Click here to register for the 2020 BWSS AGM!

When: Thursday, October 22, 2020, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Where: Zoom

This event is free of charge and open to members and non-members, we ask that non-members please register by 5 PM Tuesday, October 22 by emailing communityengagement@bwss.org.

Once you’ve registered, you can expect us to send you a confidential meeting link via the email you’ve provided at registration.

BWSS AGM Agenda

• Welcome and Land Acknowledgement
• Call to Order
• Panel

BWSS Board of Directors

• Cecilia Point
• Jennifer Johnstone
• Jennifer Mackie
• Dawn Johnson
• Niki Sharma

Do you have any accessibility requests/needs? If so, please email communityengagement@bwss.org and we will do our best to fulfill all requests.

While only current BWSS Society Members are eligible to vote at the AGM, a donation of any amount qualifies you to become a Society Member. Please email communityengagement@bwss.org to confirm your membership status and/or to become a member by 5 PM on October 20, 2020.

Panelists:

Summer-Rain, Manager, Indigenous Women’s Program 

Summer-Rain, or traditional name white wolf women, is from the Gitxsan nation from the raven house and the raven clan. She is also Coast Salish from the Squamish Nation. These beautiful lands and territories she works, plays, and lives on every day are her homelands. Currently, Summer-Rain is the Manager of the Indigenous Women’s Program at Battered Women Support Services and a Legal Advocate. She has dedicated her life and work on the front lines, in the DTES, or in grassroots anti-violence organizations working to end violence against women and girls with a particular focus on Indigenous Women and Girls for the past 17 years. Currently, she is the chair of the DTES Women’s Center board of directors and recently joined the West Coast Leaf Indigenous advisory committee.  Summer-Rain lives and breathes every day as a strong Indigenous warrior on our front lines.

Mayra Albuquerque, Legal Advocate 

Mayra emigrated from Peru in 2015 where she was a Corporate and Civil Litigation Lawyer for 5 years. In 2017, she joined the Violence Prevention & Intervention Training at Battered Women’s Support Services and was part of the crisis line & intake services where she provided emotional support and safety planning for survivors of violence and give legal information and resources regarding Family, Immigration, and Criminal Law matters. She provided this support and legal information, from a decolonizing and intersectional feminist analysis of violence against women. Mayra will be starting the Master in Common Law at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Mayra currently works as a Family and Immigration Legal Advocate at BWSS where she helps survivors of violence with their family law matters such as child support, spousal support, divorce, protection order, parenting arrangements, etc. She also helps women with their applications for Refugee or Humanitarian and Compassionate claims. Mayra provides services in both English and Spanish.

Theresa Thomas, Women’s Counsellor 

Theresa is committed to helping people achieve freedom from systemic and societal oppression in every capacity. Since moving to Vancouver in 2012 Theresa has been focused on learning the origins and impacts of trauma. Theresa’s therapeutic focus is on trauma intervention, freedom from abuse, substance misuse, and achieving empowerment using largely narrative therapeutic techniques. Theresa has an MCP in Counselling Psychology and is currently an STV counsellor at Battered Women’s Support Services, and coordinates the BWSS Black Women’s Program. Theresa was born and raised in Houston, Texas.

Rosa Elena Arteaga, Manager, Direct Services and Clinical Practice

Rosa Elena Arteaga has been working in the anti-violence field for over twenty years delivering workshops on violence against self-identified girls and women and providing training to service providers at the national and international level. In her role as Manager of Direct Services and Clinical Practice, she oversees a number of programs within BWSS. Since 2008, Rosa Elena has researched and addressed the issue of battered women being wrongfully arrested and has been successful with a number of police complaints. Rosa Elena holds a Master’s degree in Narrative Therapy and Community Work and she works from a decolonizing, feminist, anti-oppression, practice.