Each year, Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society recognizes extraordinary members of the community who have gone above and beyond to create positive change and support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Surrey. This year, we are thrilled to be honouring two special recipients: Cody Jacques, and the Grade 6/7 students from Kirkbride Elementary School.
VIDEO: Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society’s 2021 Community Leaders – YouTube
Cody Jacques
Cody Jacques has been involved with supporting Surrey’s youth in and from care since the time he was a youth himself. Cody was dedicated to the Surrey Poverty Reduction Coalition’s Connecting Community to Surrey Youth Leaving Care project from 2016-2020 and provided his valuable knowledge, perspective, and experience to the many impactful initiatives of the project that supported Surrey’s youth with experience in the government care system. Cody made the transition from a youth participant to a major member of the project team. He was part of the Planning Committee, most Working Groups, and he facilitated the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) meetings, ensuring other YAC members had the support they needed to attend and participate. During his work, Cody completed a bachelor’s degree in Child and Youth Care and is currently employed with the Ministry of Child and Family Development. Cody is currently working on applying for a master’s degree which he will pursue in 2022. He continues to be a kind, understanding and committed mentor for Surrey’s youth and a shining example of what it means to be an SHHS Community Leader. SHHS would like to thank Cody for the positive impact he continues to make on the lives of Surrey’s youth.
Students at Kirkbride Elementary
Canada SCORES is a nonprofit organization that supports youth through afterschool programs. The grade 6 and 7 students attending Kirkbride Elementary School’s SCORES afterschool program have proven themselves to be skilled young social enterprisers – they designed and created their own hand-drawn colouring books to sell to their community, donating the $2,200 raised to SHHS for community projects. These entrepreneurial young people were inspired to help support their community. Working together with the guidance of their program coaches, they came up with this innovative idea to apply their skills for the benefit of others. SHHS would like to acknowledge these compassionate students – they serve as an inspiration to us all and should be extremely proud of their accomplishment.
SHHS is proud to recognize the important contributions of our two Community Leader recipients and their dedication to improving our community and the lives of our priority populations. They remind each of us of the impact that we can have and our own capacity to act and create meaningful, positive change. Thank you, Cody and students, for your leadership and commitment to our community in 2021!
Make sure you watch our video (above) to hear directly from our 2021 Community Leaders!