Versatile Vancouver

Vancouver is indeed versatile;a vibrant city, with expansive countryside nearby, in addition to mountain peaks and sandy beaches.This seems to be reflected in the people, who are probably more laid back and flexible than anywhere else that I have visited.

In turn, this atmosphere has been echoed in the services and people that I have met.

This is Aaron Johannes and Barb Goode, with whom I got to spend an inspiring morning. I listened in awe to Barb’s remarkable story of  leadership in the advocacy movement. Barb was one of the key people involved in the ‘Eve Case’, which people in the UK may not be familiar with, but we are very  familiar with the issues that it raised.

Barb and her friends were national leaders in the Canadian self advocacy movement in the 1980’s. They heard about the case of ‘Eve’, whose mother wanted her to be sterilised, to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. Barb explained that she thought this was unfair and that Eve should be able to make her own decisions. She managed to get the Canadian Association for Community Living and lawyers to represent this view to the Supreme Court, who ruled that people cannot be sterilized without their consent, unless there is a good medical reason for this to happen. You can read more about this amazing achievement at https://cic.arts.ubc.ca/resources/the-eve-decision-1986/4641-2/I
I was thrilled to be given a copy of the book outlining Barb’s life story, which has continued to be about activism and disability rights.Given the enormity of everything that she has done in her life, Barb was modest and unpretentious, with a thoughtful, considered approach to my questions. I’m sure she got fed up of my response being ‘wow’ to most of what she said.

Whilst Aaron is also an inspiring researcher, academic, educator,deep thinker, plan facilitator and artist, he will not mind me saying that he was over shadowed by Barb’s natural charm and positivity.  See https://imagineacircle.com/ for details of the fantastic work that Aaron is doing now.

The hand of friendship and warmth was further extended to me when Linh Pham from Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion invited me to an evening get together to meet her Community Connector colleagues.It was great to talk to this young, dynamic, cosmopolitan group (including someone from Cambridge)  who are using asset based approaches to connect people to activities in their local communities, in order to forge sustainable, meaningful relationships.They also support Let’s get Real, which is a ‘community of people with diverse-abilities who meet on a monthly basis to make new friends, explore relationships, and have fun! I am attending the group advertised below on Wednesday and really looking forward to seeing how it compares to the many social events that I have helped to organise over the years.

I’ll be back soon, with more vibes from Vancouver………