WATCH

Dennis, a writer, poet and storyteller who has experienced intermittent homelessness throughout his lifetime sat down with us to discuss his process coming out and speaking publicly to his experience on the street. Transformation, empowerment and the ability to have a choice in life all underlie a complex, candid and hopeful discussion with a man who has overcome homelessness.

A mini-documentary profiling Shea Smith, a resident at Beacon Hill Park. Shea, a recognized leader and representative of the homeless community in Victoria, spoke to us about how he landed at Beacon Hill, his personal and community experience during the COVID era and the challenges and opportunities he sees for housing the homeless community.

Mayor Lisa Helps has been serving the City of Victoria in her current role since November 15th, 2014. This Wednesday, she joins us to talk about policies and processes in municipal government, and examine the relationship between public spaces and personhood.

David Arthur Johnston became a recognized figure across communities during the 2008 Right to Sleep campaign that saw his arrest and eventual trial lead to a landmark ruling allowing people to sleep in tents in public parks overnight.

Kay Martin, a peer support worker downtown, shares her experience of the impact of COVID in homeless communities, temporary housing solutions, and possible next steps.

We speak with Melissa Barnhard, an indigenous peer support worker and survivor of the foster care system who has started sharing her story across the city with a peer-led initiative called Face to Face with Stigma.
Her experiences have her an acute awareness of the impacts intergenerational trauma has had on her community and seen her jump into an advocacy and support role.

Kay Martin, Peer Support Worker with the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness and co-lead on the Face-to-Face with Stigma program breaking down stigma in institutions of power, sits down to talk to us about her story and what needs to change in our community to better support those battling addiction and homelessness.

Today we speak with Mike Woestenburg about his experience traversing the medical system and social stigma with an unnamed disability for years. He talks about the journey this took him through, finally naming his condition, “Conversion Disorder”, and discovering the community built from others experiencing the isolation of CD. Take a listen!

The day Ewan said yes, everything changed. His first experience with drugs and alcohol brought a sense of belonging and energy to his life that he would spend 10 years chasing. At 23 years old, he thought surviving to 25 would be an accomplishment.

Toni saw snow fall in Ontario because bombs fell in Kuwait. Two weeks after he was born Iraq invaded his home country, causing his family to flee until they ultimately arrived in Canada. It would be years before he fully understood the effect that trauma had on his family, and how ultimately healing without the support of others caused damage too. Now a resident of Victoria, listen to his interview to hear him describe the importance of community, and how having an open mind changed his life.

At the end of the day, it’s all about giving back. As a child, Rob lost a parent and the economic fallout forced his family to give him up. For someone so young, this was a lot to handle, and years later he would realize that he was dealing with trauma he had never recognized.

Languages can sleep. When Tiffany was born, only twelve people were known to speak her mother tongue – Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim. She would grow up to be a keeper of that language, and a dedicated language and cultural revivalist of the W̱SÁNEĆ people.

When Stacey was six years old, he experienced a deep sadness for the first time. As he navigated the world, depression punctuated his story, woven into chapters about bullying, sexual assault and feelings of isolation that didn’t match the veneer of normal that defined his life to others.

It would have made a great sitcom plot. But for Dar, it was her real life and it required a sense of humour and resiliency. Gunfire in the courtyard, friends pulling punches and characters straight out of crime novels set the stage for an adrenaline-fuelled story that culminated, in some ways, with the tragic end of the life of the man she loved. That’s not the whole story though.

New versions of old habits took a toll on Michelle. As her world fell away, nothing truly changed until her perspective on who she was and the help she needed changed too.

Bankruptcy, health scares and the end of a marriage punctuated “12 months of hell.” That wasn’t the end of Judith’s story though, as life threw more challenges in her path before she found herself exactly where she was meant to be. Ever wonder how “bad things that happen to you can sometimes be the best things that happen to you?”.