MetroVancouverAlliance
Organizing Metro Vancouver’s
Institutions for the Common
Good
MVA is…
• A broad based alliance of community
groups, labour, faith and educational
institutions working together for the
common good.
• We are non-partisan
• Built around relationships, not issues
• Supported by the dues of our member
organization
Catholic Social Teaching calls us to
• “… unite (our) efforts with those of all men
and women of good will, with the followers
of other religions and with non-believers,
so that this world of ours may effectively
correspond to the divine plan: living as a
family under the Creator’s watchful eye.”
-- (57:136 Caritas in Veritate)
Catholic Social Teaching and
Broad-based organizing
1. People before profit
2. The principle of
gratuitousness
3. Solidarity
4. Preferential option
for the poor
5. Made in the image
of God
1. Common good
2. Strengthening civil
society
3. Stand for the whole
4. Power before
program
5. Development of
leaders
Our challenge
Market
sector
Government
sector
Civil
society
Goals of Metro Vancouver Alliance
• Strengthen key civil society institutions
– Religious
– Labour
– Education
– Community non-profits
• Build power around shared values and
interests
Key elements
• Broad-based - diverse institutions ‘stand
for the whole’
• Relational – building respect and trust
by finding common values and
interests
• Learning through action and negotiation
How do we work?
• Build RELATIONSHIPS through face to
face meetings
• LISTEN to hear our members’ concerns
and agree on issues that can be worked
on together
• Develop and train new LEADERS
• ACT together to serve the community for
the common good
Catholic Matters
• Working with parishes to
build leadership teams
that will revitalize their
own institutions and work
with others in the
community towards social
justice.
• This work has the full
backing of the
Archdiocese and the
support Vancouver
Archdiocese Office of
Service and Justice.
Parishes in MVA
• Downtown Eastside
Parishes
• St. Mary’s
• St. Joseph the Worker
• St. Augustine’s
• Our Lady of Perpetual
Help
Next steps?
• To find out more: go to
www.metvanalliance.org or email
metrovancouveralliance@hotmail.com
• Invite MVA to make a presentation to your
parish
• Sign up for Community Leadership training
MetroVancouverAlliance
MVA’s sister organizations are
campaigning for:
• Living wage
• Migrant rights
• Safer
neighborhoods
• Affordable housing
• Fair lending
• Better education
•
•
•
•
Food security
Green jobs
Sustainable cities
Accessible
transport
• Protection from
home
repossession