Williams Lake and Area Social Planning Council (SPC) completed a video project as an action step to help address poverty in the community.
The short video includes interviews with service providers and those with lived experience of poverty in the community, and is the first step in an education and awareness campaign.
Lianne Nunn, coordinator with the Social Planning Council and Thrive Video Project Lead, said working on the video was impactful for her personally as they went into the Hamilton Hotel emergency shelter and other places to interview people struggling with poverty.
“It was all very heartbreaking, but also inspiring, these people were quite resilient,” she said. The project was a collaboration and they started out by getting input from youth, non profits and the city on how to create the video, aimed at addressing the stigma around poverty.
Eight people were interviewed —four of those people had lived experience and four of them work for organizations trying to support those in need.
“We ourselves couldn’t tell this story or really do justice to what it feels like to live in poverty and the stigma that surrounds that,” said Nunn, emphasizing the importance of listening to those who have the lived experience in the community.
While it wasn’t necessarily easy, people were grateful for the chance to share their stories.
“I think it’s a very important message for the community right now,” said Nunn.
So far, the video has been doing exactly what the organization set out to do with it —spark conversations.
Laurie Walters, executive director with the SPC, said she has been blown away by the responses they have gotten so far in sharing the video with the community.
The SPC will be using the video to kick off a poverty awareness campaign. This is step one in a long-term plan to reduce and prevent poverty.
“We’re out of the planning stage and ready to put our boots on the ground,” said Nunn.
Their next steps are based on work the organization had done through their Thrive Strategy, which is a plan focussed on community-level changes to contribute to preventing and reducing poverty.
Now the organization is seeking community champions to help, with the size of their role being up to the individual.
They are asking the community to share and like the video on their social media and will be putting together an information package outlining the champion model. Watch for more from the organization, including events planned for 2025.
The video was made possible by partnering with Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy on a $25,000 grant through the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
The Williams Lake and Area Social Planning Council is a non profit organization working to support social and economic development in the community for 29 years.
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