Abbotsford is the 3rd most ethnically diverse municipality in Canada next to Toronto and Vancouver. The City is home to 58 different ethnic and culturally diverse groups with 13.7% of Abbotsford residents speak Punjabi. 

With the challenge of diversified demographics, the City of Abbotsford is taking a leadership role in championing diversity and reflecting diversity and inclusion in various aspect of municipal governance and through Abbotsford Building Connections Project, increasing interfaith and intercultural connections to build an integrated community.

Click this fact sheet: Diversity Profile Fact Sheet

Whether its disability or general health care, this problem pervades: inadequate awareness.   

The main issue involved with culture and disability is that many individuals especially from ethno-cultural communities are not aware of the programs available for those with disabilities as in those in need of general health services.

A recent forum at Abbotsford Community Services was held to discuss this particular issue within the Indo Canadian community of Abbotsford. It has revealed that members of the Indo-Canadian community with disabilities do not access community disability programs early enough. The reason for such is the inadequate awareness of disability programs and services within the Indo-Canadian community. Being an interdependent family model, the family members rely on kinship ties rather than use outside support systems such as community services programs.

Like in many cities where there is a developed immigrant community, immigrants find it difficult to access health services and programs due to lack of information, and barriers to access such as language, culture, negative beliefs and attitudes about western medical approach,  difficulty in navigating health care system, among others. Recently, news about immigrants having difficulty accessing family doctors compared with Canadian-born population has come up.

This also brought the issue of providing culturally sensitive care to ethno-cultural communities by many health care facilities. Most health care professionals are not aware of how to treat individuals within healthcare settings with respect according to their beliefs, customs, and culture.

 Since Abbotsford strives to be sensitive to diverse cultures, a recent seminar held for Fraser Health Workers with Khalsa Diwan Society  in Abbotsford gave an in depth introduction to Sikh customs, beliefs and culture, as well as gave specific instructions how to be culturally sensitive in prenatal and end-of-life care.

Community health providers, government agencies, religious and cultural groups and associations, and municipalities can join hands to encourage more resources and information to reach out to ethnic communities that are culturally appropriate and encourage ethnic communities to seek support from local health and social services.

For more information about ethno-cultural communities and health, please visit Health Canada’s website or click this link: 

 http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/jfy-spv/immigrants-eng.php#d

For diversity health programs, visit AMSSA’s website:

http://www.amssa.org/programs/multicultural-health

The media is a powerful partner in community development. Here are ten ways to expand & reflect diversity in the media that encourages intercultural/interfaith expression and connections critical to engaging the community towards eradicating hate, racism, and discrimination. Tips for media owners, practitioners, students and everyday folks alike-because media is US.

1. Encourage  multilingual coverage in mainstream broadsheet, specifically with Punjabi as second language spoken in Abbotsford.  Encourage ethnic media to expand coverage by creating partnerships with broader print & broadcast media so that mainstream population is reached.

2. Create awareness to stop stereotypes and racialization based on culture, religion, manner of clothing, language, and country of origin of ethnic/ visible minorities in reporting, advertising, and entertainment.  Create watchdogs in schools that monitor how local media fares.

3. Ask publishers and media owners to invest in staff/journalists/writers that are diverse, innovative, and reflects the growing communities of Abbotsford. The newsmakers should reflect diversity and bear diverse points of views and opinions.

4. Ask local media outlest to feature positive stories, news, and articles about ethnic/visible minorities. Increase campaign against the spread of misconceptions about new immigrants and temporary workers and the negative valuation of people of color and aboriginal people.

5. Encourage immigrants/newcomers to write more opinions in the Editorials in their own languages (or translated text) to express their points of view. Support immigrants to be more politically engaged and vocal about issues that matter them.

6. Encourage representation of diverse spiritual/religious views in print and broadcast media. Abbotsford is home to religious diversity that shapes who we are as a community.

7. Support multicultural & anti-racism and discrimination campaigns and activities through more sponsorship and advertising opportunities at media outlets for general public.

8. Encourage journalists to form an alliance and work collectively to promote diversity & inclusion in the community and neigboring cities.

9. Encourage media professional and anti-racism activists to monitor social networking sites and boycott any sites that promote/encourage hate, racism and bullying in these platforms and recruit young people to extremists groups. Report to local police for cyber bullying and other forms of violence and discrimination.

10. Promote positive use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking engines for social causes where young people are not seen as victims/subjects but as agents for change in their community.

There are more to this issue that meets the eye. For more information about media & racism, please visit http://www.stopracism.ca/content/racism-and-media