All about the family

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/02/2015 (3877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nineteen inner-city families took part in a Canada-wide conversation last week.

The Vanier Institute of the Family brought its national Families in Canada Listening Tour to the Turtle Island Neighbourhood Centre (510 King St.) on Jan. 27. The year-long tour sees the Vanier Institute collecting stories and engaging in conversation with Canadians about families, family life and family experiences, as well as expectations and aspirations around family.

Established by former Gov. Gen. Georges P. Vanier and his wife Pauline in 1965, the Vanier Institute of the Family is a national non-profit organization that promotes the well-being of Canadian families.

“The Institute was set up for the sole purpose of understanding families and taking that knowledge about families to elected officials, government officials, programs, services, media and families themselves, so we can understand how families are changing and what families are needing in order to thrive and be as resilient and well as possible,” said Vanier Institute CEO Nora Spinks.

“On this national listening tour we’ve gone from coast to coast to coast and we’ve met with groups everywhere, from seniors to school-aged kids to college students. We’ve got lots of statistics, but we want the stories behind the stats. We want to engage people in conversation to really understand family life in 2015.”

The Vanier Institute’s North End tour stop was hosted in partnership with North End Community Renewal Corporation, Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre and Families and Communities Together. Families at the event participated in a number of activities to express their idea of family, including spoken word, written word, art and video.

The materials and conversations collected from the tour will inform the Vanier Institute’s program, publications, webinars and presentations, as well as the Families in Canada Conference 2015, which takes place June 10 and 11 in Ottawa.

“We’ll bring together researchers, academics, service providers and government officials to take a look at this snapshot of families in Canada today, looking at what we’ve done in terms of change over 50 years, and more importantly, what can we imagine and anticipate families to be 50 years from now,” Spinks said.

“A few things the Institute identified 50 years ago were things like mothers in the labour force, poverty, housing, health care, access to education and early childhood education, which is not a lot different than if you were to ask a handful of people today. However, what’s very different is how we’re looking at those same things with the technology of today, with the diversity of today and with the knowledge of what we’ve tried in the last 50 years that may or may not have worked.”

Ma Mawi communications officer Marlene Davis helped organize and took part in the event at Turtle Island. To her, family means “togetherness.”

“For me birthdays are a big thing, anniversaries are a big thing, graduations are big. When I think of family, I think of people coming together and just celebrating what’s been handed down from our ancestors, and learning together and growing together,” Davis said.

To learn more about the Vanier Institute and its Listening Tour, go to http://www.vanierinstitute.ca