Fresh Voices to work with PeerNetBC

Since 2011, Vancouver Foundation has supported the Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team with significant time, energy, ideas and money to bring together immigrant and refugee youth, listen to them, and empower them to address issues that affect them.

Now that important progress has been made, including meaningful policy changes and improved political engagement, Fresh Voices is ready to begin a new chapter in our growth.

What we accomplished – together

Over the past five years the Fresh Voices Youth Advisory Team has worked with Vancouver Foundation to make some great progress:

• We convened over 1,000 immigrant and refugee youth to discuss programs and policies that affect newcomer youth and solutions to improve these practices and policies
• We met the Federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to discuss removing transportation loans for Government Assisted Refugees and improving family reunification policies
• We successfully renamed English as a Second Language to ELL (English Language Learning), and continuing advocacy for ELL class graduation credits through our Make It Count campaign
• We facilitated the first ever Syrian Refugee Consultation in partnership with Immigrant Services Society of BC to capture refugee youth experiences within the first 100 days of settling in Canada
• We created the Fresh Voices Awards to recognize the contributions of immigrant and refugee youth, in partnership with Vancity Credit Union, Michaelle Jean Foundation, TELUS and MOSAIC B.C.
• We undertook research into the physical, social and economic mobility of newcomer youth in the metro-Vancouver region, including provincial policy recommendations
• We launched Lost Votes: a public education and engagement campaign to extend municipal voting rights to permanent residents who live, work, and raise their children in Vancouver

Fresh Voices will work together with PeerNetBC to continue making a difference on this issue

The Fresh Voices initiative will be supported by PeerNetBC – a charitable organization that provides professional advice and resources to peer-led groups made up of members who work together to make decisions.

Fresh Voices youth advisory team members, facilitated by PeerNetBC, will continue the work of Fresh Voices from March 1, 2018 onwards.

If you have any questions about the work of Fresh Voices in the meantime, please contact Vancouver Foundation at freshvoices@vancouverfoundation.ca