Our Community Priorities:
Secure Vulnerable Communities
Prior to October 7, 2023, Metro Vancouver Jewish institutions spent less than $10,000 per month on security—today, we spend more than $200,000 per month.
Increased security costs divert desperately needed resources from providing healthy meals at the Jewish Food Bank, keeping rents affordable at community housing sites, subsidizing a Jewish education for children from low-income families, and helping seniors, including Holocaust survivors, live a dignified retirement.
Recommendations:
- Expand eligibility and increase the amount organizations can access through the anti-hate stream of the Civil Forfeiture Grant Program to ensure all communities targeted by hate do not bear the burden of protecting their members.
- Expand safe access protections beyond schools and places of worship to protect other vulnerable community infrastructure.
Questions for candidates:
- Organizations representing communities targeted by hate can access $10,000 to enhance security or repair damaged property through the anti-hate stream of the Civil Forfeiture Grant Program. Do you support expanding this amount to $40,000 to match other streams of the program?
- Some Jewish organizations are unable to receive anti-hate funding. How would you expand programs to ensure that all organizations are able to equitably access supports
- Jewish institutions accessed by children, families, seniors, and vulnerable persons remain at-risk. Do you support expanding safe access protections beyond schools and places of worship?