Arts & Culture

Reflecting on our incredibly creative and fun year so far with our Cherryville kiddos! Huge shout out to Stephanie Bellows for making a huge difference in our Cherryville community and offering a range of engaging Arts & Culture sessions for our youth.

Explore the Continents (September-October): Discovering art from around the world! Cherryville youth explored traditional folk art techniques from Africa, South America, North America, Australia and more, working on cool multi cultural creations as they learn more about the world around them.

Elements of Art (November-December): Exploring all the elements of art! Line, Shape, Value, Form, Colour & Texture

Recycled City (January-February): Focusing on inspiring and encouraging students to use their imagination and work together with their peers in creating a masterpiece called Recycled City. Touching on the importance of recycling and find opportunities within these sessions to work on self esteem, inter-personal skills and relationship building. Focusing on effort and accomplishments, teaching positive self-talk, encouragement to try new things and setting goals.

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Express YourselfExpress Yourself

Express yourself was a really fun and creative session. The kiddos really enjoyed it. We had many great discussions around the table and lots of laughs as we worked through the process of art and did not focus on the outcome. We used music, dance and skipping to get our body moving and keep our creative juices flowing

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and/or follow us on Facebook for more Arts & Culture sessions! We provide classes for range of Cherryville youth, including teens!

ECHO Presentation – Rural Approach to Compassionate CommunitiesECHO Presentation – Rural Approach to Compassionate Communities

Check out this YouTube video presented by Meghan Derkach, Executive Director at Cherryville Community Food and Resource Society.

(1318) A Rural Approach to the Compassionate Community Model – YouTube

Bio: My name is Meghan Derkach, and I was born and raised in a rural community called Cherryville. I have always been an advocate for social justice and equity since a young age. When I was 18, I was having lunch with a group of older adults who were sharing their frustrations about having to leave the Cherryville community because there weren’t enough resources for them to live independently and I remember feeling absolutely broken hearted about it. That was the moment I realized I wanted to support Cherryville aging and pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work with a Concentration in Aging. I was drawn to the aging-in-place model, community development and looked to age-friendly community literature. However, being rural has its unique challenges and many of the “making an age friendly community” infrastructure wasn’t relatable. Working with older adults I soon came to realize you cannot support aging-in-place without addressing access to health care as they are overlapping systems. I then pursued a Health-Focused Master’s in Social Work through University of Waterloo to better understand the complexity behind health care and how to better support rural aging in place.  During this time, I was volunteering at Cherryville Food Bank and started expanding its reach to include resources and services to all residents. In 2021 I assumed the Executive Director position after strengthening our organizational and financial health and obtaining multiple grants. 2021 we officially changed our name to include resources as we expanded our vision and mission to meet the needs of all rural residents. Fast forward to 2024, we have implemented a range of services and resources to support rural living for youth, low-income families, persons living with disabilities, older adults, and a variety of community engagement events. In early January, we started to focus on Cherryville residents who had complex health conditions and or living with life limiting illness to advocate for better access to health care within community. These conversations led us to BC Centre for Palliative Care Seed Grant as the Compassionate Community model aligned perfectly with our growing vision and mission. I am excited to share a little more about this grant and how it has unfolded in the Cherryville community.