Understanding Local Government Workshop + Food Justice

The Who

Are you passionate about making your city a better place to live? Do you care about food justice and want to see your city improve its programs? Do you want to start advocating but don’t know where to start?

This workshop will cover how the city of Vancouver functions and how you can get involved to influence your local decision-makers.

The Why

Local Government (also known as municipal government) is the closest level of government to the people. They make decisions that impact our day-to-day lives, yet so many of us may not understand how they operate or why local government decisions matter.

Understanding your ability to affect change within local government will help get you started on influencing the policies your communities need.

Cities, towns, local communities, and neighbourhoods are often overlooked sites of resistance and action. Local governments make daily policy decisions that directly impact equity-seeking genders - including transit, housing, childcare, land planning, use of public spaces, community safety, reconciliation and decolonization.

The What

This workshop will cover:

• What municipal governments are responsible for
• How local governments make decisions
• Why local governments matter
• How you can engage & influence local government around food justice

Workshop leads: Monique Nicholas (she/her) and Chris Higham (she/her)

Monique Nicholas is passionate about storytelling and thoughtful communication in facilitating more equitable spaces and community action. She is energized by grassroots-led movements and the intersection of arts and advocacy. She lives, works, and swims on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded land of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

Chris Higham is an action researcher at Women Transforming Cities.

Women Transforming Cities (WTC) is a grassroots Vancouver-based non-profit that seeks to dismantle intersecting systems of oppression to transform where we live into places of social, economic and political equity. They do this with an intersectional feminist lens through civic literacy and education, research, advocacy and collaboration. Become a member of WTC.

Accessibility

The event will take place virtually on Zoom. It will be in English with live closed captioning. If you have any other requests that will support your participation, please let us know by emailing us at monique@womentransformingcities.org.

We acknowledge that the event will take place virtually on the stolen, unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation).