Meet the PeerNetBC Team

About Our Team and Process

PeerNetBC team engaged in a collaborative and interactive process to embed our values into not only what we do in community, but also how. Our circles represent mutual support and embracing a participatory and collective descision way of working. Each circle is a facet of the major areas of work we do, and the responsibilities within that area.

Staff and board participated in a multi-faceted visioning process to reimagine our staff structure and organizational practices. PeerNetBC is now actively working within a more consensus-based and collaborative staff structure and organizational processes. This is reflected in various aspects of our organization — from job titles, to collective accountability mechanisms, to work sharing and co-mentorship models of learning.

This important shift in our organizational practice and structure supports our team to engage with our work in a way that makes space for individual interests and goals, meaningful engagement, equitable opportunities, and the deconstruction of workplace culture ‘norms’ that do not support our values. To embody this change, a great degree of transparency, integrity, and trust-growing was required.

Alexa, She/Her 

Communications and Design
Organizational Strategy and Governance

If you rolled fantasy novels and games, a love for online spaces, and fashion — Alexa would pop out. At PeerNetBC, Alexa handles all things internal and external communications. From examining our organizational values, to making all of our documents look pretty, to managing our online presence, Alexa’s ready for it all.

As a designer, Alexa is passionate about narrative and storytelling being powerful tools. Walking in other people’s stories is vital to engaging with community. As a graduate of Simon Fraser University in the School of Interactive Arts & Technology and Communications, her degree influenced her strong values of personal identity and a continual learning of intersectionality and inclusivitity. She hopes to explore and aproach design and communication in a way that keeps that perspective in mind.

Outside of work Alexa is a dutiful “ate” (Tagalog for older sister), a chronic-migraine and occipital neuralgia haver, and animal enthusiast. She is a settler on the stolen and unceded homelands of Halkomelem speaking peoples.

Athena, BSW, She/Her 

Programs and Facilitation
Staff Culture and Care

You can find Athena laughing heartily on Zoom during workshops and expressing her energy and enthusiasm for community partnerships with! Many! Exclamation Points!!! She also enjoys her role challenging typical workplace conventions by applying community care, disability justice and trauma informed practice to the internal team experience.

Other wisdom she brings to her role includes; Fat Liberation work with Fat Panic!, a decade of short and long term support and advocacy in the anti-violence sector and the ongoing experiences of being a parent to two young kiddos.

She holds a BSW from Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, is the chair of Burnaby Pride and is one of the founding families of ARC CommUNITY; an educational enrichment program prioritizing BIPOC experiences, educators and learners.

Athena is a fat, queer, Afro-Caribbean, cisgender woman with invisible disabilities located within the traditional homelands of the hən̓qəmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. She acknowledges that colonization is ongoing on these stolen and unceded lands currently known as Burnaby.

Balqees, She/Her

Programs and Facilitation

Communications

Balqees is a second-generation Somali Muslim settler studying Communications at Simon Fraser University on unceded and ancestral homelands of the wməθ kwəyəm (Musqueam), sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and selílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

She is deeply involved in developing anti-oppressive policies and practices in her communities for a wide range of issues. Her passions lie in Black empowerment, while working in solidarity with disability justice and Indigenous-led movements. Balqees is learning to engage in organizing in a sustainable way, and emphasizes the importance of leaning into Black joy, community care, and mutual aid. In recognition of her national impact, Balqees was awarded “Canada’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch in 2022” (CIBWE).

You can find Balqees riding her longboard or scooter, and exploring live music events. Balqees has an eclectic music taste – from Soca to indie folk – and is usually excited to recommend songs from any genre! Artist recommendations: Kes the Band, Mother Mother, Ayra Starr.

Ben, He/Him

Programs and Facilitation
Staff Culture and Care

Ben is a transnational and transracial, queer and trans mixed adoptee living on the unceded and ancestral homelands of the xwməθ kwəyəm (Musqueam), sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and selílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

Over the last 15 years he has worked with various organizations and groups to center queer, trans and gender diverse experiences, in particular those of BIPOC communities. Ben’s external work at PeerNet mostly revolves around facilitation and consultation with community partners, but also really enjoys the more internal work of co-encouraging/creating staff culture and care.

While working at PeerNetBC he likes to bring lots of questions and meandering ponderings to the team, occasional dad jokes and passion for ice cream and Young Adult fiction. Ben’s main 24/7 responsibilities are co-parenting his toddler where every moment is filled with un/learning!

Lydia, She/They

Staff Culture of Care
Programs and Facilitation
Organizational Strategy and Governance
Operations

Lydia and their family have roots in colonized lands of Hong Kong and was raised and nurtured on the unceded and ancestral homelands of the  wməθ kwəyəm (Musqueam), sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and selílwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.  Lydia continues and is committed to un/learning what it means to be a  racialized settler on these lands.

Recognized for their work in the community by Xtra West twice, first as a Leader of the Future and the second time as one of Vancouver’s Top 30 Under 30, Celebrated BC’s Brightest Queers and and has been nominated twice for the Pride Legacy Awards for creating Safe Spaces in Community and Outstanding Youth Work.Lydia has been involved with community organizing and peer-led education for 20 years working with youth, seniors, people with disabilities, newcomers, refugees, sexually and gender diverse folks.

As a person who lives in intersections of gender, sexuality, race, class and disabilities, Lydia brings their enthusiasm for intersectional community development and experience in community mobilization, engagement with social justice.

Sometimes referring themselves as an asian little soup dumpling, you’ll find this small-fat, non-binary, queer, tender PoC bouncing and rolling around having fun while hoping to make changes in the most delicious ways!

Mari, She/Her

Operations
Programs and Facilitation
Communications

Mari is a white settler, able-bodied, and cis-gendered woman living on stolen xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) homelands.  In her work at PeerNetBC, Mari bounces between operations and finances, and community collaborations and facilitation.

Mari loves working with people to make things happen! Whether creating a truly collaborative budget, organizing a climate justice event, or facilitating a group unpacking their power dynamics to be in better relationship with each other, Mari is there for it.

As someone in her late 20s who has worked with youth for many years, Mari navigates the new privileges of adulthood while continuing to care deeply about young people’s leadership and liberation as well as climate justice, dismantling white supremacy, and collective emotional healing.  In addition to her work at PeerNetBC, Mari can be found swing dancing, playing music, community organizing, geeking out about musical theatre, or eating ice cream 🙂.

Jordyn, They/Them

Organizational Strategy and Governance
Staff Support and Culture

 

Simran, She/Her

Operations
Organizational Strategy and Governance

Simran is a able-bodied, young woman of color and a racialized settler from Ambala, Punjab in Northern India who has been settled on the stolen and occupied Coast Salish territories of the xwməθkwəy əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlílwəta (Tsleil-Waututh) nations since she was 4 years old. She is interested in building her capacity in relation to process-based and & translation work to support folks to do what they do best! At PeerNetBC, she strives to do this in many ways – whether that’s by developing new administrative practices that reflect the team’s values, or co-creating organizational strategies with her team to support the sustainability of PNBC’s work in community.

She is currently enrolled in SFU’s Contemplative Inquiry & Approaches in Education MEd program under the Curriculum and Instruction Division. She is passionate about unlearning and relearning how to show up for frontline communities and looks forward to bringing her lived experiences to the ‘behind-the-scenes’ type of work at PeerNetBC after having been the Youth Community Developer for 4 years. Outside of her role at PeerNetBC, Simran is also the Co-Executive Director of the International Institute for Child Rights & Development. Beyond the many hats she wears, Simran can be found experimenting with new recipes or enjoying a cup of chai outdoors.

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