By Jill Zacharias,
Social Development Coordinator
This May in Ottawa, communities engaged in poverty reduction across Canada – including Revelstoke – will be meeting for Canada’s first-ever Poverty Reduction Summit.
Hosting the event is Vibrant Communities Canada (VCC), a national organization that has been working to reduce poverty in Canada since 2002. VCC’s vision is to create ‘vibrant’ Canadian communities by significantly reducing the human, social and economic cost of poverty. The overarching goal is aligned poverty reduction strategies in cities, provinces and the federal government resulting in reduced poverty for 1 million Canadians.
As part of the event, Revelstoke was invited to add the voices of people from our community to the national gathering, using a variety of media. The intent was to have a conversation about what people thought made communities vibrant and what was vibrant about Revelstoke in particular.
Consequently, Stephanie Melnyk, Debbie Morabito, Rana Nelson and David Rooney volunteered to help me produce a video. They also acquired children’s art, which we inserted between the video’s difference segments. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Alexa Klassen’s Grade 3 class at Columbia Park Elementary, Sue Leach’s Grade 4/5 class at Columbia Park Elementary and Tara Johnson’s Grade 6/7 class at Arrow Heights Elementary.
Our video project’s combination of children’s art with thoughtful responses from a variety of Revelstoke residents makes our volunteers’ video a unique production that describes the spirit of Revelstoke. The video will be showcased at the summit as well as at www.vibrantcanada.ca, and will also appear on The Revelstoke Current.
Revy Vibes captures the heart of our community. Enjoy!
