Background
The Burnaby Together Coalition was formed as part of the provincial government’s Organizations Against Racism and Hate (OARH) program, which was established in 2001. The program was designed as a community driven initiative and primarily focused on regions outside the Lower Mainland. The intent was to empower communities and organizations to maintain partnerships and develop projects to promote multiculturalism, address racism and build inclusive communities. In 2016, the provincial government expanded the program to urban areas and at this time there are 33 communities involved.
The Burnaby Intercultural Planning Table (BIPT), which is Burnaby’s Local Immigration Partnership, unanimously appointed Burnaby Family Life (BFL) as the lead agency for this initiative. The Burnaby Intercultural Planning Table and Burnaby Community Partners have been working collaboratively since 2007 to make Burnaby a welcoming and inclusive community for all. Organization members attending the meeting on January 5, 2017 agreed to become members of The Burnaby OARH table, now known as Burnaby Together.
In March 2020, through recommendations to redesign the existing Organizing Against Racism and Hate (OARH) program to better support communities in their efforts to fight racism and hate, the Province introduced the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network to deliver coordinated services through a “Hub and Spoke” model.
In July 2020, the Spokes organizations were announced and as one of the Spokes, Burnaby Together continues to lead anti-racism and anti-hate work in the Burnaby community. Spokes have a strong understanding of racism and hate issues in their communities and have a defined course of action at the local or regional level driven by community partnerships.
For more information visit Resilience BC.
The goals of the Burnaby Together table are:
To ensure that the Burnaby community has an increased knowledge and understanding of what comprises racism and hate crimes and have established a supportive and collaborative response.
To ensure Burnaby communities are mobilized to implement racism and hate protocols; and engage community members and community stakeholders in dialogues and consultations by increasing awareness through anti-racism education opportunities.