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Location: Greater Vancouver, Greater Vancouver Project Summary
Overview The project aims to broaden the diversity of people involved with watershed and marine conservation through targeting outreach, which will provide meaningful engagement of people from CALD communities. CALD communities voices and values are often underrepresented in community sustainability initiatives as materials and dialogue on are predominately in English, creating a barrier to participation and preventing these communities voices and values from being heard. Engaging people from CALD communities in the project will offer transformational experiences through dialogue and action and will provide direct experiences of the complexity of watersheds from headwaters to the ocean. By working with a diverse array of community partners to promote dialogue and learning in languages other than English we will initiate broader community support for, and understanding of, watershed management and help to create more inclusive communities and contribute to the existing community of practice. The project will ultimately benefit watersheds, salmonids and their habitat by fostering watershed champions to engage their communities in watershed focused dialogue and promoting salmon-friendly changes in behaviour. The project will be delivered in partnership with the Georgia Strait Alliance; a marine focused non-profit organization with extensive experience working with CALD communities and the Fraser Basin Council. This partnership creates an opportunity to enhance knowledge of the connection between communities, watersheds and marine environments. Objectives Methods The project will build the capacity of 30 individuals from Punjabi and Chinese speaking groups from communities in the lower mainland to be Watershed Champions. An in-language train the trainer approach will engage participants in two 2-day workshops to explore the concept of watersheds and the connections between attitudes, behaviour and watershed sustainability. This training will draw on traditional ecological knowledge from local First Nations community representatives as well as the experiences of local stewardship groups and ethnic community service providers. Opportunities for collaboration and mentoring will be created for the participants to develop personalized approaches to watershed management and establish a support network beyond the life of the project. Evaluative data will be gathered before, during and after the capacity building process to track changes in attitudes and behaviour and inform decision-making processes and community engagement strategies. Once trained, the Watershed Champions will transfer their knowledge to the broader community and promote changes in behaviour to minimize their impact on local streams and salmon habitat through a series of free, local workshops/dialogue sessions. In-language resources and educational materials will be created and made available to other organizations and communities. Key learnings from the project will be communicated to enhance the capacity of local watershed groups to engage a more diverse audience. This will also add value to the education and outreach capabilities of the existing community of practice. Other initiatives to engage different sectors of the community in the project, including businesses, local and provincial government and ethnic community service providers will continue to be implemented in the second year of the program: including a symposium or dialogue series to explore watershed management and barriers to participation from a culturally diverse perspective.
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