, Voor Urban Labs is excited to amplify the economic power of residents and community-serving businesses. The social enterprise sector in the area features 88 businesses in a range of sectors from sanitation, food services, and retail creating hope and autonomy for residents every day. How and why these businesses succeed or fail has critical lessons both for residents as well as City of Vancouver policy reviews for CED and poverty reduction.

In 2019, we surveyed 40 of these social enterprises and found they had:

  • documented $26.5 million in sales
  • paid $18.4 million in wages, and
  • created over 2,800 jobs, for which 55% full-time and 90% part-time workers who overcame barriers to employment.
  • Considering models of recircular economics, these wages recirculate exponentially throughout the neighbourhood feeding the local economy. 

Click here to download the 16-page 2019 report (7MB PDF).

This year’s DTES Social Enterprise Impact Survey is live through November 2020 and the online survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. This year’s survey re-measures the sector’s sales and employment figures, and gauges readiness to bid on social procurement bids, such as the new St. Paul’s Hospital. Covid-19 has also added multiple challenges, and it is vital that we learn from its impacts.

Survey participants receive:

  • A 2021 Coast Salish Wild Birds Calendar ($20 value) from the Wild Bird Trust of BC
  • Entry into a prize draw for a $100 gift certificate to EastVan Roasters
  • Free guest list to the Voor Urban Labs’ December 10 Munch! event

Participation in this survey gives us the perspective and voice we need to sustain social enterprises in DTES within the larger region.  

We need combined, anonymous information — no individual data is used or identified from a specific source. Your personal data is secure, and will not be shared or published.