A Vancouver lawyer has concerns that changes to residential tenancy regulation in B.C. could erode the dignity of people living in supportive housing. The province is amending residential tenancy regulation to exempt supportive housing units from sections of the residential tenancy act that prohibit blanket guest policies and wellness checks. Danielle Sabelli is a lawyer […]

Legislation that sought to ban public drug use in a number of spaces in British Columbia is currently in limbo following a decision from B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson. The Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act was passed in the legislature late last year and if not for the court decision in […]

Nanaimo’s Unitarian Shelter is coming under new management. It was announced this week that Nanaimo Family Life Association would be taking over the Shelter on Townsite road as of this summer. Deborah Hollins is the executive director for Nanaimo Family Life Association, and she joined People First Radio to speak about the change.

“When I went to law school, when I started practicing law, nobody talked to us about trauma. We focused solely on legal issues,” said Myrna McCallum, a lawyer in North Vancouver and host of the podcast The Trauma Informed Lawyer. “I had to learn how to be a human being and be in relationships with […]

Gabrielle Wilcox, associate professor of school and applied child psychology at the University of Calgary, and a former school psychologist, speaks about the link between mental health and academic achievement in children. Wilcox recently wrote on the subject in an article appearing in The Conversation. Wilcox says that we can’t separate supporting kids’ success in […]

From a pet food bank, to crisis supplements available for people on income assistance, Sarah Pump says there are a lot of resources people in need may not be aware of. When Pump was diagnosed with a chronic illness and became too sick to work, she saw first hand what it was like to navigate […]

Malé Fofana loves languages. And he’s got some interesting perspective on them, for a few different reasons. He teaches at two different universities in Sherbrooke Quebec, one in English, one in French. Fofana’s also lived in three places that each have a distinct variety of French, growing up in Senegal, spending ten years in France, […]

Tracy Smith-Carrier, Canada Research Chair in Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, feels there a number of myths preventing society from addressing poverty. “I think they all stem from the same place. This notion that some people are deserving of our assistance and others are not,” she said. “If we actually addressed poverty head on, […]

Pamela Steen shares the details behind her December Bling-A-Thon in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association. “Don’t feel shallow or shy about dressing in a way that makes you feel good,” she said. “If it’s sweatpants with holes in it and that makes you feel good, just own it. If it’s sequins, just own […]

People First Radio pays a visit to Coco Cafe, a social enterprise in the Vancouver Island community of Cedar. Their mission is to provide employment, training, and socialization opportunities for people with developmental disabilities within their community.We hear from general manager Marc Taschereau,  Coco Cafe employee Jacob Brockman, support worker Cecelia, and Deborah Cooper.   […]