The Pembina Valley Local Immigration Partnership (PVLIP) is tackling part of its new Community Action Plan this summer with a fun challenge to area residents.
PVLIP has launched a Community Activity Checklist and is inviting everyone to have a go at completing it between now and Aug. 31.
“We wanted to help the general public recognize the ways in which they can be welcoming and inclusive to newcomers,” said PVLIP coordinator Elaine Burton Saindon.
Fostering inclusion is priority number one on the group’s new strategic plan. Under this heading, they’re taking steps to help communities address racism, embrace diversity, and promote mutual understanding.
“We have so many opportunities to do that this summer,” Burton Saindon said. “There’s lots of opportunities to check out a variety of cultural events, whether it’s here in the Pembina Valley or in other communities.”
But you don’t have to travel far to complete the checklist—it includes a host of activities that anyone can do to explore new cultures close to home, including things like visiting a restaurant from a culture other than your own, learning more about another culture or religion, watching a foreign language movie, or getting to know someone who was born in another country.
Each checklist item has three boxes to check off indicating whether you completed it on your own, with other people, or have encouraged others to do it.
“One of our goals is mutual understanding, so how do we do that? Well, let’s bring a friend along or let’s share it with somebody,” said Burton Saindon. “Maybe you’re a senior who can’t go out easily, but you could send this information to your grandchildren. There’s lots of layers in which you could help promote these opportunities.”
To further aid people in finding ways to explore the cultural diversity of the region, PVLIP has created a detailed events calendar (pvlip.ca/events/) outlining the multicultural activities happening across southern Manitoba this summer.
“We have tried our best to find as many local cultural events as possible,” Burton Saindon said. “And we also encourage people to submit their events, because with a lot of things it’s word of mouth. Maybe it’s a particular cultural group that has a picnic every year in the park, but nobody knows about it unless they’ve got a friend in that group. And maybe would be invited to that group if they knew about it.”
People are welcome to fill out and submit the checklist multiple times if they’re going through the items in different ways.
“We’ll collect as many responses as possible and then we’ll collect that data and see what kind of a report comes back,” Burton Saindon said. “If somebody learned something new or they were able to make a new friend along the way, we’d love to get that kind of information back so we can share it with the communities.”
To access the checklist, head to tinyurl.com/PVLIPchecklist.
