15 years ago, Connally McDougall sold her first dress. “I was working in a gallery and the owner said, ‘Hey, if you or anyone you know are makers, why don’t you show us your work and we’ll see if we deign to put it in our gallery,'” she said. McDougall submitted a dress made from […]

Guy Felicella spent 30 years in the repeated cycles of gangs, addiction, treatment, and jail. Today, he lives with his wife and three young children, and has over a decade of recovery and sobriety under his belt. Felicella was one of the speakers at a recent community dialogue on the toxic drug crisis at Nanaimo’s […]

One day, when they were in the eighth grade, Christopher Lee and a group of friends decided to spend a Sunday a little differently. “We were just like, ‘Hmm, there’s something wrong in our community. We’re able to live such a nice and amazing life, but there are people who aren’t able to live that […]

Parksville resident Earl Blacklock has been recognized by the BC Achievement Foundation for his work helping expand the number of trained counsellors practicing on Vancouver Island. The Executive Director of Island Community Councilling, Blacklock said that the bulk of the work that he does is with trauma survivors. “The definition of trauma that I use […]

Vancouver non profit First United has created an interactive map that provides information on a number of evictions across B.C. Sarah Marsden, director of systems change and legal at First United, spoke with People First Radio to help break down the data. One finding was that around 1 in 4 people reported not finding a […]

WeCan Shelter Society is a Comox Valley organization that builds homes inside shipping containers for people who had previously been experiencing homelessness to move into. Charlene Davis, one of the group’s founders, spoke with People First Radio. She said it takes between $25,000 and $30,000 to build a unit and get a person living in […]

Managing director Dorothy Morrison calls Victoria’s Imagine Studio Cafe a “cafe classroom.” The cafe offers employment to young adults who may otherwise face barriers due to mental health, addiction, and homelessness. “There’s a lot of talk, but not a lot of action. So we needed to try to make a difference,” Morrison said. She said […]

The Nanaimo Foodshare is using food to help people move forward. On Mondays, in the basement of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, anyone from the community is invited to come share in a free meal, prepared by people in the Foodshare’s employment programs, under the tutelage of professional chef Calven Chow. Called the Monday Lunch together […]

Artificial Intelligence is making its way into more and more areas of our lives, a phenomenon that isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. While AI isn’t necessarily part of our official publicly insured health care system quite yet, Zoha Khawaja says that day is coming, so we should be proactive about figuring out some […]

When the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic meant closures and reduced service for restaurants, there was a bunch of food that was suddenly without a place to go. Enter the Red Cedar Cafe in Victoria, which was born as a way to put that food to good use. Four years later circumstances have changed, […]