Intersections: A Campaign About People

Intersections: A Campaign About People is an advocacy campaign with an invitation for Metro Vancouver residents to connect with their neighbours’ stories of strength and resilience in facing the intersecting challenges of poverty, homelessness, and addiction. Intersections is part of Metro Vancouver’s Homelessness Action Week (HAW), which officially runs from October 9-16, 2022. Intersections challenges voters to take action to end homelessness, during the municipal elections on October 15, 2022.

“Intersections” aims to explore the points where people’s unique stories intersect, highlighting the ‘threads’ of commonality that people share with one another - even when we think we may not have anything in common. There’s more that connects us than the differences that we think separate us from each other.

Additionally, Intersections aims to examine the intersectional identities that many of our community members have - and how the intersectionality in their lives may have created additional barriers and roadblocks in their lives. At UGM, we so often see how a person faces systemic difficulties and even discrimination as a result of their race, class, gender identity and more. The increased struggle of each unique person is reflected in the stories we are sharing, and we are hopeful that it shines a light on how we, as a society, can work together to better address inequity.

Intersections was developed by UGM and individuals from Metro Vancouver with lived experience of homelessness, who are eager to help create a positive change.

Various local businesses, service providers, and churches have agreed to help ‘house’ our QR codes that lead people to the Intersections landing page, from late September until October 22nd.

You’re right - homelessness is a huge issue. More people are becoming homeless in BC than we are able to keep up with for a variety of reasons: job loss, increased inflation, intergenerational trauma, transgenerational poverty. It can be very easy to feel like homelessness isn’t something that each of us folks can help combat. That’s why sharing stories from people like Grace, Maria and John, is so important.

Every single person who is experiencing homelessness, has a unique set of circumstances that brought them there - and the reality is, that only unique solutions will help lift folks out of homelessness. As their neighbours, each of us has an opportunity to act and vote compassionately; if we push for the systems to change, then hopefully lives will change as well.

John and Grace offered to share their stories after hearing about the opportunity through UGM’s recovery counsellors and outreach workers, at our various UGM locations across Metro Vancouver. Each of them is from a different area of Metro Vancouver, with very different life experiences. We are all hopeful that as you read each of their stories, you’ll see the areas in which they are on unique journeys, while also recognizing where their stories may have similarities. Each individual shared how excited they were to be a part of this opportunity, and they were compensated equitably for their time.

Homelessness doesn’t recognize city limits. In each municipality in Metro Vancouver, we know that more and more people are becoming, or are worried about becoming, homeless. We’ve met many individuals in many municipalities in Metro Vancouver that have rich stories and experiences to share about living in their specific city, and we wish we could share everyone’s story! For logistical reasons, we were only able to provide a ‘snapshot’ of what homelessness can look like in our cities.

UGM is non-partisan. We will not be promoting one candidate over another. While we recognize that the issues we are highlighting are political, our organization will remain strictly non-partisan by focusing on the issues. We are highlighting the intersectional crises that face people struggling with homelessness, poverty and addiction. We are not promoting one candidate or party over another – we are engaging in a public awareness campaign, inviting voters into a people-focused campaign about homelessness, poverty and addiction.

We have registered as a third-party advertising sponsor on the advice of Elections BC due to the high volume of candidates, and the importance of the issues of poverty, homelessness, and addiction. It’s also a way to ensure that anyone who sees our QR codes or information has the information they need to contact UGM’s Community Engagement Team to receive further clarification that we are not supporting one candidate or party over another – we are highlighting important issues many voters are facing in many different communities around Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

As a registered third-party advertiser, there are certain stipulations that UGM must adhere to so that we remain in compliance with the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act (LECFA):

• Third party sponsor activities must not be conducted on behalf of or together with a candidate or elector organization.
• Advertising conducted by third party sponsors must include sponsorship information as specified by section 44 of LECFA.
• For example, our sponsorship statement is as follows: Authorized by Union Gospel Mission, Registered Sponsor Under LECFA, 601-215-5445 ext. 487

Your best resource to learn about the candidates in your city is visit Civic Info BC [https://localelections.ca/candidates] to find their names and research their platforms on poverty, homelessness, and addiction in your city.