VCC Nursing Health for All World Cafe

All are welcome to join Vancouver Community College nursing for their yearly Health for All World Cafe: The Collaborative Role of Nurses in Advancing Health Equity to celebrate ways that nurses (and interdisciplinary health and social service providers) can collaborate with health promotion specialists and Indigenous and non-profit-civil society partners in population health promotion to enable health for all.

We are hosting this event hybrid with both in person and online options:

In Person: Broadway Clark campus in our Event B 1 space Health Sciences Building (Building B). Baked goods donated by VCC BSN nursing faculty members.

Zoom: Please RSVP to receive a copy of the program and zoom link

Program schedule:

1230-12:40 Land and Labour Acknowledgement

1245-1:30 Key note speakers

1:30-1:40 Updates on national nursing advocacy work and orientation to World Cafe process.

1:40-3pm World Cafe table dialogues

1:40 to 2pm Dialogue Session 1

2pm to 2:15pm Networking break

2:15 to 2:30pm Dialogue session 2

2:30 to 2:45pm Dialogue session 3

2:30-3:00pm Closing Insights regarding ways the health system can support full scope nursing and inter-disciplinary health and social service practice in collaboration with Indigenous and inter-sectoral NGO-civil society partners in population health promotion/health equity advocacy from World Cafe Tables

Networking Display Table will include:

·     Examples of VCC student population health promotion projects

·     All community partners are welcome to bring brochures and information regarding their health promotion work to share on our Display Table.

·     National nursing advocacy resources to support full scope nursing education and practice (see links regarding suggested pre-readings below)

·     Health Promotion Canada resources to link into national inter-sectoral network working to address the social determinants of health

Introducing guest speakers:

Lorelei Williams is a passionate advocate for Indigenous rights and a dedicated voice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Born in Mission, BC and raised in Vancouver, BC Canada, Lorelei is from Skatin Nations on her mother’s side and Sts’ailes on her father’s side. Driven by her own family’s experiences of loss and resilience, Lorelei has become a prominent figure in the movement for justice and healing. She is known for her tireless work with organizations and committees such as the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Coalition, the Sisterwatch Committee, West Coast Leaf, the National Security Transparency Advisory Group, Sovereign Bodies Institute in California and the National and International Brigades in Mexico.  

Lorelei is the founder of Butterflies in Spirit, a dance group that raises awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through powerful performances. Her advocacy work has taken her around the world, across Canada, the United States, Latin America, and around Europe, more specifically, Graz, Austria, Rome, Italy, Cannes and Paris, France. Lorelei has gone as far as Mexico, Colombia, and Europe to speak at conferences, rallies, and events to shed light on the systemic issues facing Indigenous communities in Canada. 

In addition to her advocacy, Lorelei is a devoted mother to her two children and a loving partner. Through her unwavering determination and compassionate spirit, she continues to inspire positive change and amplify the voices of those who have been silenced.

Dr. Mariana Chilton author of The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know—and Start Again and founder and directer (2004-2024) of Dornsife's Center for Hunger-Free Communities, a community-engaged research and advocacy center focused on developing solutions to hunger and economic insecurity and founder of Witnesses to Hunger, a movement to increase women's participation in the national dialogue on hunger and poverty will join to share insights from her 25 years of research, programming and advocacy to end hunger demonstrating that to solve hunger, we must think way beyond food to incorporate personal, political and spiritual approaches to promote flourishing. This involves looking at the original wounds in North America caused by colonization, genocide and enslavement, and reckoning with hard questions about why we let hunger persist. Through the insights gained from her grassroots community organizing among women facing discrimination and marginalization, it becomes clear that the experience of hunger is rooted in trauma and gender-based violence – violence in our relationships with each other, with the natural world and with ourselves. Chilton’s book helps to re-invigorate our collective commitment to uprooting the causes of poverty and discrimination, and points to a more generative and meaningful world where everyone can be nourished through transformative policy approaches such as universal basic income (UBI), universal health care, prison abolition, and solidarity economies, and discusses the political importance of reparations and rematriation of Indigenous populations.

Bety Tesfay is a staff lawyer at West Coast LEAF. She received her JD/MPP at the University of Calgary. Bety is passionate about racial justice and gender equality. Bety advocates for gender justice through litigation and other law reform tools. If she is not reading or hanging out with friends, you can find Bety rewatching old shows on Netflix. She lives on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) homelands.  

Dialogue Table Presentations:

Dialogue Table A:

Enabling Health Equity through Nursing in Community Health Centres, Mental Health Housing, and Primary Care Clinics Patricia Delos Santos, Lyanne Baylon & Syed Ghafoor Hashimi in collaboration with the BC Health Coalition and community health clinic settings

Culturally Safe and Compassionate Care: Full Scope Nursing in Substance Use, Indigenous Healing, and Low-Barrier Health Services- Kenneth Kasule, Paige Gidney & Suha Park in collaboration with a substance use centre, Evelyn Saller Center and community health clinic settings

Dialogue Table B:

Health for All: The Nuances & Capabilities of Nurses Working to Full Scope Harkiran Hayre, Kimberly Tronrud & Steffi Japitana in collaboration with REACH Community Health Centre's health promotion program and and community health clinic settings

Rooted in Community: Full Scope Nursing Across Public Health, Youth Wellness, and Indigenous Healing Cici Luo, Harneem Gidda & Hunter Sauve in collaboration with Foundry BC and community health settings

Dialogue Table C:

From Clinics to Community: A Full Scope Nursing Journey Through Equity and Outreach Gurkiran Kaur Buttar, Julianne Dulay, Kara Yuen & Tara Sharei in collaboration with the Centre for Family Equity and community health clinic settings

Pets and People: Caring for the Collective Community Audrey Castro, Joo Won An, Mikayla Malabuyoc & Queruben Sarabia Jr in collaboration with McCreary Centre Society and community health clinic settings

Dialogue Table D:

Strengthening Support Systems: Enhancing Peer Support Services, Housing, and Health Care for Individuals Impacted by Mental Health and Substance Use Alexandra Raison & Sabrina Kiani in collaboration with Mission Possible and community health clinic settings

From Caring for People in the Community to Federal Basic Income Policy Advocacy: The Role of Holistic Community Health Nurses Angelina Prasad, Matthew Tugonon & Natalia Byba in collaboration with Basic Income Canada Network, Evelyn Saller Centre and community health clinic settings

Dialogue Table E:

Networking table for community partners

Suggested readings prior to event to enable meaningful dialogue include:

World Health Organization World report on social determinants of health equity, 2025

BC Government Primary Care Review- exploring potential of Community Health Centres

The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity

Nursing Retention Toolkit

Educate Nurses Elevate Care

Building a Healthier Canada, Powered by Nurses: A Policy Roadmap for 2025 and Beyond

Public Health Association's Health focused Green New Deal policy platform

Engagement of Sectors Other than Health in Integrated Health Governance, Policy, and Action by Evelyne de Leeuw

The World Health Organization Commission on Civil Society

For an update Health Promotion Canada's recent renewal work

Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion

Population Health Promotion: An Integrated Model of Population Health and Health Promotion

Suggested videos:

Let's Start a Conversation About Health...and Not Talk About Health Care at All by Public Health Sudbury and Districts

The Ottawa Charter as an effective health promotion framework

Health Promotion and the Ottawa Charter - Creating Healthier Populations

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion @ 35: From Ottawa to Geneva including Dr Evan Adams co-Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Public Health First Nations Health Authority