Surrey LIP Blog: Our Latest Project. Short Films That Hit Home.

Stories of Impact: Celebrating Newcomer Resilience in Surrey

Creating and Capturing Stories to Inspire

Surrey is home to a multitude of immigrant stories—tales of hope, loss, success, and transition, encompassing every dimension of the immigrant experience. With our new video series, “Stories of Impact: Celebrating Newcomer Resilience in Surrey”, the Surrey Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) set out to create, capture, and celebrate the diverse and vibrant stories of newcomer immigrants in Surrey, B.C. This project delves into the personal journeys of individuals who have overcome adversity to build fulfilling lives in their new community. By showcasing examples of resilience and success, the Surrey LIP aims to inspire and support other immigrants facing similar challenges.

Our Objectives

• Capture and celebrate the stories of immigrants in Surrey, highlighting their resilience and community integration.
• Inspire and encourage immigrants facing challenges by showcasing positive examples of successful integration and personal growth.
• Celebrate Surrey as an attractive destination for newcomers by demonstrating its opportunities and welcoming community.

Our Journey to Bring These Stories to Life

We connected with several Surrey immigrants and recruited five volunteer storytellers. Working with Georgia Street Media, we produced a series of films, which you can now find on Vimeo or our website. We believe you will find these stories compelling. Some are inspiring, some are sobering, but all are very real.

All Hit Home. Some Hit Hard.

Moqadas is a journalist who fled Afghanistan ahead of the Taliban. She regards Canada as her safe haven and feels a deep responsibility to work for the people.

Erika was a teacher in Colombia who received a cancer diagnosis soon after her arrival. This led to a profound understanding of not just life in a new country but life itself.

Tayo and his wife started a family soon after their arrival. It was tough, he admits, but the overall experience has been positive, providing a potential way to build a new community.

Rashi is a professional who experienced the all-too-familiar stress of trying to find appropriate employment. Her message is to be hopeful and determined—it’s just a matter of time.

Daniel’s story involves long hours, filthy housing, and a supervisor who threatened to report him to the authorities. His experience includes the harrowing reality of people smuggling.

Celebrating Diversity and Resilience

Their stories, despite their struggles and challenges, celebrate Surrey’s diversity and its rich cultural tapestry. They showcase the resilience that newcomers bring to our community, their responses to the opportunities it holds, and the opportunities they create for the community. Ultimately, we hope that their stories engender a sense, and even more – a belief in the value of creating a sense of belonging for all of Surrey’s residents.

Finding common ground.

Although each story is unique and vividly depicts the varied paths of immigrants to Surrey and their experiences, they share one commonality: three of the five video subjects completed the Library Champions Project with Surrey Libraries and the two others were referred through community settlement services. This was intentional. In planning the videos, we aimed to produce a series of short films that would be easier to create and more engaging if we featured individuals who had honed their presentation skills. The Library Champions program, which has operated for over a decade in Surrey, focuses on building communication and presentation skills while helping newcomers understand the valuable services and resources that libraries and the community offer. It also seems to produce some accomplished storytellers.

We didn’t do this alone.

Our sincere appreciation goes out to our production partners Georgia Street Media, Surrey Libraries, the Library Champions project, and especially to their staff and supporters of this project. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to our volunteer storytellers: Daniel, Rashi, Moqadas, Erika, and Tayo, who stepped up because they believed their stories would be meaningful to others. We invite you to become part of this audience and experience the impactful stories they have to share.

Join us for the screening of our newcomer storytelling project!

If you would like to see the unveiling of these videos firsthand, please register and join us for their first community screening! To register, please RSVP to surreylip@dcrs.ca.

Where: Surrey Libraries – City Centre Branch 10350 University Drive, Surrey, B.C.
When: Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 4:00 pm

Author: SurreyLIP