In 1963, there was the registration of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society (VAFCS) as a nonprofit organization subject to the British Columbia Act. The VAFCS was offering quality services and programs to society for more than five decades. Since it chattered, the VAFCS has been moving its location due to growth and development. Furthermore, according to Bluesky (2017), the organization moved its location to provide better services to society. The main aim of the VAFCS is to satisfy the requirements of the urban aboriginal people who are transitioning to urban society. The organization offers initiatives in welfare and health, equality, recreation, education, culture, human rights, and social services for every gender and age of aboriginal people. The center is charitably establishment and prioritizes the values and philosophies of different aboriginal traditions and cultures. For instance, the center assists elders, youths, and children preserve their aboriginal culture via different conventional community activities and programs. The VAFCS endeavors to offer cultural and holistic services to every community member.
The aboriginal people are a special group of people that comprises a small percentage of the community in Vancouver. As a result, they experience different treatment from the majority within the society. To ensure that their rights and needs are protected, one of the core cultural values that VAFCS operates on is dependability. The center’s main goal is to ensure it protects the values, rights, and needs of the aboriginal people. To do so, these individuals need to acknowledge that they have an organization that they can trust and depend on for their daily experiences (Mor et al., 2018). For decades, the VAFCS has been fighting for the rights of the aboriginal people, thereby making their lives easier. Being a dependable organization, the VAFCS has been able to grow due to an increase in members who trust the organization. The other cultural practice value of the organization is integrity, which is an essential factor when it comes to providing such services as ensuring that aboriginal people are treated equally.
VAFCS’s agency logo is shaped as an old artifact utilized by the aboriginal people in the olden days. To ensure that these people can depend on an organization, it is important to depict a sense of belonging. According to Bluesky (2017), when people feel accepted by a certain community, they tend to easily associate with members of such a society. Through the logo, the center demonstrates that it understands the culture of the aboriginal people. Furthermore, the organization shows that it knows the origin of such a community. Thus, through the logo, the organization appreciates their culture and further depicts an interest to preserve the aboriginal people’s history. For this reason, these individuals associate more with the organization resulting in its growth and development.
Aboriginal people experience numerous issues including addiction and other wellness issues. One of the mainstream social approaches the center uses is an art to ensure that the community is well informed. Numerous places have huge paintings containing details concerning the aboriginal people. The pieces of art contain details about the past and the present state of the aboriginal people (Spitz, 2019). Additionally, the organization uses musical performance to appreciate the culture of the aboriginal people. To ensure that these people are protected from drug addiction, they involve these individuals in singing and creating art. As such, they are able to concentrate on important activities that can earn them income, which is useful for their daily livelihood. However, these mainstream approaches pose numerous challenges that make it difficult to help the aboriginal people. One of these challenges is that sometimes these individuals feel excluded when non-natives of the culture express their music and art. In some situations, there are misrepresentations of the people’s way of life, which creates a disconnect between the aboriginal people and other members of society.
As an organization, the VAFCS must include certain cultural considerations in the process of providing products and services to the aboriginal people. One of these cultural considerations is personal experiences, which is an important factor when it comes to incorporating individuals within the society. Research states that each person has their own definition of personal experiences (Green, 2017). As such, when providing services or products to a special group, it is essential to take into account their past. This is significant because it would guide the organization on how to provide excellent services for greater outcomes. The other consideration is that the organization should acknowledge that there are individuals who are unfamiliar with the services being provided by the organization. Thus, it should endeavor to provide enough information to ensure that every individual knows the importance of such an organization.
For the longest time, the aboriginal people have been facing numerous socio-economic and structural issues. According to Greig et al. (2016), in 2015, the average income of aboriginal people was 75% compared to non-aboriginal people. In this case, this is a difference of 25%, which makes life more difficult for aboriginal people compared to non-aboriginals. Furthermore, according to Hudalah et al. (2016), most aboriginal people leave in houses that need repair compared to non-aboriginal people. The VAFCS has undertaken measures to ensure that these aboriginal people are included within the community. The center further provides educational services that inform aboriginal people concerning their rights. Additionally, the organization fights for equal rights for every individual. As such, aboriginal people can now afford to live in well-maintained houses since the VAFCS has put in place measures that ensure that the indigenous people can earn as much as the non-indigenous people. Thus, the organization works from a strength perspective and utilizes its position to influence the whole society.
The organization has incorporated intergenerational and historical trauma-informed awareness in numerous ways. One of the methods the VAFCS uses to achieve these objectives is through finding the root cause and the factors that compound these factors (Isobel et al., 2020). Identifying intergenerational and historical trauma can help in defining and highlighting the elements of these social change issues. For instance, the organization identified issues concerning aboriginal people’s socio-economic and structural issues. To address these factors, the center recognized that these individual’s costs of living were too high. They identified systemic factors and created programs that would ensure that the issues would be resolved. These programs included the indigenous people and as a result, the organization was able to recognize the underlying factors that were affecting these individuals. The significance of this practice is that the organization has been able to close the income and the housing gap that existed between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Canada.
In the process of completing this assignment, I have gained new insight into aboriginal people. I did not understand the reason aboriginal people were a minority since they were the initial owners of the land. However, in the course of the research, I have been able to gain more insight into this special group of people. For instance, I have learned that for a long period of time, aboriginal people have been living in poorly maintained houses. Additionally, I have learned that there exists a gap between the income of an aboriginal person and a non-aboriginal person. Therefore, while working with these people, I will be able to understand that even though they are natives of the land, their experience has been completely different from non-natives. I have also learned that organizations such as the VAFCS are essential within the community. I believe this is true because they are an organization dedicated to informing others concerning oppressed individuals in the community. This is important because these individuals have been able to progress in society. For instance, currently, the aboriginal people have been able to afford well-maintained houses.
The assignment has taught me to consider everyone as equals because it identifies the various needs aboriginals want. While writing this assignment, I did not know that aboriginal people were treated differently. The assignment requires one to find out about aboriginal people and how they became part of society. Additionally, it requires one to discover why such organizations as the VAFCS exist. I have realized that by knowing the history of a certain community and a particular organization, an individual is able to appreciate the need of such people and organizations. Through such elements as an organization’s logo, individuals have been able to identify with the VAFCS and have provided assistance that has been essential to members of the community.
References
Bluesky, K. (2017). Aboriginal health, healing, and wellness in the DTES study. The city of Vancouver. Web.
Green, S. (2017). Aboriginal people and caring within a colonised society. Critical Ethics of Care in Social Work, 139-147. Web.
Greig, Z., Henderson, T., Wiebe, J., & Taylor, M. (2016). Towards an urban aboriginal housing and wellness strategy for Metro Vancouver, 2015-2020. Aboriginal Policy Studies, 6(1), 1-44.
Hudalah, D., Winarso, H., & Woltjer, J. (2016). Gentrifying the peri-urban: Land use conflicts and institutional dynamics at the frontier of an Indonesian metropolis. Urban Studies, 53(3), 593-608.
Isobel, S., McCloughen, A., Goodyear, M., & Foster, K. (2020). Intergenerational trauma and its relationship to mental health care: A qualitative inquiry. Community Mental Health Journal, 57(4), 631-643. Web.
Mor, S., Toma, C., Schweinsberg, M., & Ames, D. (2018). Pathways to intercultural accuracy: Social projection processes and core cultural values. European Journal of Social Psychology, 49(1), 47-62. Web.
Spitz, J. (2019). The teacher-learner relationship: Considerations for social work in the digital age. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 39(4-5), 402-413. Web.