The Skeena Diversity Society is getting an annual $7,500 boost from the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network.

In November 2019, the province created the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network. The B.C. government invests over half a million dollars in the project annually.

The society is running an anonymous online survey about racism in the community that will be live for another month. The results from the survey will inform Skeena Diversity about where funding is best spent, and what programs might look like in the future.

“I think this is a new year, it’s a very different time, just with what happened in the states and really Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Lives Matter, so I think what we are going to do is look at the results of the survey,”said Saša Loggin, project director.

“We are getting really good responses, and then sit down and look at some of the areas that we should really focus on, but at the same time we’ll continue doing what we have been doing.”

Current programs include city walks on Tuesdays, where Skeena Diversity takes newcomers to the city on walks to explore places around Terrace, a program which Loggin said has been very successful.

Skeena Diversity matches newcomers with artists. The artist then makes artwork inspired by their partner’s story to be shown online on Sept. 1. It also hosts an online international cooking program.

The Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network uses a ‘hub and spoke’ model, meaning that the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS) acts as a provincial hub overseeing community branches, or ‘spokes’ across the province like the Skeena Diversity Society.

Skeena Diversity was established 20 years ago, responding to the call to address systemic racism. Skeena Diversity offers programming online and is open by appointment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ MORE: Skeena Voices | A heart of diversity

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