March and April at the South Cariboo Elizabeth Fry Society

The Elizabeth Fry Society supports women and families across Canada by working to increase public awareness, to build partnerships within communities, and to improve access to services for women dealing with the criminal justice system. The South Cariboo branch operates out of Ashcroft, and encompasses Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Clinton, Spences Bridge,Walhachin, and several First Nations Bands.

In addition to our ongoing services and programs, South Cariboo Elizabeth Fry Society has been committed to building strong community partnerships to better support individuals and families. We are excited to share with you some of our recent successes in community-building.

March 2018

Ashcroft Indian Band

Ashcroft Indian Band partnership for a Community Cooking program started this month. Every second Monday, two staff persons from the SCEFS office go up to AIB to bring people together using food. “Cook Together, Eat Together, Laugh Together”

The program is focused on growing people’s capacity to connect and contribute; to get out of the hotel rooms and temporary rentals to enjoy a homecooked meal. Our hope is for the AIB members to use this program to not only participate in the cooking but also to release some of their stresses from their experience from the wildfires and currently living situations.

This program is to offer not only nutritional sustenance but emotional support until members come home.

Canoe Creek Indian Band

Yoriko went out to Canoe Creek Indian Band with Victim Services staff person, Jan Boys, on March 16th to meet with Chief and Council for the opportunity to partner with them on a community project with the goal of bringing some sort of food sustenance to the community while strengthening relationships with SCEFS staff.

Because of the wildfires of 2017, Canoe Creek Band was isolated with no way in or out because of wildfires around them. Their dependence on food from outside sources became evident and thoughts to become more self-sustainable came to the fore front.

The meeting was very successful and ideas of a community garden, a greenhouse and a community chicken coop came forward. The next meeting will determine which project they would like to undertake, budget and timeline.

Coffee Hour

We started our first Coffee Hour Group on March 22 and as suspected it was well-received. The group is open to all, where people can come and be social, but also talk about issues that they all have in common – landlord/tenant issues, social isolation, budgeting, etc.

Coffee Hour will be held twice a month on the Thursdays following food bank days – the first and third Thursday of every month from 1-2pm

Trains Magazine

Greg McDonnell from Trains Magazine contacted the SCEFS office for a telephone interview. Greg was on the CP Holiday Train (2017) and rode from Kamloops to the end stop in the Lower Mainland. Trains Magazine will be celebrating their 20th Anniversary and wanted to do a special article for their December 2018 edition (which will be available in mid-November)

Greg was so impressed with Ashcroft’s show that he decided to contact the office to be showcased in Trains magazine. He said that Ashcroft got one of the best shows from the Alan Doyle and the Big Beautiful Band. Even though it was the musicians last performance of the day, they were all impressed with the size of the crowd knowing it was a small rural community stop.

April 2018

Black Shield Preparedness Solutions Inc.

On April 4th, Bob Black (President and CEO) of Black Shield Preparedness Solutions Inc. and his associate, Lisa Benini, came to Ashcroft to visit with our agency.

They came with the recommendation of Laura Lansink, Executive Director of Food Banks BC, to touch base with SCEFS and learn from the agency’s experience of the 2017 Wild Fires.

Bob Black was engaged by Food Banks BC and Food Banks Alberta to develop a Provincial Emergency Response Plan for each provincial associations and their individual food banks. Both Bob and Lisa spent the morning meeting with Yoriko discussing the experience and actions of the agency and what role SCEFS played, if any, during the Wild Fires of 2017. After the meeting, Yoriko took them for a tour of the Village of Ashcroft and surrounding area.

Poverty Law Advocate

On April 18th, Erik from SCEFS sister office in Kamloops, came to visit. Erik is the Poverty Law Advocate with the Kamloops Elizabeth Fry Society and came for his visit to Ashcroft as a partnership program between the two Elizabeth Fry Society offices.

Erik was able to see many people during his visit and SCEFS is now in discussion of how to increase Erik’s visits to the Ashcroft office.

Erik provides advocacy services to persons on low incomes with legal issues that impact their ability to feed, clothes and house themselves and their families. Some of the things he can assist with are income assistance, Canada Pension, and residential tenancy.

We at South Cariboo Elizabeth Fry Society thank the people and communities in this area for contributing to the success of these programs. Check out the upcoming events on our Home page - we look forward to seeing you in May!