The Reach has received $5,000 in funding from the Telus Vancouver Community Board to support a new heritage initiative, We All Have a Story To Tell.
“The Telus funding allows us to spend meaningful personal time with our community trailblazers, including many immigrants, so we can preserve their stories for future generations who in turn develop a better understanding of what has and will continue to shape their community and their lives,” said Kris Foulds, collections manager at The Reach, and co-ordinator of We All Have A Story To Tell.
The initiative has also provided opportunities for recent university graduates, currently employed by The Reach. David Seymour and Alisha Deddens have interviewed more than a dozen immigrants who hail from North to South Africa, Asia, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Middle East, Eastern Europe. The students have learned interview methodologies while continuing to collect the important histories, including challenges and successes, of those who have and continue to shape our community.
The Reach will bring excerpts of these stories to life through online social media and through quality DVD recordings to deliver into classrooms and at public events, while simultaneously maintaining a written and digital stories history in its community archives for public access.
Also part of the project was the We All Have A Story To Tell play, which ran April 23 and 24.
Since their inception in 2005, Telus Community Boards have contributed over $47.1 million to both national and grassroots charitable organizations and supported more than 3,715 community projects geared to youth with the mandate of helping to drive better social outcomes in local communities across Canada.
In addition to the Telus funding, the Chris Spencer Foundation (Vancouver) provided grant support for the project. To learn more visit The Reach at 32388 Veterans Way or online at www.thereach.ca.