Resilience BC Spokes

Ministry Responsibility:

The Ministry for Tourism Arts and Culture (TAC) is responsible for the Multiculturalism Act, and within TAC, the Multiculturalism Branch (Branch) has a mandate to promote diversity and inclusion in communities across British Columbia by:

• building intercultural trust and understanding among all British Columbians;
• reducing systemic barriers to participation by under-represented, racialized groups; and
• supporting communities to respond to public incidents of racism and hate.

Background:

In 2019, meetings and consultations were held with service providers for the former provincial anti-racism program, Organizing Against Racism and Hate (OARH), and other community leaders to discuss local, emerging issues on racist and hate incidences, how they are being addressed, what is working, what more could be done, and to gather feedback to inform the delivery of a new, more effective anti-racism program model.

Additional factors that were considered in assessing the direction of the Branch’s revised anti-racism programming include:

• Data reflecting an overall increase in police-reported hate crimes in BC over the past 5 years, as well as indicators of systemic racism reflected in reports such as the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction’s “What We Heard About Poverty Report” and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls to Justice.
• The Branch’s work to establish a new Cross-Ministry Working Group within the Provincial government on Racism and Hate.
• The launch of the BC Human Rights Commission and appointment of the Human Rights Commissioner in May 2019.
• The release of the Federal Government’s 2019-2022 Anti-Racism Strategy.

Resilience BC - a new Anti-Racism Network:

Based on the feedback and current needs, TAC has replaced the OARH program with Resilience BC, a new anti-racism network which delivers coordinated services through a “hub and spoke” model:

• The Hub, is a non-governmental, expert, third-party contractor that maintains a provincial scope on responding to hate incidences. It delivers relevant expertise and knowledge, connects and coordinates spoke communities, and is a key link between the Province, communities and other key stakeholders.
• The Spokes are community- or region-driven committees that lead anti-racism and anti-hate work at the local level. In their communities, they build awareness of what comprises racism and hate, mobilize their communities to respond to hate incidences in a supportive and collaborative way, and lead discussions and anti-racism education opportunities. The Spokes receive supports from the Hub, engage with the Hub’s activities, and are active participants of the broader Resilience BC Network. To support this work, the Province provides direct funding to community and regional spokes annually.

Without limiting the services, the following summarizes the requirements to be performed by successful Spokes.

Short Term and Immediate Goals of the Spokes under the New Program:

• A coordinated approach to address racism and hate is delivered at a local level in collaboration with diverse partners/stakeholders in the community. All Spoke Networks include a representative from local law enforcement.

• A strong, collaborative network is established with clear communication within local community and between the Hub and the Ministry.

• Priorities to address racism and hate specific to each community are identified.

• Roles and responsibilities of key community stakeholders to respond to incidents of racism and hate are identified and clarified.

• Educational resources and supports to address racism and hate are readily available to communities.

Long Term Goals of the Spokes under the New Program:

• An active local network is maintained, expanded and engages broad segments of population and community partners.

• The Spoke is recognized as a local leader in addressing racism and hate activity and mobilizing community responses to racism and hate-related incidents.

• The Spoke continues collaborating with the Hub to effectively and strategically respond to local emerging trends and developing community capacities to respond to racism and hate-related activity in BC.

• The Resilience BC program is reducing systemic barriers to participation by under-represented, racialized groups.

Key roles and responsibilities include:

1. Leader: Providing leadership in addressing local racism and hate activity in collaboration with the Hub and Ministry. This may include developing programs such as introducing equity policies, designing awareness campaigns, hosting community workshops on active-witnessing, leading a coordinated community response in the event of a major hate crime or hate incident, etc.

2. Convener: Convening and coordinating an active local network comprised of relevant stakeholders (i.e. community service providers, municipal government, school districts, faith groups, police authorities, etc.), Indigenous partners, members from marginalized/impacted communities, local experts/advocates in anti-hate work.

3. Knowledge Expert:

   1. Building community awareness of what comprises racism and hate.

   2. Collaborating with the Hub to identify emerging trends of racism and hate specific to their geographic community and opportunities to address them.

4. Response Activator: Mobilizing a community response to incidents of racism and hate in a consistent, collaborative and effective way.

5. Key Contact: Act as a key community contact for the ministry and other provincial government officials in the event of a hate crime or hate incident;

6. Active Network Member: Participating in broader Resilience BC Network activities that may include regular network meetings, sharing resources, and collaborating with the Hub on activities.

7. Regional Coordination (for Regional Spokes):

   1. Maintaining regular communication and actively engaging with representatives from all participating geographic communities.

   2. Developing response mechanisms to racist incident and anti-racism/anti-hate activities specific to the context, needs and trends of participating geographic communities.

   3. Coordinating activities of participating geographic communities.

   4. Identifying the trends and needs common for all/selected geographic communities served by a Regional Spoke.

   5. Facilitating administration of funding and reports between geographic communities and Province.