2010 - 2011 Annual General Report of The Britannia Society · 2011-05-31 · 1661 Na p i e r St r e...

1661 Napier Street VaNcouVer, B.c. V5L 4X4p. 604.718.5800 F. 604.718.5858www.britanniacentre.org

2010 - 2011 Annual General Report ofThe Britannia Society

604.718.5800 www.britanniacentre.org2

About Britannia

Britannia Community Services Centre Society has its origin in 1970s cooperative community action. Local citizens and various civic agencies created the organization in 1974 to coordinate and integrate a wide range of human services to meet the interests and needs of residents. Through a locally elected Board of Management, the non-profit society provides a leadership role in developing and facilitating educational, recreational, library, and social services for the communities of Grandview-Woodland and Strathcona. The Centre had it’s official opening in June of 1976.

In collaboration with personnel from the Vancouver School Board, the Vancouver Public Library Board and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation our Society manages a 18-acre complex which consists of:- seniors’ centre - elementary school- secondary school - public library- fitness centre - six child care centres- teen centre - ice rink- four gymnasia - racquetball court and mat room- learning resources centre - community information centre- meeting rooms - swimming poolThere are also numerous off-site programs and activities.

BOARD OF MANAGEMENT 2010-2011

Executive Committee: As of March, 2011President: Ray Gallagher - Brendan BoylanVice President: Penny Street - Gwen GiesbreghtTreasurer: Mark Codron - Raphaella WeissgerberExecutive Members: Wendy Frost - Bruce Macdonald Jane Macdermot - Lynda HurstDirectors: Mark Codron Ann Daskal Gwen Giesbrecht Tina Pfeifer Tammy Schulz Eva SharellStaff Rep: Pat Davitt

Partners: Vancouver Public Library Cathy Wang Vancouver Park Board Bob Harris Vancouver School Board Bev Seed Senior Staff: Executive Director Cynthia LowManager of Administrative Services Natalie BaileyChildcare Manager Leah Drayton

Community Education Coordinator Mike Evans Honorary Board Members:

Michael Clague, Maurice Egan, Thelma Lindsay,John Minichiello, Margaret Mitchell, Doug Soo

Liaisons to Britannia:Vancouver City Council Kerry Jang Vancouver Library Board Joan Andersen Vancouver Park Board Constance Barnes Vancouver School Board Ken Clement

604.718.5800 www.britanniacentre.org 3

The President of Britannia Board of Management

In the past year Britannia has continued to advocate for the communities of Grandview Woodland and Strathcona. We have engaged the community in helping shape the future vision of Britannia, and the community has responded by com-ing to bi-weekly meetings designed to create the Master Plan for Britannia. The need for this Master Plan is great as Britannia has outgrown its original 1974 buildings and the needs of the community have outstripped the ability of our site to suit those needs. Together we shall continue to inform City Hall of our community’s needs and the plan that we have created.

We have been responsive to the needs of the community by listening to new programming ideas some of which have been hugely popular, while expanding and improving old successes as well. These include new programs to Britannia such as Music Together, and the widely popular Micro-Soccer.

There are always pressures to cut back affordable programs. We as a community must always be vigilant to ensure that Britannia continues to be accessible to all members of our diverse community. This year Britannia was asked to make tough decisions in terms of raising fees, and the Board of Directors listened to the community through its various commit-tees and have kept the only free swims, and free skating sessions in any Vancouver Community Centre.

I would like to thank the people who I consider the “Heroes” of Britannia, the staff. These Heroes include the front line staff who greet patrons everyday, the instructors in the pool and arena, the engineers who keep the site running, as well as the elementary and secondary school employees who help shape our children and youth. There are many different type of staff from various organizations including; VPL, VSB, Park Board, Child Care providers and Continuing Education, to name a few, in Britannia who make our Centre great.

Britannia’s model of governance only works when all the site partners communicate and collaborate together. I find it exhilarating that all the site partners continue to work together for the common goal of improving the lives of the people that our community centre affects. Partners such as Beverly Seed, the Secondary School Principal, and Cathy Wang, the Head librarian at the Britannia Branch, have worked very hard to create a better experience for students and patrons.

The Board of Directors this year has worked tirelessly to manage the centre while practicing prudent book-keeping and instituting and funding innovative ideas for programming. All the Directors have worked hard this year but I would like to especially thank Ray Gallagher who has been our President for the past four years. He truly is an inspiration for honest hard working people everywhere and I am glad to have the honour of seeing him in action as President of Britannia.

As Ray said last year; “For now and into the future, we are leaders in building community, promoting partnerships, cel-ebrating diversity and enhancing the lives and well-being of everyone who lives, works and plays in our diverse commu-nity.”Brendan Boylan, President Britannia Board of Management


The Executive Director

The 2010-2011 year can be characterized at Britannia as The Year of the Committees. Community engagement, decen-tralized decision-making, and integration of services are the core values of the Britannia model. This continues to be a unique and innovative model in the city. In order to ensure that the programs and services we offer are relevant and re-sponsive to our community we rely on the Britannia committee structure to provide information and expertise to the Board of Management. There are eleven groups made up of over 100 staff, Board members, and other volunteers that guide the decision-making of the Board. On any given evening you will find volunteers gathering to discuss the needs of our residents. This year in particular committees worked very hard not only to define their responsibilities in networking and integrating existing services but to plan for the future and to respond better to the emerging needs in our community.

Community engagement is in our DNA. Joe Ferrara was a student activist at Britannia High School before the Community Centre was built and was an instrumental force in getting the recreation facilities built. He was one of the founding mem-bers of ATTAC (Association to Tackle Adverse Conditions), at a time when pool halls, garages, and parks were the only available recreation spaces for young people in our neighbourhood.

Joe remembers, “We began to just talk with friends, or people who were just hanging around, about what it would be like to actually organize some things. I remember where we were in school. There was talk about the idea of a Britannia Com-munity Service complex. Part of this complex was going to be a track and a skating rink and a swimming pool. The pros-pect of all those things really caught our imaginations.”

“I can remember that we put around posters that said: ‘You live in a slum; Do Something About It!’ You can do that when you’re eighteen, and especially since it was our community anyway. So we formed this group called ATTAC in around 1969.”

It was through the efforts and persistence of Britannia students like Joe, working with the various bureaucracies and community organizations, that Britannia was built in 1976. Grounded in community, it is still the committee structure that provides the foundation for citizen participation. In 2011, we will continue our commitment to these values, and will strive to seek greater participation in informing, governing, and decision-making, particularly from youth, Aboriginal families, non-English speaking patrons, and patrons living with multiple challenges such as mental health issues and addictions.

If you are interested in becoming a part of an illustrious history and to continue a social democratic tradition, join one of our Britannia committees!

Cynthia Low, Executive Director


Park Board Liaison

School Board TrusteeThe Vancouver School Board works with Britannia through the Elementary and Secondary School, Hastings Education Centre, Canucks Family Education Centre and others to inspire learning at all ages. Britannia is a great example of how communities can share resources, specialties, facilities, and equipment to benefit and to build Learning Communities for all our citizens. The core purpose of our schools and the school district is to positively influence the quality of learning for our community members so they may contribute to the best of their abilities. As a member of the Ktunaxa First Nations (Cranbrook), I am committed to fostering greater respect for cultural diversity by creating safe spaces for all our students and their families. I have had the privilege to work with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities on health, housing, and social justice issues. I look forward to continuing my work with the Britannia Society Board of Management, the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver Public Library.

Ken Clement, Trustee, Vancouver School Board

For the past 2 ½ years I have had the true pleasure of being the Park Board liaison to Britannia Community Centre. The board, staff and volunteers have worked extensively to maintain and cre-ate new innovative, multi-cultural, safe, accessible and educational programming that supports this very diverse and vital community!

It is my honour to acknowledge the extensive efforts made at Britannia Community Center to not only include youth in the creation of programming but to also to involve families, seniors and the community itself. This along with many of the other initiatives has made a significant differ-ence in the lives of many young people, families and seniors regardless of their, ethnic, financial or cultural background, who live in and around the wonderfully diverse community of Grandview Woodland.

Constance Barnes, Commissioner, Park Board


The Vancouver East M.P.

Here’s a short, but by no means exhaustive, list of what I’ve been up to locally in East Van. I will continue to work as hard as I can for our great community!

Have Your Say!• Hosted forums on topics of interest such as oil tankers ban off of BC’s coast; the future of medicare; and the missing women from the Downtown Eastside. I’ve also spoken out at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry.• Worked with local residents on concerns about cell phone towers and hosted a recent forum on this issue.Enhancing our Community• Secured federal infrastructure funds for Vancouver Native Housing for a major renovation and refurbishment of the Pender Hotel to create single room occupancy units, a healing lodge, artist live-work space and main floor retail space.• Supported and advocated for a national historic site designation for Chinatown. • Succeeded in getting approximately $506,000, or about 150 jobs, for students looking for jobs this past summer.Casework • My office has helped hundreds of families to reunite through Canada’s immigration program; plus we’ve helped folks resolve problems with Employment Insurance, Canada Revenue Agency and Canada Student Loans.• I’ve also spoken out about the unfairness in immigration processing times for parents. Currently, Canadian sponsors wait over seven years if their parents are being processed from places such as China, while others wait considerably less time if they go through other visa offices around the world.• Helped many local groups with funding applications.

Fighting the HST (also known as the Harper Sales Tax)!• The Provincial role in the HST is well known, but this fiasco was caused by the federal Conservative government who gave the approval to impose the HST in the first place.Getting Around• I regularly host Travelling Community Offices throughout our community, whereby folks can meet me at various community centres on Saturdays. I’ve been to Britannia, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, Mount Pleasant Com-munity Centre, Hastings Community Centre, Thunderbird Community Centre, Trout Lake Farmers Market, Kingsgate Mall and Frog Hollow Neigbhourhood House just to name a few.At the national level, my fellow New Democrats and I continue to fight for practical results for struggling families such as our campaigns to: • Launch a national housing strategy (my Bill C-304)• Reverse Harper’s $45 million cutbacks to culture• Increase the Canada Pension Plan and the Guaranteed Income Supplement• Improve Employment Insurance• Secure workplace pensions • Stop subsidizing profitable oil and gas corporations• Create a permanent investment plan to support public transit• Work to stop the usage-based billing (UBB) by big telecoms in Canada. I signed onto the “Stop the Meter” cam-paign, and shortly after, the NDP began pressuring the Conservative government to intervene in the CRTC’s decision to enact UBB. These efforts were successful, and the federal government has moved to reverse the CRTC’s decision. Serving and working for our community in East Van is a great honour and I look forward to working with the members and participants of Britannia.

Sincerely,

Libby Davies, MP (Vancouver East)


The Vancouver East MLA

Thank you for the opportunity to offer this report. I would like to start by congratulating Britannia staff and volunteers on their continuing service to the Grandview-Woodlands and Strathcona communities. Your programs, services, and facilities remain unique, excellent, and very much valued. Politics in British Columbia has undergone a seismic shift since my last report. We now have a new premier, Christy Clark, who has promised to make families her top priority. Like many other British Columbians, I hope that this will be the case, although I am not encouraged by Premier Clark’s track record in Premier Campbell’s government. For the past four years, my colleagues and I have been calling for the minimum wage to be raised to $10 an hour and indexed to inflation and for the $6 an hour training wage to be scrapped. So I welcome news that B.C.’s minimum wage will finally be raised after a 10 year wage freeze for the province’s lowest paid workers, although I am disappointed that it will not be linked to inflation, to prevent future stagnation, and I am also concerned that servers in restaurants that serve alcohol will be paid less than other workers. Raising the minimum wage is also an important step in combating British Columbia’s shamefully high rates of child poverty. However, this step cannot stand alone. It must be part of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, one that addresses the root causes of poverty, to be effective. I have been calling on the government to commit to a poverty reduction plan for B.C., with clear targets and timelines since 2009, and I will continue to push for the creation and implementation of such a plan. One such area that continues to be neglected is housing, which, especially in Vancouver, is often unaffordable for families and individuals who live on limited incomes. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on the private market to provide safe, secure housing for everyone in our community, and the best solution is to invest in more public housing, something the government has been reluctant to do. I welcome your thoughts on these and other issues. Give me a call at 604-775-2277, or email me at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Shane Simpson, MLA Vancouver Hastings(Community Office)

ph: 604.775.2277 fax: 604.775.2352 2365 East Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V5L 1V6 www.shanesimpson.ca


The Mt. Pleasant MLA

This past year in the Legislature has been an interesting one. The House adjourned on June 3, 2010 and did not sit again until February 14, 2011; members then sat for three days and, at the time of writing, had not been called back. Given that the House has only sat for 18 days since last May 01, it has been a challenge for our Official Opposition colleagues to voice the views of constituents in the House. However, many policies of the government have had a very negative impact on constituents, and so we have worked hard to find other ways to raise these issues.Housing – The search for affordable, adequate, appropriate housing continues to be one of the top issues when people visit my office. Of particular concern in the past year has been emergency shelter planning for people who are homeless. I was approached by a group of homeless people residing in the Grandview-Woodlands area who are very concerned about a lack of either shelter or drop-in space for the many homeless people living in this area, especially during the winter months. There is also continued concern about the need for both public and private market affordable housing, for seniors, for families and for single people.HST and Select Standing Committee on Legislative Initiatives – One of the issues that has been top of mind for many constituents has been the new HST. I have heard from many people who have felt the effects of the HST, from people on fixed incomes who have found that the new tax cuts into a budget already stretched to the max, to people working in the restaurants who have been hurt by slower traffic and fewer tips, to small business owners who find that their business is not eligible for the new HST input tax credits.A citizen’s initiative petition to stop the HST was submitted to the Legislature at the end of June 2011. Elections BC’s review of the petition found that it contained enough valid signatures to put the petition’s proposed “HST Extinguishment Act” to the Legislative Initiatives Committee to make a decision on what to do with the Act. As a Committee member, and Deputy Chair of the Committee, I put forward a motion to refer the Initiative to the House so that every MLA would have the opportunity to represent their constituents by voting for or against the HST in the Legislature. Unfortunately, that motion was defeated by the government members of the Committee. The Committee’s only other recourse was to refer it to the Chief Elector Officer to implement a referendum. That referendum on whether or not to keep the HST is expected to take place June 24, 2011, and will ask the following question:“Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) and reinstating the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in con-junction with the GST (Goods and Services Tax)? Yes/No”Since that time, the Government has now made an announcement that the vote will be done through a mail-in ballot. So please keep your eyes open for the ballot to come through your mail slot. Please also check in with my office for further updates.Education – The 2010 BC Liberal Budget did not provide adequate education funding for the Vancouver School Board (VSB), and as a result the VSB was forced to look at the possibility of closing schools in order to address the funding shortfalls. Two of the 11 schools that were short-listed for possible closure, Seymour Elementary and Queen Alexandra Elementary, are in the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant constituency. After the preliminary review, only Queen Alexandra Elementary from Mt. Pleasant remained on the closure list. I had the chance to work closely with the parents, staff, and community members to speak out against the closure of any schools and in support of increased education funding. In the case of Queen Alexandra Elementary, the Parent Advisory Council came up with a plan to bring a multi-cultural fine arts focus to their school as a way to attract new enrolment. I am very happy to say that the VSB announced a moratorium on all school closures, although the fight for better funding for our schools continues. I will continue to work with Queen Alexandra Elementary on the proposed concept of making QA a multi-cultural fine arts school. Family Supports – I was happy to be able to support East Side Family Place, an important family resource centre in our community, in their concerns over adequate funding to continue their program offerings. East Side Family Place provides amazing resources on a shoestring budget, but was very alarmed over shortfalls in gaming grants for charities. Their story had a happy ending, in that they received the full amount of grant that they applied for, but there are lots of other organizations who are struggling. Another issue of family support that my office highlighted this year was the case of a young constituent whose Disability Assistance is been clawed back every time she receives child support money from her daughter’s father. This policy leaves single parents barely able to make ends meet, and literally takes money out of a needy family’s pockets. Our Caucus has been calling on the government to reverse this policy.


Mt. Pleasant MLA, continued

Cuts – While the 2010 post-Olympic budget contained cuts across the board, some of the most stunning funding cuts have been to programs, supports and services for people with disabilities. Medical supports for people receiving BC Disability Assistance were cut, including funding for some orthotics and orthopedic shoes. A proposed cut to Medical Services Only (MSO), a program providing medical support to seniors with disabilities, was reversed because of public outcry. As well, Vancouver Coastal Health cut funding to a program called Broadway Connections, a unique program offering support, social activities and health and wellness information to people with severe mobility challenges. I am sad to report that, despite some very persistent rallying on the part of the program’s participants, the Broadway Connections program was not able to secure funding and has since come to a close.Legal Aid – Since 2002, cuts to Legal Aid have severely limited the availability of free and affordable legal help to lower income British Columbians. Many of the constituents visiting my office are in search of legal help, ranging from very dif-ficult matters where the help of a lawyer is essential, to very simple questions about their rights in a legal matter, and are unable to find the help at a cost that they can afford. The Public Commission on Legal Aid was established by a number of non-profit groups with an interest in looking at ways to improve access to the justice system for ordinary British Colum-bians. I had the great privilege of sitting in as a guest panel member on the Commission’s Vancouver hearing, in October. The final report of the commission found that the Legal Aid system is failing needy individuals and families, the justice system, and our communities. Our caucus has been vocal about the need to restore funding to Legal Aid.Special Committee to review Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act – Members of this Committee were from both sides of the House, and made a number of recommendations about both protection of privacy and freedom of information in the public interest, with a particular emphasis on timely fulfillment of requests, and in ensuring that these policies are considered and implemented when using new technology in government services.Of course, one of the great joys and honours of representing the Vancouver-Mount Pleasant constituency is the chance to join in so many amazing and touching community events, such as: the Downtown Eastside Smudge for National Ab-original Day, Car-Free Days on both the Drive and on Main Street throughout the summer, the Filipino cultural parade and festival in July, the newly reinvigorated Italian Days on the Drive, a Sacred Salmon rally this October, the Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown, as well as many local Lunar New Year celebrations, and the annual AMSSA Diversity Health Fair. These are but a few events; there are block parties, co-op gatherings, and other celebrations too numerous to mention individually but all of which reflect the joy, neighbourliness and community spirit of this incredible constituency. As ever, I thank the many people who contribute to the continued success and sound reputation of the Britannia Commu-nity Centre. If you would like to know more about these issues or any other topic, please feel free to stop by my office. I look forward to continuing to advocate for this community. Jenny Wai Ching Kwan, MLA Vancouver – Mt. Pleasant


Vancouver Public LibraryThe Britannia Branch of the Vancouver Public Library has the privilege to be on a campus where educational and public service agencies share a common goal of providing accessible services to all.

Statistics certainly tell us that this Library is well used by the community. In 2010, 9,872 adults and children participated in the 216 programs the Britannia Library delivered. 2,215 patrons registered as VPL members at this location. On an average day, 920 people came through the Library’s doors. They asked an average of 52 reference questions and logged in over 177 times to the World Wide Web using the Library’s computer stations or wireless server. 77.5% of respondents to Britannia Planning and Development Committee’s online survey identified the Library as the site facility they used.

Numbers, however, only tell part of the story. What is most important is that people use the Library in a multitude of ways to make learning an integral part of their daily lives. On an aver-age day in the Library, one would see the teacher librarian lining up a class of students at the counter to checkout their books; a group of babies and their caregivers participating in a lively story time; adults and youths using either the library’s computers or their own laptops to do research or to get on to their favourite social medium; adult students working through language learning materials with the help of their instructor in the ESL Learning Centre; individuals reading newspapers, visiting with each other or enjoying the art exhibit in the adult reading lounge.

In 2011, the VPL Board of Trustees welcomed a new Board Chair, Catherine Evans, as well as a new City Librarian, Sandra Singh. With Catherine and Sandra at the helm, the VPL Board of Trustees look forward to another great year of partnership with the Britannia Centre Services Society’s Board of Directors, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the Van-couver Board of Education and many other community organizations in the city to serve the diverse and vibrant Grandview Woodland neighbourhood.

Loring Bohach, ChairVancouver Public Library Board

From the City of Vancouver

Another year has passed and at the top of the agenda is the planning process that will guide Britan-nia’s re-development. It’s no secret that our buildings and facilities are bursting at the seams and aging. It’s because Britannia Centre is a destination, not just for the local neighbourhood, but for patrons from all over the city (and I bet even Burnaby and Richmond). Our success is because of the great services offered; no doubt due to the hard work and dedication of staff and Board.

Britannia is a unique model that is a partnership with Park Board, City Hall, and the School Board. One issue I’d like everyone to think about is just how to use this unique three-way partnership to move redevelopment forward and not consider it as a barrier. Although it’s a clichéd saying, let’s really think “outside the box”.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give a hearty and warm thanks to staff and Board for their devotion to the community and ability to get things done. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Remember all Council meetings are open to the public and accessible online. Please feel free to contact me at:

Councillor Kerry JangVancouver City Hall


The Treasurer

From the Auditor

To the Members of:THE BRITANNIA COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTRE SOCIETY.The firm of KPMG was appointed as auditors for our organization for 2010

Members are advised that the following statements are extracts from the complete set of the audited financial statements and auditor’s report and are presented for general information only. Copies of the audited financial statements and report are available by contacting Natalie Bailey, Manager of Administrative Services at Britannia Centre.

Queries about the financial matters of the Society are welcome and may be directed to the Finance Committee or to our management staff. The activities of the Finance Committee itself are described in the section above.

As Treasurer of the Board and Chair of the Finance Committee, I would like to thank the Board members, staff, volun-teers, and all community members who have contributed to the success of Britannia. I would like to thank our Executive Director, Cynthia Low, the Manager of Administrative Services, Natalie Bailey, the Board Secretary, Brenda Coombs, and the accounting staff.

The Treasurer and the Finance Committee oversee the community centre’s budget of about $7,000,000. The income is derived from a variety of sources. The City of Vancouver funds our core functions. This basic funding is augmented by monies received from gaming grants and by a wide variety of grants and contributions.

We operate Britannia’s own Child Care Centre and administer four other child care programs that are funded by the fees collected from the parents and from the many grants and subsidies which our Child Care Coordinator, Leah Drayton, works so hard to arrange. The many programs and classes that we offer are funded through user fees. Thanks to the creativity, work ethic, and fantastic management by our Acting Community Recreation Coordinator, Bob Harris, Britannia regularly exceeds our income projections, while maintaining our policy of not excluding anyone for financial reasons.

While the great majority of our expenditures go to staff salaries and the expenses of keeping the Community Centre and associated programs running, we are still able to contribute financially to other programs and events that benefit our community. Events such as the Car Free Day on Commercial Drive, Stone Soup, The Art Gallery in the Library, and the scholarships that we offer to high school graduates are among the beneficiaries of our community sponsorship policy.

Overall, it has been a successful year for Britannia.

Raphaella Weissgerber, Treasurer


Statements of Financial Position


Statement of Financial Position


The Manager of Administrative Services

Administration of the Britannia Community Services Centre includes several areas and committees. The areas are Human Resources, Finance, Information Systems, and Facilities and the committees are Finance, Labour Management, Facili-ties, and Site Management.

This past year included discussion around new initiatives and planning for previously committed work. Some highlights of this past year were:

FacilitiesFacilities relating to the ice arena were upgraded to accommodate the 2010 Olympics. We received new equipment, dasher boards, a renovated first aid room, a woman’s change room and new community space on the mezzanine level.

During 2010 we also focused on planning for capital maintenance upgrades funded by the City. The first upgrade was external painting of the buildings and door/panic bar replacement for the rink. The work will be completed in 2011 and includes upgrades to the non-deck areas of the Pool and the interior of the Teen Centre.

With respect to the HVAC upgrades for the Fitness Centre, 2010 was spent obtaining funding and planning for the work. The HVAC upgrade will include new heating and ventilation for the Fitness Centre and non-deck areas of the Pool and is expected to complete in 2011.

Information SystemsDuring 2010 Britannia launched a new website. We continue to work on content management for the website. In addi-tion, our IT infrastructure was upgraded to fibre optics by the City of Vancouver and, as a result, our voice services were also moved to the new fibre optic delivery system, along with data.

Our brochure template was changed up to align with the new branding that was completed for the centre and the website.

FinanceBritannia Society closed out 2010 with an earned surplus of $81,222 and a deficiency of $318,778 after the $400,000 donation to the Britannia Foundation Development Fund. As a result of the Foundation donation, the Society net assets were reduced by $318,778.

The Britannia Foundation net assets grew by $14,642 prior to the Society donation and total assets invested in the Foun-dation were $1,158,043 at year end, up from $743,401 in 2009. The Britannia Foundation also invests funds on behalf of the Centre and returns 3.5% of its assets to the Centre annually. That 2010 donation to the Society will be $27,548 to be received in 2011.

Britannia Society invests roughly $1.1 million in high quality bonds and GICs through Royal Bank Dominion Securities and Credential Securities. The average return in 2010 was about 3%. Investment and interest revenue generated is generally reinvested in low risk GIC type investments.

We were 2% under budget for core funding from the City of Vancouver. The City of Vancouver also provided Britannia with $120K of supplemental capital to support the community consultation process surrounding the proposed site renewal.

Britannia received $100,000 gaming funding from the Provincial Government during 2010 and that represents a 20% reduction in funding for program delivery.

A review of financial systems at Britannia was completed during 2010. There were five primary recommendations which are ongoing work.

The Managed Child Care Centre agreements were finalized in 2010. Boat Daycare opted out of the management agree-ment and so are no longer members of the Britannia hub. The BCGEU Collective Agreement expires December 31, 2010


Manager of Administrative Servicesand bargaining preparation began for that process in late 2010. Human ResourcesDianna Smith, CRCII, began pre-retirement leave in 2010. Bob Harris joined us in a temporary appointment during the period December 2010 through May 2011 prior to Dianna’s 2011 retirement. Cindy Gulbransen provided leadership for the Recreation Department until Bob joined the Britannia team. Cindy took a temporary appointment at False Creek Com-munity Centre in December 2010.

Anne Jackson returned from a temporary appointment at Barclay Manor. Hai Truong joined the Brit team on a permanent basis to fill the clerical position created by Sandra Primrose’s retirement.

A payroll leave management system was completed shortly after year end 2010. The system provides payroll time bank and leave management information for staff, supervisors and management. The procedures relating to pay and benefit administration will be completed during 2011.

The Employee/Volunteer Orientation Manual, Version I, is complete and is being distributed to newly hired staff with a “hir-ing package”.

Natalie Bailey, Manager of Administrative Services


The Manager Of Childcare ServicesIt has been another busy year for Child Care at Britannia.

In the summer of 2010 we finalized and signed new Administrative Services Agreements between Britannia and the Off Site Child Care Centre Societies.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development has announced a funding boost to child care providers to help ease the transition to full-day kindergarten. The payments will be based on number of licensed spaces and cheques will be received by centres this spring.

I continue to be actively involved in the Child Care Administrators Network, Supported Child Development LAC, Aboriginal Supported Child Development LAC and the First Call ECD Round Table. We continue to look at opportunities increase quality child care as well as advocacy opportunities.

The Off Site Child Care Parent Board representatives attended two Board development training workshops this year that included topics like the Society Act, roles and responsibilities of Board members and reading financial reports.

In 2010 Britannia, Eagles, Grandview and Mount Pleasant received the City of Vancouver Enhancement Grant and applications have gone in for 2011. The funds are used to enhance the Hub model, maintain higher staff to child ratios and help supplement the very important food programs at the centre.

The collective agreement for Eagles, Grandview, Lord Nelson and Mount Pleasant child care expired on December 31, 2010 and bargaining is set to begin this spring.

Britannia Child Care continues to have a strong team of child care workers. Randi Gurholt-Seary is working on increasing the enrolment in both the preschool and out of school care program.

Eagles in the Sky Child Care has welcomed a staff member back from maternity leave this spring in the 3-5 program. In the School Age Program we have welcomed Brent Clowater into the Assistant Supervisory position and the numbers for the Out of School Care program have grown from six children to twenty three. The centre is looking at the possibility to move out of the school basement into the outbuildings on site at MacDonald Elementary.

Grandview Terrace Child Care is looking forward to renovating there existing play yard with a more natural play space for the 3-5 year olds. With the completion of the new yard Alejandra Uribe will be busy expanding the number of child care spaces at the centre. The centre has welcomed Christine Finvers into the Assistant Senior Supervisor position. In the School Age care the staff have been busy increasing enrolment by offering a walking school bus from off site Elementary schools.

Lord Nelson Out of School Care has welcomed back Latisha Buksh to the Senior Supervisory position after a leave. The team is working together and has enjoyed workshops on Teambuilding, Anti-Harassment, Discrimination and Bullying this past year.

Mount Pleasant Child Care is looking at their aging building and planning for the future. Wade Forbes continues to lead a dedicated team and with one staff retiring this year and one staff adding a new child to her family the centre has welcomed a new regular part time staff and a temporary staff covering the maternity leave.In the upcoming months of 2011 I look forward to our annual professional development day, helping to relocate and add spaces to the child care centres and continuing to work closely with the child care boards to increase advocacy and promote quality child care.

I would like to thank all of the children, families and staff for the opportunity to continue to be an active part of this diverse community.

Leah Drayton, Manager of Child Care Services


The Community Recreation Coordinator

Program and Services:Britannia’s Recreation Department goal is “to provide high quality programs that are accessible, responsive, inclusive, and meet community needs.”

To those ends programmers offered…• Diverse cross-cultural program opportunities• Youth programs outside of the teen centre and in partnership with other agencies• Joint programming with both current as well as new partners Successes:• The Olympics came to Britannia. As part of the legacy we acquired the Mezzanine Room, a new women’s change room, 275 pairs of skates, 120 helmets, 4 new hockey nets, new rink glass, a washer/dryer, a large screen TV for the Al Mattison Lounge, and a variety of furniture & appliances at a significant discount.• The Water Festival - emphasized the importance & sustainability of water and included an educational art pro-gram that brought local community schools to our site.• The Diwali Festival was new this year with a strong turnout.• Sept 2010 was the launch of our new website. Challenges:• Daytime space for programs continues to be a challenge.• We were unable to offer our very popular gymnastics program in the Fall due to a shortage of instructors. We are happy to report that instructors were in place the rest of the year. Excellence: Britannia is known and recognized within the community and city for many excellent programs. Just a few ex-amples out of the many programs are: • The Micro Footie soccer program which has a registration of 800 with 100 volunteer coaches.• Gymnastics, Zumba, volleyball and ball hockey continue to have strong participation. Attendance is up for most of our special events; Stone Soup, Artful Sundays, and Winter Solstice, to name a few.• Britannia After School Hockey: diversity, 30 plus participants, fitness, fun, new skills, and great access (it’s free!). Partnerships: Britannia’s goal is “to promote the value and benefits of integrated service delivery among existing partners and encourage the development of further partnerships of other agencies and community groups.” It is because of this sponsorship that we can offer many of our programs and events for free or at a minimal cost. Thank you for your valuable contributions and for adding to the diversity and quality of services and programs we offer at Britannia.

Human Resources:The key to Britannia’s success is the dedication and commitment of staff and volunteers, who plan, organize and imple-ment a wide variety of recreational programs and services for all ages. Britannia Recreation has approximately 300 part-time instructors and well over 400 volunteers each year. Congratulations and thank you to all of you on a job well done!

Personnel changes over the year were many and included:Dianna Smith, Community Recreation Coordinator, retired after a long and successful career. Dianna contributed in so many ways in each of the communities she served. We wish her all the best! Replacing her in an acting capacity were Cindy Gulbransen, and towards the end of the year, Bob Harris. Cindy is currently the Centre Programmer at False Creek Community Centre, with Wally Tarrant replacing her as the Acting Pool Programmer.


The Community Recreation Coordinator

The Future: • We are becoming a well-known hub for community events.• We will continue to work with our partners to provide the best possible recreation programs and services to meet the needs of our community. • We welcome your feedback & suggestions for new and innovative programs. Special Thanks:I want to thank the community members, volunteers, Board, and staff for making me feel so welcome and for all of your help during the time I have been here. Together, you make Britannia the vibrant centre that it is and a focal point for the whole community.

With thanks, Bob Harris Acting, Community Recreation Coordinator


The Community Education Coordinator

Vision: “To promote a lifelong learning community”

Goals: 1. to support Britannia as the HUB of the Grandview-Woodlands and Strathcona neighbourhoods 2. to support programs and initiatives that support the transition stages of students – school readi-ness, secondary school readiness and post-secondary readiness; 3. to work with partners to improve the performance of students, in both academic performance and social re-sponsibility.

Governance: Britannia Board of Management, Vancouver School Board, Britannia Community Education Committee, Britannia HUB Advisory Committee.

Britannia HUB Schools: Britannia Secondary, Britannia Elementary, Nelson Elementary, Strathcona Elementary, Seymour Elementary, Grandview Elementary, and Queen Victoria Annex.

Britannia Community Schools Team: Coordinator: Mike Evans Teacher: Lynn Price Youth and Family Workers: David Baldwin, Greg Goodall Secretary: Mitra Tshan Programmers Sadia Ibrahim, Jennae Gedeon

Keys to Success: Partnerships, clear objectives, energy, and Britannia’s integrated service delivery model.

Challenges: Finding sustained funding for programs.

Highlights: Able to provide intervention on two levels: a) targeted programmes to address specific needs for students and families; b) non-targeted programmes which capture a percentage of vulnerable students and increase general engagement and/or knowledge.• Academic support for academically delayed students through initiatives such as co-teaching and providing teach-ing strategies to classroom teachers.• Summer camps for children. 200 kids in 6 weeks of sports, arts, writing and law camps.• After school programmes for children and youth. i.e. HEROs Hockey, MoreSports, Fine Arts• In school programs for children and youth. i.e. Arts Umbrella, Literacy, Moresports, Hi-5, Class meetings.• Bursary and scholarship program.• East Side Basketball program for girls.• HIPPY – Home Instruction for Parents of Pre-School Youngsters.• CAPC “Children Need Care Now” coalition for families with children 0-6 – Food Distribution Program, Parent-Child Mother Goose, Community Kitchens, workshops for parents, ESL.• CLICK – Contributing to the Lives of Inner City Kids in the areas of skills, access, and safety. Over 60 families• Support for an expanded Partners in Education Canuck Family Literacy Program.• Britannia Elementary Playground Build• Computer Access Program created opportunities for children and youth• Partnership with Sogo-Active Youth Programs in a variety of initiatives that promote wellness.


Britannia Elementary School PrincipalThe 2010/2011 school year successfully started with the building of a new adventure playground. The playground was built with the combined efforts of parents, VSB staff, community volunteers, Foresters Insurance and Kaboom Play-grounds. The playground build was one of many changes the school experienced this year.

The school experienced some staffing changes due to retirements and maternity leaves, growth in student population as more cross boundary students attend the school, a growing relationship with the secondary school in terms of student activities, the evolvement of school music programs and continued growth in the area of literacy.

The school continued to focus on the goals of student achievement in the areas of literacy and social responsibility. Data collected by the school continue to demonstrate improvement in the areas of reading and writing and serve to reinforce the value of the direct instruction programs used at Britannia. Supporting student achievement is a growing number of volunteers from the UBC Trek program and the secondary school homework club program.

In athletics, the rate of participation in extracurricular sports continues to be high. The school offers students opportunities to participate in volleyball, basketball, badminton, cross country running and track and field. With school staff volunteering their time to coach and transport students to different venues, the students have had a rewarding athletic experience.

The school continues to encourage community participation and to reach out to recent arrivals in the community. Our annual community dinner, Welcome to Kindergarten event and National Aboriginal Day celebrations are well received and attended. Britannia also has an active Parent Advisory Committee that supports student learning and school activities.

Ian Cannon, Principal Britannia Elementary


Britannia Secondary School PrincipalBritannia is proud to be a community partner. Our unique partnership gives Britannia students access to some of the best recreational facilities of any school in the province, including a swimming pool, ice rink, tennis courts, fitness centre, four gymnasiums, and Teen Centre. The community sharing of the site facilities also allows secondary students to use the Vancouver Public Library Britannia Branch and associated services. Our students are provided with many formal and in-formal opportunities to develop into socially responsible citizens. In other words, they constantly interact with people of all ages whether it be with our partner Britannia Elementary, the Seniors Centre, Teen Centre, Community Links, Community Education activities and/or members of the Britannia Board of Management.

Britannia Secondary School provides a comprehensive educational program for students in grades 8-12. We also have six district specified alternative programs–one in the building, two on campus and three off site. In addition, we have two enriched district programs. The International Baccalaureate for senior students seeking advanced placement in universi-ties, and our enriched Mini School “Venture” for junior students in grades 8 - 10. Students are able to participate in Career Prep Programs in Science, Business Education, Auto Mechanics ACE-IT program, and Cooks Training. Britannia is also the first school in Vancouver to have a Hockey Academy which was implemented four years ago. Through staff participat-ing in two Vancouver School Board Learning Initiatives, again we will be offering a unique Math 8 and English 8 learning opportunity for our incoming grade 7s. Our September 2011 enrolment will be approximately 750 students, and we are fortunate to have a dedicated faculty of 52 staff who continue to work hard on behalf of our students. Student learning is enriched via our relationships with Port Vancouver, University of British Columbia Mentorship project, UBC Pacific Institute of Mathematics & Sciences, Frontier College, Urban Native Youth Tutoring Program, Simon Fraser University, and Elec-tronic Arts.

Our extracurricular program supported by staff and volunteers includes activities in: Athletics–basketball, soccer, volley-ball, badminton, tennis, rugby, track & field, table tennis and ultimate. Our active clubs include the Homework Club, Leo Service Club, Dance Club, Debating Club; Philosophers Club, Gay Straight Alliance Club, Knitting Club, Math Club, Se-niors Club, City Global Issues, and Model United Nations Club. Students in our Art department continue to paint murals in the community and our Band students are in the process of fundraising for a music trip to Cuba. The democratically elected Student Council has taken their role seriously by organizing many activities for the student body, such as the Terry Fox Run and Canned Food Drive for the Vancouver Food Bank.

The two goals of the Britannia School Plan endorsed by the administration, staff, students, members of the School Plan-ning Council and Parent Advisory Committee are a true reflection of the strong commitment to our students. The goals are: “To continue to improve the academic achievement of all students, using a wide variety of instructional strategies, to meet the needs of our diverse community of learners,” and “To continue to provide opportunities, both within and beyond the classroom, designed to foster socially responsible behaviour for all.”

Thank you on behalf of all of us at Britannia Secondary. We value our partnership with the Britannia Community Centre, Vancouver Parks Board, Vancouver Public Library and the City.

Please check out our school website(s) for updated information @http://britannia.vsb.bc.ca

Respectfully,

Beverly Seed, Secondary School Principal


The Librarian In ChargeThe Britannia Library is unique in that it functions both as a branch of the Vancouver Public Library as well as a school library for K-12 students of the Britannia Elementary School and Britannia Secondary School. The Library has, within its premises, an ESL Learning Centre operated by instructors from the Vancouver Community College. It is also well used by staff and students from the Hastings Education Centre located on the floor above.

Library Collections:The Library collection is made up of over 83,000 books, videos, audiocassettes, compact discs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers and CD-ROMs from VPL and the two schools. Majority of the collection is in English with smaller collections in Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish. Most library materials can be borrowed. There is no charge for library cards for residents of the GVRD.There are 18 computers in the library for public use: 14 of these have access to the Internet with internet filter software installed to one of them to make it child-proof; another 4 are set up for library research with access to the library catalogue and an assortment of electronic databases and government websites. Patrons with minimum identification would be able to get a free internet access card. The Library is also equipped with wireless service to provide free internet access to VPL members with personal laptops.

Services the Library offers include:• Story times for babies, toddlers and preschoolers• Summer Reading Clubs for school aged children• Mother Goose and Man in the Moon programs for parents and caregivers of preschool children • “Books to Go” and “Storytime Kits” programs for childcare centres• Training in research skills and curriculum support for the many schools in the Grandview Wood land area• Access to the internet and to the resources of the whole Vancouver Public Library system through our public access computers• One-on-one as well as group training on basic computer, internet and email skills • Art displays and openings through the Britannia Art Gallery located in the library lounge• Tours for schools and community groups of all ages• Author readings for both children and adults • Special programs and/or displays featuring significant library and community events

Highlights of 2010:- Collaborated with Britannia Elementary to offer free computer training programs to adults attending “Computer Day” at the school. - Hosted readings and discussions with authors Richard van Camp, Carrie Mac, Bruce Hunter, Dan Bar-el, and Lawrence Scanlan.- Children’s Librarian worked with the schools in the area to support early literacy through programs such as “Wel-come to Kindergarten”, “StrongStart”, “Ready Set Learn”, “Aboriginal Head Start”, visits to out of school care groups and day cares.- Piloted Saturday puppet show for preschool children.- VPL’s Aboriginal Storyteller in Residence, Jackie Timothy, presented stories to classes from two schools.- Started new book clubs in partnership with Pandora’s Collectives and Britannia’s 55+ Centre.- Hosted an ESL Book Club at the Library, funded by Friends of the Library. - Co-sponsored an ESL Book Club with MOSIAC for its students.- Collaborated with Britannia Art Gallery to get additional lighting installed in the Art Gallery/read ing lounge. - Installation of Ken Gerberick’s neon art piece “Light on the Drive/Nite Lite Roadtrip” in the front window which now has become a beacon for the library.- Participated in the visioning process for developing a new Master Plan for the Britannia site.- Participated in various cultural exchange events organized by the City of Vancouver’s “Dialogues between Urban Aboriginal and Immigrant Communities”.- Welcomed Joyce Gee as the new Circulation Supervisor.


The Librarian In Charge

- Welcomed Helen Lightfoot back to Britannia as Assistant Branch Manager.- Welcomed new Elementary Teacher Librarian, Josh Campbell.- Four Britannia Library staff joined the Host City Team during the 2010 Games.- A 2-day unplanned closure of the Library in the summer due to a breakdown of the air condition ing unit which subsequently had to have its compressor replaced.- Along with the rest of the City departments, the Library switched over to a new Voice Over IP telecom system.- Joan Andersen was the Vancouver Public Library Board liaison to the Britannia Board.

Library Statistics for 2010• Days Library was open 354 • Materials borrowed 329,042• Visitors to the library 325,637• Reference Questions 18,248• Public Library programs for adults 37• Public Library programs for children and teens 179• Attendees at adult programs 600• Attendees at programs for children and teens 9,272• Internet sessions logged in on library’s computers 56,022• Internet sessions logged in on library’s wireless server 6,582* (*this represented a 32.94% increase from 2009)

Cathy Wang, Manager, Britannia Library


Vancouver Community College - ESL Learning Centre

2010 in the ESL Learning CentresThe ESL Learning Centres provide free, drop-in tutoring and self-study resources for people learning English. During 2010, our nine centres had a total of 15, 349 visits, most for 2 to 3 hours of study. These are busy, productive places, and the partnership between VCC and the Vancouver and Burnaby Public Libraries continues to make a valuable program available to English learners.Some highlights of 2010• New immigration programs have made it possible for more young people from a number of countries to come to Canada on extended work-study visas. Many of these students are taking advantage of our learning centres, particularly at Central and Mount Pleasant Branches. Both as students and as newcomers to Canada, these young people may have different motivations for learning English from older and/or longer-term immigrants, and they may be seeking different services or resources. Our tutors have had to be nimble in learning how to meet the needs of this new group.

• Vancouver’s neighbourhoods continue to change demographically, as many long-time residents from other coun-tries are settled in their homes, and newer arrivals look for cheaper housing in suburban areas. Anecdotally, it appears that many visitors to the learning centres travel from neighbourhoods further away from their centres than previously. Also, in some centres, the core group of frequent visitors is aging.

• The 2010 Olympics caused the closure of our Central Learning Centre for several weeks during February. Other centres also had decreases in visits during February.

• Learning centre tutors are embracing some technological change. Thanks to a grant from Great West Life, we have been able to supply a laptop computer to each centre this year. These make it easier for tutors to look up community services and information for students and demonstrate English learning websites, as well as allowing staff to stay more easily in touch with our central office through e-mail. The centres are also becoming equipped with CD players that have USB ports, which will make it possible to play downloaded broadcasts for students’ listening practice.

• Vancouver Community College has had major changes in leadership this year. Our new President, Kathy Kinloch, has initiated a Strategic Planning process that has included structured input from all employees and students, including our learning centre staff. She hopes to gain input from community partners during 2011.

• Long-time learning centre tutor Shiela Rankine retired. She has been replaced by Natalia Routkovskaia, one of our experienced casual staff. Colleen van Winkel’s term as Assistant Department Head of ESL Outreach ended in July, and Morna McLeod took over this position, which includes supervision of the learning centres.

2010 at Britannia Our centre at Britannia continues to be ably staffed by Gordon Crozier and Mary McNichol. Only one of them is on duty at a time. This is one centre where more students appear to be coming from further than the immediate neighbourhood. The tutors are happy to be able to refer students not only to the excellent resources in the library but to services and programs in the Britannia Community Centre as well. Currently the Britannia ESL Learning Centre is open: Tuesdays: 1:00-8:30 pm Wednesdays: 9:30 am-8:30 pm Thursdays: 9:30 am-5:00 pm Fridays: 9:30 am-3:00 pm Saturdays: 10:00 am-2:00 pm

While one summer Saturday saw only one visit by a student, many days had 20 or more, including one day in March with a high of 23 visits.

Registration Numbers by Level for 2010


Level Jan- Mar Apr-Aug Sep-Dec TotalLiteracy 7 13 11 31Lower Beginners 15 13 13 41Upper Beginners 6 8 12 26Pre-Intermediate 8 6 3 17Lower Intermediate 7 5 16 28Upper Intermediate 19 20 14 53Lower Advanced 5 1 1 7Upper Advanced 2 3 4 9Total registrations 69 69 74 212

Total visits 2010 676 1045 872 2,593Comparison of Britannia Annual Total Visits Jan-Dec 2005 2801Jan-Dec 2006 2674Jan-Dec 2007 1733Jan-Dec 2008 2875Jan-Dec 2009 2594Jan-Dec 2010 2593While there have been some changes in the levels at which students are studying, the overall number of visits in the Bri-tannia ESL Learning Centre has remained steady.

If you would like to ask any more questions about the ESL Learning Centres or about other Outreach programs, please feel free to contact me. You can also find information at eslprograms.vcc.ca.

Submitted by Morna McLeod, Assistant Department Head, ESL Outreach, Vancouver Community College 604-871-7275 or [email protected]

Vancouver Community College - ESL Learning Centre


The Hastings Education Centre

Hastings Education Centre is one of six Adult Education Centres within the Vancouver Board of Education and is proud to be part of the Britannia community. We offer Ministry of Education authorized basic upgrading and academic secondary school courses in a safe and supportive environment. Flexible programming enables students to pursue their academic goals in a variety of ways. Learners may choose structured classes, self-paced, and/or web-based mixed mode courses. They are encouraged to have a voice in the way they learn and to include their life experience in their education. The Britannia site truly offers the opportunity for life-long learning.

Students come to us for different reasons: most are hoping to achieve high school graduation; some are upgrading specif-ic courses to prepare for further education/training or for work. We are also able to offer a selection of tuition-free courses to adults who have graduated and would like to continue their studies.

In addition to structured classes, we offer the following services:

Partnership ProgramsWe have partnered with the Canucks Family Education Centre to offer their participants English Foundations and Math Foundations courses. We are pleased to be able to offer community members the opportunity to easily transition from the supportive environment of CFEC to academic courses which can lead to high school graduation.

Learning CentreLearning Centre staff will conduct an assessment of English and math skills for those who have not studied recently or have not studied in an English speaking environment. They will plan a program to meet individual needs. Students may work on structured, self-paced or WEB mixed-mode courses. - Self-paced: students can complete study modules at their own speed under the guidance of an instructor in the Learning Centre. - WEB mixed-mode: students can do a portion of their program online while still accessing face-to-face services. For more information please visit http://ws.vsbeducation.caTo get started or to make a programming appointment, please call the Learning Centre at 604-713-5735.

Academic AdvisingFor those ready to work towards high school graduation, we have an Academic Advisor who will help with course selection and post-secondary planning.

Outreach WorkerOur Outreach Worker is available to meet with students when they need support with non-academic issues such as finan-cial difficulties, seeking employment or new housing, medical assistance or counselling. The Outreach Worker works with students to connect them with the appropriate service providers. She also manages our volunteer tutor programme.

Fresh Start Youth Education ProgramFresh Start is a program for youth, 16-19, who have not succeeded in the regular or alternative school settings due to attendance, lifestyle, or family issues. The students work through the core subject areas to the end of grade 11. Students may then re-enter regular classes.

Darlyne Robertson, Principal Hastings Education Centre


The Arena CommitteeThe Arena Committee’s goals are to provide accessible programs, activities and events with exceptional care and service to the Grandview Woodlands community.

EXCELLENCE

The Britannia Arena is recognized by its diverse users and the ice rink community as “the best place in Vancouver to skate”. Patrons appreciate the “feeling of community” and that rink programs are successfully offered with the end user in mind. These compliments are a result of the outstanding partnership with the skilled and caring Vancouver School Board ice staff and engineers who work together with Vancouver Park Board full-time and auxiliary staff. All arena staff are com-mitted to providing a safe and fun recreational venue for community members. The staff at Britannia ice rink takes pride in their facility and it shows, as public sessions and skating programs are very well attended and the ice is mostly fully booked for rentals.

The Britannia Arena continues to build on its reputation within the community and beyond as a fantastic facility to experi-ence a diverse range of programs and services. Taking advantage of the demand for ice time and programs from the public, Britannia was, once again, able to exceed revenue targets for 2010. SUCESSES

Britannia’s Learn to Skate instruction team is made up of many of the leaders within the Vancouver Park Board. Their strength and creativity as instructors as well as their mentorship with new instructors has resulted in the delivery of a suc-cessful program that is sought after by participants across the city. In 2010 Britannia’s Learn to Skate program had over 2200 registered participants. Despite being closed for 5 weeks during VANOC’s exclusive use period, registration num-bers remained consistent with 2009.

The Britannia Arena Committee has always been supportive of women’s hockey at Britannia. Year after year, the success of the women’s summer league is a testament to the commitment the women in the hockey community have to Britannia. In 2010, working together with the women’s hockey community, a suitable Sunday morning time slot was secured for the Fall/Winter to run a program. This program sold out immediately and continues to do so.

The Britannia After School Hockey program (BASH), offered for free to youth 14-17 years, continues to expand. Each session, 30 BASH players experience a structured hockey program where they are able to gain hockey and teamwork skills in a fun and supportive environment. Ice time has been secured to expand the program and obtaining funding to support the program continues to be goal.

Britannia continues to operate the Vancouver Adult Co-ed Hockey League which plays games at six of the Vancouver ice rinks, including Britannia. This year the league was able to secure more late-night ice times throughout the rinks and ex-panded from ten to eighteen teams. This increase allowed over 125 more adults the ability to play recreational ice hockey in Vancouver.

An Automated External Defibrillator, (AED) was acquired by the Vancouver Park Board from the Gianfranco Giammaria Memorial Society. This unit is accessible to user groups in case of emergencies in the ice rink.

CHALLENGESFor all the successes of 2010, there were some challenges that came with them. For five weeks in early 2010 during VANOC’s exclusive use period, the arena was closed to the general public. Although the arena suffered through loss of revenue and access during this period, when it re-opened in early March, the numbers quickly rebounded and the public returned to find brand new rental skates and new helmets.

PARNTERSHIPSBritannia Arena continues to focus on strengthening the current relationships it has built with its partners. The Hockey


Education Reaching Out Society (HEROS) continues its excellent program, offering children in the area an opportunity to take part in hockey. As part of the Vancouver City-wide Rink Allocation committee, Britannia, along with the Park Board ice rinks, continues to work with Vancouver’s minor sports groups to review the ice usage throughout the city.

FUTUREWe are excited about the upcoming year at the arena. We will to continue to improve the quality of service offered to the community and to uphold the high expectations that the community has come to expect from the Britannia Arena.

Susy Bando for the Arena Committee.

The Arena Committee

The Volunteer ProgramVolunteer Program’s MissionBuilding a diverse and creative volunteer community that provides positive, learning opportunities and values the contribu-tions of all individuals.

Britannia’s Volunteer Program is constantly growing and learning. It has over 250 active volunteers that continue to con-tribute their time and energy to programs and events. Each year, thousands of hours are donated to community programs and we really do appreciate everyone’s efforts to make this a welcoming place for volunteers. In 2010, our Volunteer Program accomplished the following:

Sustainability and Excellence•The program implemented:

one volunteer management training workshop for recreational staff to troubleshoot volunteer management issues •an active Volunteer Program Committee with board members to offer guidance•seasonal newsletters to raise volunteer profiles and keep departmental volunteers connected•baking activities to encourage volunteers of all ages to connect •fundraising activities (bake sale) during the monthly recycling program•workshops for volunteers run by volunteers (e.g. Taiko drumming, bicycle maintenance)•movie/game nights for volunteers•supported several volunteer recognition events throughout the year for various departments like camp volunteers, •soccer coaches, and seniorsa new Fitness Centre Volunteer Policy that supports their training, safety while on duty, and celebrates their commit-•ment to the centreCommunity Development & Partnerships•The program has taken part in the following:•Creating new projects with Britannia Neighbours (Beyond the Blue Box recycling program)•Building connections with not-for-profit agencies across the lower mainland•Setting new standards of volunteer management as advocated by CAVR and AVRBC (national and provincial organi-•zations) and striving to reach the Canadian Code for Volunteer Involvement (adopted in 2008 by Britannia)Developing relationships with recruitment and employee-assistance programs to help new immigrants and those in •transition to find new opportunitiesEstablishing new discussions with Park Board facilities and staff around support of volunteers at all sites•Ongoing discussions with neighbouring, growing municipalities about best practices for volunteer management•

Program Highlights 2010Summer Unlimited – This group never fails to amaze us. The dedication from our veteran volunteers and their ability •to inspire others is truly a sight to see. Volunteer Program Committee – An active committee now made up mostly of volunteers and members that represent •


Board Development Committee

the Board of Management, Fitness Centre & Pool, Administration, Seniors and Youth. This committee provides guid-ance and support in developing initiatives and ensures program standards are maintained. “Volunteer Heroes”– April 2011, we submit our Volunteer Archival Video from 2009, made by volunteers about volun-•teers, to Volunteer Richmond for a Metro Vancouver competition designed to highlight the involvement and achieve-ment of volunteers across the city. We hope to raise the profile of our volunteers and the program at Britannia. Volunteer Appreciation Event –The event on September 16, 2010 at the Wise Hall was well-received. A small group of •under 100 attended but commented that they enjoyed the food, selection of music provided by our D.J. and the inter-active dances provided by our very own dancing instructor, Karlos and the Estilo Cubano dance group.

Challenges – Encouraging staff and volunteers to invest more in the experience of volunteerism and making the time to strengthen volunteer policies and to support volunteer growth and positive experiences.

Current and future projects include:Focusing on using social media tools to connect to a growing mass of volunteers in the millennial and boomer genera-•tionEncouraging volunteers to take on more leadership roles within programs to build experience and their résumé•Supporting staff in building stronger relationships with volunteers•

Charlene Wee, Volunteer Program Coordinator

The Volunteer Program

In keeping with the themes identified in the Britannia Strategic Plan, the Board Development Committee directed its en-ergy for the year ending May 2011 to the following activities:

Helping to Develop the Volunteer Committee MandateIn conjunction with the Volunteer Committee, and volunteer co-ordinator Charlene Wee, the Board Development Commit-tee helped to establish a Volunteer Committee Mandate.

Helping to Develop a Britannia Fundraising PolicyDue to the challenge for funding from traditional sources to keep pace with increased costs, Britannia, as many commu-nity organizations are, looks to potential funding opportunities. The Board has communicated their interest that potential donors be ones that preserve the community culture of Britannia. The Board Development Committee is working with Senior Management on a policy to direct any current or future initiatives, to ensure that they are a reflection of the commu-nity-driven nature of Britannia.

Helping to Develop the Youth Committee MandateThe Youth Committee is currently working on developing and revising their mandate. The Board Development Committee will continue to consult with them. A final draft will be completed soon for approval by the Board.

Supporting the Development of a Britannia Master PlanBritannia’s Planning & Development Committee has put a great deal of effort into their work on plans for the revitalization and redevelopment of the Britannia site this year. To assist in informing Board members and the Planning & Development Committee, the Board Development Committee organized a springtime tour of two North Shore community centres that are comparable to Britannia. The tour enabled participants to see first-hand what ideas have been integrated into other centres. Like kids on a field trip, the Board had fun and came back with renewed energy, and some great inspiration to


Board Development Committee

Canucks Family Education CentreThere are few values considered more important or globally promoted than literacy and education. The Canucks Family Education Centre (CFEC) understands the importance of investing in learning within a community and family context, and emphasizes those values every day through numerous programs and initiatives designed to foster and support literacy and life long learning through intergenerational learning, and by providing programs that improve the health and happi-ness of all members of the families involved.Over the last eight years more than 5,000 children, youth and families have benefited from the programs and services provided by CFEC and our community partners. CFEC was launched in 2002 with the sponsorship and partnership of the Canucks for Kids Fund, Britannia Community Services Centre, the Vancouver Sun Raise-a-Reader program and the Van-couver School Board, and has since greatly appreciated the contributions of more than 40 community partners.We are located at Britannia Community Centre, a 17acre site within Canada’s poorest postal code, an area that contin-ues to be challenged with issues of substance abuse, poverty, low literacy levels, and high incidences of crime; and in South Burnaby, an area that reflects the growing global nature of the Burnaby community, with all that this entails. One of CFEC’s primary goals is to develop and implement programs that address school transitions and to pro-vide opportunities within these programs for families to develop the skills and knowledge they need to navigate these transitions with ease. With your generous support we continue to make a lasting difference in the lives of the children and families that participate in our programs.

Prepared By: Jean Rasmussen, Executive Director, CFEC

continue development of the Britannia Master Plan!

Planning the Society’s AGMIt is the responsibility of the Board Development Committee to work with Senior Management, and our partners to plan the Britannia AGM. Please enjoy the evening, and thank-you for attending.

On Behalf of the Britannia Board Development CommitteeGwen Giesbrecht, Pat Davitt, Penny Street


Community Education Committee

The Library Management CommitteeThe Library Management Committee liaises with Britannia Secondary School, Britannia Elementary School, Vancouver Community College and other educational partners on site to provide a comprehensive and integrated program of library services and activities through the Britannia Branch of the Vancouver Public Library to the community of Grandview Woodland.

Membership of the Committee comprises of at least two representatives from Vancouver Public Library, a representative from the Vancouver Community College (on behalf of the Britannia ESL Learning Centre), two representatives from the Vancouver School Board and two residents of the Grandview Woodland and Strathcona neighbourhoods, one of whom will represent the Britannia Board of Management. The Executive Director of the Britannia Community Services Centre is the Chair and the Manager of the Britannia Library is the Secretary.

The members of the committee for 2010/2011 are: Diana Guinn and Anne Olsen from VPL; Bev Seed, Principal of Britan-nia Secondary; Ian Cannon, Principal of Britannia Elementary; Morna McLeod from VCC; Dan Fass from the Grandview Woodland community; and Bruce MacDonald, Eva Sharell and Penny Street from the Britannia Board. Cynthia Low, the Executive Director of BCSC, is the Chair and Cathy Wang, Manager of Britannia Library, is the Secretary. Anne Sander, Teacher-Librarian at Britannia Secondary, and Josh Campbell, Teacher-Librarian at Britannia Elementary, attend the meet-ings as staff. The Committee met 3 times in 2010. Highlights include:• Reviewed and revised the Committee’s mandate.• Approved joint VPL/VSB goals and action plans for Britannia Library.• Received updates on the progress of the Planning and Development Committee and the consultants in drawing up a multiphase master plan for Britannia.• Welcomed Ian Cannon as the new Principal of Britannia Elementary.• Josh Campbell replaced Sarah Paulsen as the Elementary Teacher-Librarian.• Anne Sander moved into a new office built for the Secondary Teacher-Librarian in the Learning Resource Centre.• Supported a motion to add wi-fi connectivity at selected facilities on site.• Presentations from Anne Sander and Anne Olsen on new technology and future trends in school and public librar-ies.

Cathy Wang, Committee Secretary

Vision: To promote a lifelong learning community

The Community Education Committee acts as an advisory committee to the Coordinator and to the Community School Team. Mike Evans, the Coordinator, also sits on the Britannia Board of Management and part of our role is to keep Board members informed about our work. We meet approximately once per month during the school year. Mitra Tshan, the Community Education secretary, does a wonderful job taking minutes, sending out agendas and providing support to the group.

Highlights: Programs provided FREE by Community Education include:

• HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters). Beatrice Feza is our part-time coordinator. Fifty-two families are in HIPPY and there is a wait list. This year we will have 100% completion by our 3, 4 and 5 year-olds. Graduation is June 4th. We continue to seek sustainable funding and are always hopeful but the future of the program is tenuous each year. • CAPC (Community Access Program for Children) provides a food distribution program for 40 families, ESL in-


Community Education Committee

Childcare and Children’s Committee

Plans are going ahead for the Provincial implementation of full day kindergarten for all children beginning September 2011. There is also a promise from the Minister of Education of “pre kindergarten” for 3 and 4 year olds sometime later. While the extension of free, publicly funded services for young children is welcomed there does not currently seem to be a government strategy that recognizes existing child care services or meets the need of working families. Britannia contin-ues to advocate for this. Closer to home, the Britannia Board of Management and our hub partners have finally completed the rewriting of our origi-nal agreements and they have been agreed to and signed by all parties. The respective roles of Britannia and the Child-care societies are now clearly spelled out. During this process Boat Daycare decided to leave the “hub” (group of off-site childcare societies) and is no longer administered by Britannia.Cynthia held two very well-received workshops for off-site childcare parent board members, so that new parents under-stand their roles and the role of Britannia. Also to this end Leah created a board manual for each centre, so that there is continuity when new parent boards are elected. The Britannia Board of Management held a special session just on childcare and apart from learning a lot about our par-ticular model and the varied programs we run, strongly endorsed the “hub” and the concept of providing excellent child-care in the Britannia catchment area.

Eva Sharell, chair; Lynda Hurst and Marc Codron, Britannia Board members.

struction for parents, Spanish Community Kitchen programs, Parent-Child Mother Goose programs and support for HIPPY. First Aid, Food Safe and Art Therapy are professional opportunities for staff and excellent training for our par-ents. This year Britannia Community Services Society has replaced DERA as the Recipient Agency for this Public Health Canada sponsored program. Gaye Fergusson, our Coordinator, continues to do wonderful work and is now stationed at Britannia!• Out of school programs in the Britannia HUB of schools continue to thrive. We managed the Grandview Program while providing over 40 programs to our HUB schools. Sadia Ibrahim, working on a United Way grant to the Vancouver School Board, provided strong leadership. Jennae Gedeon was our Moresport sponsored programmer and she did excel-lent work. • Our summer camps were a big success. Six weeks of arts, creative writing and sports kept over 180 children engaged.• Esaine Mo is the SWIS (Settlement Workers in Schools) for Britannia and she is a welcome member to the com-mittee. SWIS workers provide transition programs and initiatives for immigrants to Canada.• Frontier College provides one-to-one tutoring and literacy help to over 130 students in the HUB. Kathy Powelson is the Coordinator.

Some examples of the special event programming that we sponsor or partner with other agencies and groups include: Britannia Craft Fair, Britannia Elementary Playground Build, Stone Soup Festival, Bruin Invitational Basketball Tourna-ment, Network of East Vancouver Community Organizations, CAPC Parent Conference, Night Hoops, and Open Doors to Learning

Gwen Giesbrecht, ChairBritannia Board member


Arts & Culture Committee

EVENTS

The Water FestivalOur 2010 year started with a brand-new event, The Water Festival, a community event in celebration of “water” that was meant to provide alternative programming to the “biggest party ever”, the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Water Festival was very successful in spite of the enormity of our competition. The brainchild of a dedicated group of volunteers from the community, this event brought water-themed entertainment as well as innovative and educational workshops in Art, History, Poetry, Music and Food.

The Water Festival was comprised of two “streams,” the first being the community workshops and events including a historical exploration of our community; Flow, a poetry workshop, watercolour painting, film festival, “watery” music with Simon Kendall and water-inspired food from artist-chef, Michael Speier. Also, Ian Marcuse, Britannia Food Security Co-ordinator, set up an aquaponics demonstration in the Info Centre which led to a partnership with the High School and the inspiration for the Science students to pursue their own aquaponics project.

The second “stream” was our School Outreach which brought local elementary schools into the Centre to spend one day investigating water through art in the form of a painting workshop with Artist Tara Carmichael, then students went into the pool through an amazing partnership with Science World, their after school science program staff and our pool staff, to do water experiments. Seven classes and approximately 200 students from the neighbourhood participated.

The 15th Annual Stone Soup Festival This east Vancouver community tradition continues to bring out residents in celebration of spring, food, and the environ-ment. Over 2000 people attended. This event supported 50 community groups, artists, food vendors and musicians as well as sponsoring the Fiesta de las Madres in Gym D. This year we added the Stone Soup Film Festival as well and used a record number of volunteer hours. We also gave out over 500 bowls of free soup prepared in our Out of School Care kitchen by Chef Shirldene Reynolds. The Board table sold postcards and banner-bags, the proceeds of which went directly back into Arts & Culture, eventually funding our Diwali event later in the year.

Artful Sundays Artful Sundays is an annual, outdoor, visual arts market featuring the works of local artists. 2010 was our 8th year. This event supported 60 artists over 5 Sundays in August. It was extremely well-received with over 700 visitors each week.

DiwaliBritannia Community Centre hosted two public workshops: diya painting and bollywood dance on November 6th, 2010. With help from one of our valuable volunteers, Trudy Ann Tellis, who recruited her family and her mother who was visit-ing from India, we were able to offer traditional chai, dance, stories, and laughs to the 75 plus visitors to the event. It was so well received that feedback from those who attended indicates that we will be working together towards an even more fabulous Diwali 2011.

Culture Days – Community Arts Councils of VancouverBritannia sponsored a panel discussion on the importance of community engagement in the arts. This was a partnership with the CACV working under the national initiative “Culture Days.” We will continue to work with the CACV on some upcoming events in 2011.Secret Souls Walks (Public Dreams/Parade of Lost Souls)Britannia worked with Public Dreams to bring the Secret Souls Walks to the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood. This was to be a scaled-down version of the Parade of Lost Souls. On the Britannia site we hosted a family centered event with music, art, storytelling, and performance in Gym D. As well, we acted as the starting point for those who wished to join in the Secret Souls Walks through the neighbourhood. Over 3500 people came through our Gym D on this evening


Arts & Culture Committeeand over 5000 people through the site. This was a well-organized and secure event by Public Dreams Society and the neighbourhood responded by coming out.

Growing Chefs! FundraiserBritannia hosted a fundraiser for Growing Chefs! a non profit society which unites educators, community members, chefs and growers through a common interest in food sustainability. Meeru Dhalwala from Vij’s restaurant spoke on the impor-tance of healthy eating and cooking and feeding your family on a budget. This event provided free admission to several families from Jean Rasmussen’s Family Literacy Program. Growing Chefs! committed to participate in Stone Soup 2011.

Other events:Canada Day and Italian Day. Both of these events featured entertainment from our local musicians and performers. We are very proud to work with user groups such as: The Carnival Band, The Drive Street Band, and Estilo Cubano.

PROJECTS

Orwell Hotel MuralThis was a mural painted under the artistic direction of Richard Tetrault, an addition to the Eastside Mural project from 2009. Britannia contributed to this 8000 square foot mural, currently the largest in the city.

THE BRITANNIA ART GALLERY

The Art Gallery saw a 25% reduction in budget for 2010 and services were reduced. Musicians were cut from the recep-tions as well as community workshops and school outreach. The Curator, Haruko Okano, worked hard to maintain the professional level of exhibitions that we have come to expect and mounted 10 exhibitions in 2010.

Fewer events reduced the number of participants attending the Art Gallery openings and workshops to 3900, which is a loss of almost 1500-2000 participants.

Exhibition highlights from 2010 included Artists: Andrew O’Connell, Lena Tan, Pam Cambiazo, Kate MacDonald, Robi Smith, Oliver Harwood, Jason de Haan, Olivia Blander, Judy Villett, Russell Broughton, Adrienne Rempel, Robyn Wil-liams, June Yun, Nadia Baker, Val Arntzen and Kiku Hawkes, presenting: painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, photogra-phy, mixed media, textiles as well as an exhibition from students at Grandview Elementary School.

Extremely popular was the June Artists in our Midst presentation at the Art Gallery, The Artist as facilitator of creativity in others, a discussion with Artists, Sylvia Kind and Sharon Kallis.

Haruko Okano also maintained the monthly Arts e-Newsletter, The Artery, which updates Artists on local, national and international events as well as artist calls. This newsletter funnels art information into one document and is an in-depth “go-to” document for artists.PROGRAMS

Arts and Culture Programs for all Arts and Culture programs offered during the “Olympic” Winter of this year suffered somewhat in registration numbers but quickly bounced back by Fall. We are very grateful to Sue Malcolm who brought her Blue Grass Jam program to our centre. This program continues to break maximum numbers and has inspired a huge following.

Food workshops such as: canning, sauerkraut, sprouts and gluten-free and sugar-free baking continue to gain in popular-


Grandview Woodland Food ConnectionThe Grandview Woodland Food Connection (GWFC) experienced an exciting year of new projects and growth. We are now recognized as a key “Neighbourhood Food Network” in the city. With this recognition have come new partner opportunities and projects, increased funding, growth of network members, and a visible city-wide profile.

Awareness and concern for food security and food justice is now front and centre on the population health agenda. While critical funding lags behind, the importance of creating a healthier, equitable and more envi-ronmentally sustainable food system is now well understood. A key goal and direction is the development of community food centres that offer a diversified but integrated food programming that help community members build skills and capacity towards improving their food security.

Britannia Community Centre is moving towards this goal with new and exciting initiatives:

Britannia Urban Garden (BUG) Project will see 3 new food growing sites on the school grounds providing cafeteria food and food growing learning opportunities for students and community members. Funding for this project has come from the Greenest City Initiative and the Real Estate Foundation.

A Britannia Community Kitchen will see a series of diabetes focused kitchens stretching into 2013. Funding for this project has come from the Canadian Diabetes Association.

The Britannia Bulk Buying Group is helping to provide fresh produce at wholesale prices to 24 low income households.

Buen Provecho! 2010 completed its second year, bringing together seniors from various cultural backgrounds¬ and youth in a sharing of favorite food recipes and stories. New this year was the creation of 10 fabulous digital stories. Funding from New Horizons. http://buenprovechoproject.blogspot.com/

More Cooking and Food Preparation Workshops such as gluten free cooking, canning, and sprouting continue to attract near or full participation attesting to the hunger for such educational opportunities.

More Events – Stone Soup Film Festival, Corn Festival, Bella Coola Flooded Farmers Fundraiser, Growing Chefs Fundraiser, and of course our much loved Stone Soup.

The GWFC is a key player in building the city-wide Network of Neighbourhood Food Networks that is improving inter-neighbourhood communications, collaboration, and best practices sharing.

For a full description of all the work of the GWFC, visit our newly updated Food Sustainability Britannia Web-site page: http://www.britanniacentre.org/services/community_services/food_sustainability.php

Ian Marcuse, Food Security Coordinator


Arts & Culture Committee

ity. These are very successful but are limited as we are sharing the Out of School Care kitchen and care is taken to not interfere with the licensing issues for this space.

The Banner ProjectFunding was cut to this project and workshops were reduced to one only during 2010. The one workshop filled up as expected. The Britannia site benefits from the beauty of these hand-painted community artworks.

SUMMARY

The Committee is looking forward to 2011 and to projects such as: the EAST FEAST, a micro-funding project in support of local arts initiatives; The McLean Drive Mural Project, a two block long mural on McLean Drive soon to be the largest mural in the city at 9,000 square feet; The Vancouver Draw Down 2011: Summer of Ten Thousand Drawings, an event to inspire non-artists to contribute to the cultural fabric of our city as well as another Stone Soup, Artful Sundays and more!

The Arts and Culture Committee at the Britannia Centre continues to surpass the year before in the number and variety of special projects, events, and partnerships that we bring to our community. We are already certain that 2011 will be no exception.

As the Arts Programmer I wish to thank the tireless volunteers, the committee members, the Board, staff, instructors and event coordinators who continue to work together to bring arts to this community. I am honoured to work with you.

Lorrie Wager, Arts & Culture Programmer


Frontier College

Latin American Youth

Frontier College is a national non-profit literacy organization. In Vancouver, we are located at Britannia Community Centre and are part of the Britannia Community Education Team. At Frontier College we recruit, train, place, and support volun-teer tutors to work in the Britannia Hub schools, alternative, and multicultural learning programs. This year we provided 100 volunteer tutors for the following programs: Britannia High School Homework Club, Urban Native Youth’s ARIES Proj-ect, Multicultural Family Centre’s African Homework Club, Morley Elementary Homework Club, Byrne Creek High School, John Oliver’s Take a Hike Program, Umoja’s Children’s Homework Club and with adult learners in: African Women’s ESL program for refugee women, tutoring with Domestic Workers (live-in caregivers), Hastings Adult Education Centre, and Umoja’s Adult ESL Literacy Program.During the 2010-2011 year, Frontier College held a total of 6 tutor trainings, placed 100 volunteers, held several volunteer appreciation events, professional development workshops for tutors and learners, and held a Community Conference focused on working with immigrant and refugees learners.Last summer we reached over 200 inner-city youth in the Grandview-Woodland community through our Reading Tents and Summer Writing Workshops. We will continue to offer these workshops this summer in July and August. We plan to host two community conferences in May and November.A Regional Coordinator was hired in June to help expand our provincial programming.Frontier College has an Organizational Team made up of 5 volunteers who work with the Community Coordinator to recruit, train, place and support volunteers, manage our programs and community partner relationships, and organize events. The team meets monthly and attends a retreat in September. Every year the team organizes our annual fundrais-er: SCRABBLE Night in Canada Friends and Family Challenge. Last year we raised $1000 which went towards our local programs; this year’s fundraiser will take place on April 29.

Submitted by Briony Taylor and Kathy Powelson, Frontier College

Every year, the Latin American Youth Project helps several families that have recently immigrated to Canada by provid-ing programs for youth aged 11 to 19. This past year, there were several immigrants from El Salvador who were new to Vancouver, as well as many new immigrants from Mexico. A family that was actively involved in the Latin American Youth Project was ordered to be deported back to Mexico in 2009. Through the efforts of several different schools and communi-ties, they were able to raise the $10,000 required for their final application to stay in Canada. I am very happy to report that this family, along with another family that participates in our program, has been granted residency in Canada. While this story is a triumph for our community, it is not the case for several other families who were deported. Unfortunately, several of these families were active participants in, and gave much of their time in support of, our program.

In February of 2010, the participants from the Latin American Youth Project were fortunate enough to be able to attend some of the Olympic events held throughout Vancouver, including the women’s skiing, some men’s and women’s hockey games and the opening ceremonies for the Paralympic games. The participants were extremely thankful of the opportunity and for the connection with the Canadian culture they had not been familiar with. This gave them a new sense of pride in becoming Canadian while still being able to express their original culture as well.

The Latin Cooking Program continues, consistently having 10 to 13 participants. In December, we launched the “Buen Provecho!” project for the second time. This time, it was a joint project with Teen Centre’s Feast of Flavors Program. This project brings in elders from the Latino community to pass along their knowledge of cooking skills and wisdom. The participants were very excited to try new foods and meet new people. We were able to use the knowledge and experience that these elders had to expand our capacities and put together something special that was made with plenty of care. We plan to continue working with this project in the future.


Latin American Youth Continued

The Friends First program remains quite popular throughout the year, as it involves taking out trips around Vancouver. This program gives new immigrant participants the opportunity to connect with other youth, and well as explore what Vancouver has to offer. At times there were up to 15 participants going on outings which ranged from having picnics at the beach, playing laser tag, and attending workshops for safe sex and self image. Parents feel very comfortable with having an adult supervising their children on the outing, knowing that their children will be safe. The youth get excited that they are able to go out with their friend and feel like they are part of a group. We look forward to continuing our outings and expanding to take them on camping trips.

A new program that has been implemented is the Latin Diversity group. They meet every Saturday before our outings. The program is facilitated by two youth who are actively involved in the Latin American Youth Project and one Latina leader. The program teaches leadership skills, developing the participants to become leaders. It will be a safe place for participants to make friends and earn volunteer hours. We look forward to implementing Latin Diversity as a permanent program within the Latin American Youth Project.

Our Tuesday soccer program is continuing to expand and we are looking forward to hosting a youth tournament in 2011. We now have over 35 participants who come to the soccer program every week. Due to the exponential increase in de-mand, we now have an extra 30 minutes added to the beginning of the program and have 2 volunteers in addition to the regular staff.

Last year, the Girl’s Group for the Latin American Youth Project was very involved with the community and had several returning participants. The activities in the program ranged from movie nights to arts and crafts. All of the participants were very dedicated to the program and enjoyed all of the activities. While all of these programs were running, the Latin American Youth Project was also holding Spanish Clubs in Gladstone, Tupper, David Thompson, Templeton and Van Tech schools. All of the Spanish Clubs have been very successful, some even expanding to larger groups. The Spanish Clubs at all of these schools have been, and will continue to be, an all-inclusive time and place where anyone is free to join and learn about Latin culture, music and history. The participants in the Spanish Clubs were from many different cultures and backgrounds, but were still able to join us and participate in the Spanish Clubs at these schools. We look forward to working with the schools in 2011-12.

Finally, the Latin American Youth Project assisted former participant youth in creating a not-for-profit organization called the Buena Vida Youth Foundation. The organization focuses on creating, funding and implementing self-sustaining pro-grams which promote a greater sense of self worth, for youth in rural and impoverished parts of Latin American countries. The program has formed a soccer club and a soccer school in El Salvador, a Christmas toy drive for an extremely poor area of El Salvador and a computer and web design course in El Salvador. We are in the process of creating a girls group focused on helping girls access resources and workshops geared toward improving self image, and a program to support struggling families in Mexico. We hope that our cause will spread and we will be able to fund scholarships, build schools and offer programs for any area that is in need of infrastructure throughout Latin America.

Maryland Quijada Gomez, Acting Latin American Youth Worker


Pool & Fitness CentreStrategic Goal Our goal is to serve the needs of all the people in our diverse community. The focus is on access to all and comfort and respect in the experience.

ExcellenceThe Fitness Centre has always been a leader in access and equipment. This year we added a multi- station machine that provides many options for the patrons. We have received awards from local papers for being friendly, clean, and well-equipped, including one from the Vancouver Courier’s Stars of Vancouver 2010 competition. There was an article in the Province about the affordability of the fitness centre.

The pool is busy as usual. With the opening of Hillcrest, our numbers were initially down, but after everyone tried it out, our numbers began to rise again. Our swim lessons have been well attended due to the renewed focus on customer ser-vice, respect, and professionalism from our supervisors and instructors.

Challenges Staff changes have occurred throughout the year. Mark Kashca received a full time job and Marina Cooke returned from maternity. The Olympics were a challenge with mixed public and staff feelings towards them. We are looking at fixing the air quality with the temperature problems in the fitness center as well.

PartnershipsThere is a new partnership between Cindy Crapper at Park Board and Anne Jackson at the Senior’s Centre. They are joining to initiate some programs in order to reach new clients and to provide incentives for lifestyle changes.

FutureWe are promoting our personal training program. We will be offering a strength training class for seniors. We are looking to fundraise for the purchase of a piece of equipment for the pool to make it a more appealing option as a leisure environ-ment. A scheduled change for the pool is to make the first Friday evening of each month, from 8:00 to 10:00 pm, for youth only swimming.

Thank you for your eternal support. We anticipate another great year.Walter J. Tarrant., Pool and Fitness Centre Acting Programmer


Program Committee ContinuedThe Program Committee has taken on many issues in the past year and is very proud to serve the communities in the Britannia area. One of the issues that the program committee has taken on and has given recommendations to the Britan-nia Board of Management was Britannia’s subsidy policy. It was discovered that the current subsidy policy is effective in allowing people access to subsidies if needed, yet it is not abused at the expense of the Britannia Community Centre.

The Program Committee also listened to other Committees such as the Arena Committee, the Arts and Culture Committee and Pool and Fitness Committee, to name a few, and passed on recommendations to the Board as needed, to ensure that those committees are well represented.

The Program Committee also championed (with the support of Staff and members of the community) accessible pool and arena times. We are currently the only pool and arena that have free swimming and skating sessions and also allow children under 6 to swim/skate for free!!!

The Program Committee has also put forth a Grant Proposal for the first time in Britannia’s history in order for new, cre-ative programming that involves as many different groups as possible to be funded. It has been a busy year and next year we hope to attract more community members so that their input is heard.

Brendan Boylan, Chair of the Program Committee (2010-2011)

The committee set their primary objective this year to meet the identified Strategic goal of reaching out to the younger adult community. This was accomplished by offering programs and services to meet the needs of those who might still be working and are more mobile in their search for leisure activities. The introduction of several language classes, Spanish and French, has more than satisfied this objective. All classes have attracted the identified group of adults and the com-mittee will continue to expand the level of programming. English classes are planned to attract another identified group, those who are English as a second language group.

We are aware that a proportion of adults in the area are on fixed incomes and are asking for workshops, food programs and health care services at little or no cost. The need to raise funds to support such activities has been taken on in part by the Vancouver East Lion’s Club who allow the committee to rent out the space in the evening and at weekends and to use the revenue to benefit those with limited incomes. The 2 contracts with Vancouver Coastal Health are continuing to meet the needs of frail elderly living independently in the community. The Adult Day Centre is full and with a wait list and the Wheels to Meals program is providing healthy, low cost, nutritious, home cooked meals to seniors who are transported to the centre by HandyDart. Food remains a big attraction!

Many thanks to all the committee members and to the Board of Management representative, Ann Daskal, whose expertise has been invaluable. The year 2011 offers many new opportunities to review our programs and services and to expand into new fields. Carolyn Innes, on behalf of the Lion’s Den Recreation Committee

Lion’s Den Seniors Committee


The year began with the excitement of the Winter Olympics and our 55+ Centre being host to the “Community Living Room” events. All ages came to share and celebrate together the spirit of Vancouver, our community and the Olympic Games. The 55+ centre is now the home of the ‘big’ screen television (legacy gift) which has proven to be a wonderful ad-dition not only for the 55+ group but for youth and childcare as well.

We had many staff changes having both Michelle Ziebart and Lisa Patek doing a wonderful job while Anne was filling a temporary position at Barclay Manor. Our long running seniors programs continue to flourish and serve those members 55+ who often see Britannia as their home away from home. We’ve worked closely with many of our onsite partners and coworkers to broaden the involvement of the 55+ population in a wide variety of programs and community events. Arts and Culture workshops and events like Stone Soup, Artful Sundays, Intergenerational Cooking, Britannia Library, the Pool and Fitness areas, Childcare Centers and the Grandview Woodland Food Connection have all been integral in facilitating a sense of belonging amongst our ‘seniors’ within the Britannia family.

It’s been a year of looking to the future with the Master Plan; its multiple workshops attended by our members assure that the 55+ members of today have had an opportunity to contribute in Britannia’s vision for the future. The Britannia Master Plan has inspired us to reflect on what’s really important to the 55+ population both now and in years to come - where and how will they participate and fit into the Britannia community. We are looking at a plan for the future without forgetting our origins and the legacy of Al Mattison. We began as a drop-in centre for the retired citizens in Grandview Woodland because Al Mattison advocated for the retired and elderly to ensure they would always have a safe, friendly, happy meet-ing place for recreational and social activities. We want to hold on to the AML history while growing to meet the future needs of those 55+. We continue to support the long standing programs and services that the Al began in the Mattison Lounge/55+ Centre, while continually looking toward to new, innovative and desired activities like the AHS, Quirk-e LGTB group who have been such an inspiration and asset to our entire community.

We are thankful to Britannia: the Britannia Board of management, staff and our numerous partners who continue to sup-port and challenge us to be the best we can by creating a healthy, exciting, safe space in the community where we can play, learn, be heard and supported as valued members and participants. It’s a new and exciting era for Britannia and the ‘boomers’!

Britannia Seniors/55+ Committee

Al Mattison Lounge Seniors’ 55+ Committee


Vietnamese Seniors

The program provides settlement services, educational and informative workshops about federal and provincial programs for seniors. It also raises the awareness of issues impacting seniors as well as providing valuable information about legal, safety, and support resources available to seniors.

During tax time, I participated in The Community Volunteer Income Tax Program to assist low income seniors and families prepare their income tax returns. I work closely with other seniors workers at Britannia to organize special events and the health clinic.

Our joint programs with The Multicultural Family Centre are growing strong. It continues to promote a healthy lifestyle and wellness for seniors on Fridays at The Canucks Family Education Centre. The programs include: Tai Chi, Line Dancing classes, and Community Kitchen.

The average number of Vietnamese seniors attending every Tuesday program is seventy. The program continues to de-liver:

• Settlement services• Social interaction• Emotional support• Recreational and educational activities• Promotion of good physical and mental health

Luong HoVietnamese Seniors Outreach Worker

Sports & Wellness

Preschool and Children’s Programs• Micro Footie continues to be the largest registered children’s program offered by Britannia with over 800 children aged 4-15yrs participating, and over 100 volunteer coaches leading the 72 team spring soccer league. We are thank-ful for the community support received from Uprising Breads and Fets Bar and Grill who came onboard with sponsorship funding to help Brit kids play soccer.

• The second largest children’s program, the Britannia Gymnastics Program, was cancelled in the Fall 2010 due to lack of available certified instructors and logistical issues around the program. The community parents voiced their disap-pointment through emails, phone messages and at a meeting held in September. The program was reinstated in January 2011, but space and logistical issues continue to be a concern not only for Britannia but other Eastside Community Centre gym programs as well. If you are interested in discussing solutions to Eastside gymnastics issues contact Lori Moretto at 604-718-5824.

• The new Westside Music Together program, introduced to the Eastside, has been a huge success. Our children’s dance, martial arts, baby signing, yoga and Sportball programs continue to fill and keep our community kids active.

Adult Sports and Wellness Programs


Sports & Wellness

Over the past year, adult sport and wellness programs have again been well attended. There have been a number of new programs which have been tried, such as Kettlebell Bootcamp, and 30 minuteMAX bootcamps. Also, we are currently housing the FuseBox program which was running at Trout Lake Community Centre prior to the closure of the site. As with most of the new programs which are offered in community centres, there is slow adherence to programs, but we hope that in 2010 we’ve laid out a strong foundation for a new wave of programming in 2011. In July of 2010 we also saw the implementation of the HST, which resulted in a number of programs seeing their fees rise. This rise did not directly impact the registration for recreation programs and we see minimal difference in registration numbers from 2009 to 2010 for the Summer season.

To highlight some of the programs from 2010:• Sunday Men’s Ball Hockey – This program is one of the only programs which had a full registration every season. This program usually fills ups on the first day of registration via online. Barry runs a quality program which is one of the reasons why it is full every season.

• Zumba Fit – Continually one of our most popular classes. Our instructor Denise Galay is very well known in the Lower Mainland Zumba community. As Zumba within the Lower Mainland expands, we expect to see our attendance maintain if not surpass our average of 25+ individuals per class. With the success in Zumba, we have recently expanded to offer one day ‘Zumba Parties’ where multiple instructors will teach Zumba in a family orientated atmosphere. This first Zumba Party that we ran was moderately successful with minimal advertisement, so we expect our future Zumba Parties to be more popular.

• Saturday Educational Workshops – These workshops were continued on the 2 week per season basis, and have been relatively well received by the local community. There are a lot of individuals who sign up for multiple workshops within our two week period. We plan on opening up an increased variety in workshops for the upcoming year while main-taining our current popular workshops.

Special Events• Lantern Festival - We hosted our 6th Annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival in collaboration with the Secret Lan-tern Society on December 21st. The darkest night of the year and the welcoming of light were celebrated with a beautiful labyrinth of 600 candles which transformed Gym D into a spectacular glowing maze.

• Talented Tails - Also, in July 2010, we hosted a dog talent show held by students from SFU. Talented Tails was a small but successful special event. All proceeds made from the event went to various animal charities. News report can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/49ydrwm

Submitted by Lori Moretto and Nick Fong


Youth & Teen Centre

“Britannia youth programs aim to involve a diverse youth population in creating a safe, supportive and respect-ful community where youth participate in social and recreational activities.” Teen Centre Philosophy

Britannia youth programs continue to offer premium youth services to the youth in the Grandview/Woodlands and Strathcona community. Our programs are accessible, innovative, high caliber, are youth oriented, and have exceptional leadership.

Britannia Community Services Centre is one of the few youth serving organizations with a free standing youth only facility. With age appropriate activities and music (a big part of youth culture), and trained adult role mod-els who work with, understand, and relate to youth, this helps create a welcome atmosphere for youth to ‘hang out’, socialize, play, and seek resources and advice. This supports the Civic Youth Strategy by giving youth a ‘place’ in the city. With hard work by the youth staff there has been a significant increase in the youth access-ing the Teen Centre. Since the start of the school year, we have had close to 150 youth participating through-out the evenings. The facility however, does need significant upgrading, ‘modernization’, giving it a youth ‘feel’ and increased secure storage.

Our programs continue to be extremely busy. Ball hockey, indoor soccer, Feast of Flavors cooking, out trips and movie nights, and our Britannia After School Hockey (BASH) program continue to run at full or near full ca-pacity. We have even started a second BASH program to accommodate youth who’s remarked improvement have made them almost too good for the regular BASH Program. We have linked many of our former BASH participants with Minor Hockey programs, the Vancouver Adult Co-ed Hockey League and Britannia’s Begin-ner Hockey League. The Night Hoops Championships was once again held at Britannia, and will be looking at expanding the event in 2012 to be more inclusive of all teams.This year we have seen an influx of practicum students from Langara College, Sprott Shaw Community Col-lege and Douglas College learning from staff and aiding with our programs. As Youth Workers, our role is to provide opportunities for young people, including young adult student looking to get into the field of Child and youth Care, Social Service Worker or Recreation. The students have brought enthusiasm, a desire to learn, and have offered many great new ideas and feedback!

Our Roving Leader program, in coordination with a practicum student from Langara College, created a new program to teach girls 11-15yrs the benefits of healthy living. The program is designed to introduce different components of heath and fitness by providing education sessions on topics such as nutrition, time manage-ment, drugs and alcohol; and introducing different forms of fitness such as Yoga, Bootcamp, Core Stability and more. Our Roving Leader program works with youth 11-15 years of age, getting them connected to programs and services available in the community. There is a focus on healthy choices, positive peer groups, and get-ting youth connected to positive role models in the community. The Roving Leader also does outreach on Com-mercial Drive and at Broadway Skytrain Station, meeting youth in the community, seeing how they are doing, and getting them involved with positive activities.

Britannia youth staff have partnered with Equitas, an international not for profit organization which provides training and advocacy for Human Rights and the Rights of the Youth, to introduce and implement the “Play it Fair” toolkit to numerous organizations throughout Metro Vancouver. The “Play it Fair” toolkit is a valuable resource that is used to informally teach the values of Children’s Rights through play, projects and targeted discussion. Britannia staff were given the opportunity to pilot the Youth


Youth & Teen Centre Continued

“Speaking Rights” toolkit program in British Columbia. “Speaking Rights” targets targets education and proj-ects about Chidlren and Human Rights to youth 13-18 years. In the Fall of 2010 we took 12 youth to Manning Park to implement the tool kit and receive feedback as too what worked and what didn’t work. We also hosted a “Speaking Rights” camp during Spring Break with a new group of youth and had extremely positive results. During Summer 2011, we will be working with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and Little Mountain Neighbourhood House to host a larger “Diversity and Leadership” camp focusing on the “Speaking Rights” activities and projects.

We continue to engage, empower and inspire youth to improve their selves, experience new things and be the best possible person they can be. We aim to provide them with the skills and tools to succeed. We challenge youth to think outside the box, think about the community and globally, and to be educated decision makers. We challenge youth to be leaders in the community, in their schools, and amongst their peers. We try to instill confi-dence and to make positive choices, not only for themselves, for the community as a whole.

Submitted by: Melissa Calvano, Tom Higashio

The Youth Committee

This year the Youth Committee has been re-invigorated, as it has not been operational in a few years. There are active youth involved in this committee who have taken on a leadership role through their activism and contributions towards bettering Britannia. They have worked tirelessly on events such as the Open House held in September at Britannia Arena where they painted children’s faces, made ice cream, and provided entertain-ment. Then they worked on their very own Coffee House in February, where they had live music, food and spoken word poetry attracting a variety of youth to the Teen Centre. Lastly they have promoted the very first Blood Clinic held at Britannia where they recruited youth to participate and raise awareness of the importance of donating blood. I have been very fortunate to have worked with these youth and I hope more youth join this committee and carry on the momentum they have started.

Brendan Boylan, Chair of the Youth Committee

2010 - 2011 Annual General Report of The Britannia Society · 2011-05-31 · 1661 Na p i e r St r e...

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Transcript of 2010 - 2011 Annual General Report of The Britannia Society · 2011-05-31 · 1661 Na p i e r St r e...