Dear friends,

October is Community Living Month in BC. It is a time for us to celebrate inclusion and to recognize all of you that work so hard to ensure that the people that you serve have support for independence, learning and opportunities to participate in ourcommunities.

Workers in the community living sector are some of the most dedicated, caring professionals that I have ever worked alongside of. They're committed to making their sector the very best it can be. 

One issue that we must come together to solve is violence in the workplace. Workers in the community living sector are at a particular high risk with many of our members reporting longstanding concerns.

Today, I am proud to share with you our new report, Violence is not part of the job!which are the findings from a dialogue that we held with BCGEU members that work in community living workplaces earlier this year. 

Our forum brought together workers from across the province to talk about their experiences, share their insights and provide recommendations on how we can all work together to build a safer community living sector together.

Violence is not part of the job! is filled with practical recommendations for the government, for our union and for workers as individuals, to address the issue of violence- and can be applied to many workplaces. We are delivering it directly in to the hands of the provincial government and encouraging them to join us in taking action on the recommendations.

At our forum, an artist captured our dialogue in a beautiful graphic with helpful tips on what to do if you're facing violence in your workplace. We'll be sending these posters, magnets, notepads out to all of our area offices and our community living workplaces.

Violence is not part of your, or anyone's job. But together, we can work to prevent and address violence in all its forms and ensure that our workplaces can be a safe place to work and thrive.

I hope you have a wonderful Community Living month and thank you for all of the wonderful work that do for our communities.

In solidarity,

Andrea Duncan
Vice-President, Community Social Services

UWU/MoveUP