Submitted by Steven Baileys, Community Development Coordinator
 

On June 9, 2015 members of the Community Partnership Network (CPN) were hosted at the Masjid Al-Iman Mosque on Quadra Street for a community engagement event. More than 80 members of the CPN and the local Muslim community joined together to share and learn about Islam and explore how to build relationships across our communities.

Greater Victoria is now home to more than two thousand Muslim neighbours who represent a range of countries and cultures in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and elsewhere.

 

Members of the Masjid Al-Imam Mosque at the CPN Community Engagement Event

 

The event started in the prayer hall of the Mosque where Imam (scholar) Mohammed Ghilbran welcomed everyone by singing a passage from the Quran that spoke to the importance of service and giving to others. Imam Ghilbran went on to explain the foundations of Islam and the role and ritual of prayer in the life of the congregation. Participants learned about the significance of the Ramadan observance (June 18-July 17) that calls upon Muslims to fast from sunrise to sunset for 30 days as a way to broaden their compassion for the hungry and less fortunate. Ramadan is also a time for many Muslims to donate to charity by participating in food drives for the poor and other voluntary activities.

 

CPN members and Muslims later engaged in a series of round table discussions where they shared ideas about how our communities can increase opportunities to better understand one another and develop stronger relationships. 

Submitted by Claire Kelly, Settlement Youth Worker
 

The youth team attending The Vibe picnic

As the school year comes to an end, so do many youth programs at ICA; Homework Club, The Vibe, and The Meet Up all came to an end in June and were all very successful. These programs served approximately 60 happy youth, with the help of 20 youth volunteers!

So, the Youth Services team would first like to thank all of the incredible participants and volunteers that made all of these programs possible. Thank you for a great semester of fun and learning, and we hope to see you all again in the fall.

As sad as it is to finish these three programs, with the end of the school year comes the beginning of summer break and our summer programs for the youth of ICA! For the younger youth (8-12 years old), Kay will be leading ACE! Summer Camp during the weeks of July 6-10 and July 20-24. However, the camp is in such high demand that it is already full.

Since July 2014, ICA has been a member of the Community-Based Response Network on Sexualized and Gender-Based Violence (CBRN). Under the leadership of the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, seven community organizations are looking for ways to create a sustainable community network and to develop a co-ordinated response to sexualized and gender-based violence across the diverse communities served by these organizations. The organizations involved serve a range of persons: racialized, immigrant, refugee, and Indigenous girls, women, and trans*people as well as women and trans*people involved in sex work.

During the first year, the Network focused its work on consulting with staff members inside our organizations, as well as with members of our client communities. The goal was to collectively identify issues and needs of persons impacted by sexualized

 and gender-based violence. As we are moving into the second year of our work, we will develop a collaboration strategy to enable continuity of the Network beyond the initial

 two years. We will develop a community-level promising practice to strengthen our community response to sexualized and gender-based violence across our diverse communities.

The Network has produced a first video where representatives of the seven organizations talk about their experiences during the first year. You can access this video and read more about the Network by following this link.

Why is there an asterisk in trans*?

The ICA Pen Pal program matched 17 individual newcomer students enrolled in an ICA intermediate level English language class with ICA volunteers from the community. The Pen Pals exchanged letters over a 3-month period, between February and May 2015. The program afforded the Pen Pals the chance to participate in cultural exchange, and in particular, provided newcomer English language learners the opportunity to practice their writing skills. The letters are handwritten which makes the experience much more personal.

ICA volunteers and newcomer students Photo Credit: Carol Sherwood

The Pen Pals met one another for the first time on April 28, 2015 at a fun and festive event. Though the program has come to a close, many of the Pals found that they share similar interests and plan to keep in touch.

If you would like more information about becoming a volunteer for an ICA program, please contact Coordinator of Volunteer Services Liz Bean at lbean@icavictoria.org.