A local group focused on international cooperation is marking this year’s International Development Week with a new online resource.
Tomorrow, Group 17 is launching its Sustainable Development Goals Toolbox, a resource to help break down making international change into bite-sized activities for people in Terrace.
“None of us are moving the world or have any sort of illusions of grandiose things, but you know what we have each discovered, just making personal commitments [like] to not use plastic bags,” said Saša Loggin, Group 17 steering committee member.
“So really what we are encouraging is people starting small, just making maybe one change and than that one change leads to another change and learning a little bit more.”
The toolbox is in the form of a website and is designed to give people information on the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals as well as local, regional, national and global resources.
“The 17 goals in themselves, when you just kind of look at it as a starting point it is quite overwhelming,” Loggin said.
“So [it’s] really bringing it down to what can I do in my life.”
Loggin said when the group started planning the initiative last year, the idea was to create physical toolboxes that people could sign out, but COVID-19 threw a wrench into those plans and Group 17 had to pivot to an online format.
The local chapter was established in 2019.
“Plastic bags is one thing but throughout the summer this year, there was all the stuff around racism and addressing racism and Indigenous and Black Lives Matter has really become more visible, it feels like the ground is shaking,” said Loggin.
“So what can I do, reflecting on how do we treat people, what do we know about our community, are we embracing diversity, things like that so each goal can be broken down into smaller, more manageable reflection.”
International Development Week was established in 1991, covering the first full week of February to engage Canadians with international issues.
The toolbox launch via Zoom is tomorrow night ( Feb. 11) at 7 p.m. A link to the event will be made available on the group’s Facebook page.
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