The release of the final action plan by the Living In Community steering committee on June 4th at the Vancouver Public Library was a huge success. The event was well attended with over 120 people. The diverse guest speaker panel, and the interesting World Cafe group discussions were very successful at creating further opportunities for interesting and lively dialogue between the various participants.

The steering committee believes the recommendations within the action plan reflect the concerns and ideas that came from the extensive community consultation process they conducted with communities around Vancouver, including the Collingwood BIA, Collingwood Community Policing Centre and the Collingwood Neighbourhood House, and have the potential to dramatically influence the health and safety of all.

The messages that echoed throughout the consultation process demonstrated that the status quo is not acceptable, and that action is urgently needed to increase health and safety for sex workers, residents, businesses, and the entire community and to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and youth.

The steering committee of Living in Community will be working through the fall to put in place the implementation phase of the project.

For more information on the Living in Community project please go to www.livingincommunity.ca.  You can also review the Community Helath & Safety Toolkit at www.livingincommunity.ca/toolkit.