Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 8:30 AM – 6:30 PM (PT)

Location: WorkSpace 400-21 Water Street (Gastown)

What is it: A one-day (un)conference about social media and mental health.

Vancouver’s first Mental Health Camp is happening on April 25th, 2009 from 9am to 6pm at WorkSpace in Gastown. This unconference locates itself at the intersection of social media and mental health, with an emphasis on how blogging can help remove the stigma of mental illness.

Mental Health Camp started as a follow up to the wonderful Northern Voice ’09 panel “Coping Digitally: Breaking Stigma and Healing Mental Illness Through Blogging and other Social Medi” where Tod, Airdrie and Isabella shared their story.

The unconference now has a dedicated website : http://www.mentalhealthcamp.org

We hope that Mental Health Camp will provide participants with a safe and comfortable environment to share ideas and discuss ways in which the Internet, blogging and social media can help bring issues of mental health to the forefront to be talked about respectfully and in a collaborative fashion, and to help break down the stigma associated with mental health.

On Friday, June 19th, the West Vancouver Memorial Library Foundation is hosting the 13th Annual Mallet Masters Croquet Tournament.

The Mallet Masters is an outdoor, white glove affair at the beautiful Ambleside Greens Golf Course.  This year’s theme is: “Hampton’s White Party” and the MC will be Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones.   Over 300 guests come out for an entertaining afternoon of croquet and socializing at this spectacular venue followed by a champagne cocktail party and white glove dinner service. The tournament has sold-out every year of its twelve-year history and is one of the most popular events in West Vancouver.

All proceeds from the tournament will go towards the West Vancouver Memorial Library. This much-loved institution is hands down the most popular and well-used public facility in the city with over 523 Youth Programs and 426 Adult programs hosted last year. Almost 520,000 visitors walked through the front doors and 1 million items were circulated. For a community with only 60,000 citizens (including Lion’s Bay and the surrounding area), these are impressive statistics.

For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Dunbar, Tournament Coordinator foundation@westvanlibrary.ca
Phone:  604-925-7425  Fax: 604-925-5933

When:   Saturday, April 25th from 9:00 to 4:00

Where:  West Vancouver Memorial Library (lower floor)

1950 Marine Drive , West Vancouver

To bring the community’s realities into focus, a vision needs to be articulated

and goals need to be set. Throughout 2009, the District of West Vancouver

will be developing a community-based Strategic Plan.

The Open Space Dialogue revolves around a discussion about the

following questions:

• What inspires you to make West Vancouver home?

• What is unique about our past?

• What are the issues of today we need to face?

• What should West Vancouver be in the future?

Participants will imagine what the future West Vancouver should look

like, and define how to get there. West Vancouver is a community with

high aspirations, yet we are challenged by an economy in recession.

We have worked together to construct the Official Community Plan,

and benefited from citizens volunteering their time and expertise to

Working Groups. We have an abundance of potential initiatives,

but limited resources to execute them.

We all value the social and environmental qualities that make West

Vancouver unique.

Please RSVP, lunch will be provided

Email strategicplan@westvancouver.ca or call Brent Leigh at 604-925-7003

For more information visit westvancouver.ca/strategicplan

Inspector Sullivan joined the West Vancouver Police Department  in 2007 as the Inspector in charge of the new Administration Division after serving 17 ½ years with Vancouver Police Department.   Prior to her policing career, she practiced law for 4 years with Shrum, Liddle and Hebenton (now McCarthy Tetrault).

Inspector Sullivan was an extremely engaging and interesting speaker who clearly loves what she does.

What a great potential replacement for the departing Chief Constable Kash Heed …

Help Create a Culture of Prevention in VancouverThe City of Vancouver’s Drug Policy Program (DPP) invites you to set aside March 25th for a day-long event focusing on prevention of harm from substance use.

The DPP is working with a broad-based coalition to initiate a movement towards creating a culture of prevention in Vancouver. The group is planning a day-long launch of this process on March 25th.

The event will provide a platform to profile current prevention work in the community, facilitate discussion on current critical issues in prevention and offer a forum for dissemination of recent research and findings. The aim is to build public awareness and support for prevention in Vancouver.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson will open the March 25 event, followed by presentations from various leaders in the field of prevention. Confirmed presenters include:

• • Dr. Anthony Hutchinson, CEO of the Brampton Neighbourhood Resource Centre in Ontario
  • Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia
  • Chris Kelly, Superintendent, Vancouver Board of Education
  • Chelsea, a youth presenter
  • Dr. Gabor Maté, staff physician at the Portland Hotel in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The event will be held at the Segal Centre in downtown Vancouver.

Current partners in this initiative include the Centre for Addictions Research BC, the City of Vancouver’s Social Policy department and Drug Policy Program, the School Aged Children and Youth Substance Use Prevention Program (SACY), the University of British Columbia, the Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA), Vancouver Coastal Health, the Vancouver Police Department, the Vancouver Board of Education and Watari Research Association.

For more information, please contact Zarina Mulla, Drug Policy Program, 604-871-6481, e-mail zarina.mulla@vancouver.ca.