YUN Kong arrived in Victoria in 1911 as a 30-year-old labourer, and paid the $500 head tax to enter Canada. He hailed from the district of Sunning which would later be known as Toisan.

YWCA Metro Vancouver was founded in 1897 and incorporated as a society in 1905. It is a non-profit, membership- and volunteer-based charitable organization. Originally formed by members of two Vancouver charitable organizations, the Women’s Improvement League of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and the Anglican Girls’ Friendly Society, the organization’s initial mandate concerned providing relief work. However, the four women who established YWCA Metro Vancouver—Skinner, Banfield, Macaulay, and Southcott—quickly expanded the mandate to more fully support young women’s independence. The YWCA has always worked to fulfill its mandate through integrated services. Today, its mission is to advance gender equity.

YWCA Metro Vancouver is a local organization participating in the broader YWCA movement. Started in England in 1855, the YWCA movement includes all YWCA organizations. The YWCA movement operates at three levels: local, national, and world. As a local YWCA, YWCA Metro Vancouver is an independent entity, governed by its own Board of Directors following its own mission statement. Alongside other local Canadian YWCAs, YWCA Metro Vancouver is a member of the YWCA of Canada. Founded in 1893, the YWCA of Canada is a national YWCA that serves as coordinating body for all local YWCAs in Canada. Delegates from local YWCAs attend National Conventions every four years to elect the National Board of the YWCA of Canada and collaborate on policy and priorities. The YWCA of Canada has been a member of World YWCA since 1895. Founded in 1894, the World YWCA coordinates and connects national YWCAs globally. The YWCA of Canada elects Canadian delegates to attend the World YWCA Council every four years to determine policies and priorities for the World YWCA.

Although a member of the YWCA of Canada, YWCA Metro Vancouver is an autonomous entity, with organizational policy implemented by members via the elected Board of Directors. Elected annually from and by YWCA Metro Vancouver members, the Board of Directors is responsible for managing the affairs of the full organization, including policy- and priority-setting, strategic planning, budget management, and decision-making based on committee recommendations. The Board works with the Leadership Team, originally known as the Management Team, to accomplish this work. The Leadership Team is composed of key YWCA staff. The Board also recruits and employs the CEO, or the Executive Director before 1998, who acts as Head of Staff. The CEO partners with the Chair of the Board, called the President before 2002. YWCA Metro Vancouver staff members report to their supervisors who report to the CEO, committee members report to chair-people who report to the Chair of the Board, the CEO and Chair partner and report to the Board, and the Board is responsible to the membership.

YWCA Metro Vancouver has changed its priorities, policies, and name according to the identified needs of its membership. Founded as the Vancouver Young Women’s Christian Association, YWCA Metro Vancouver’s name has been through several iterations and meanings. One concerns the “C” present in “YWCA.” In 1965, the Vancouver YWCA brought forth a proposal to the YWCA of Canada for membership to be open to anyone regardless of religion. Four years later, this proposal was brought up by the Vancouver and Winnipeg YWCAs, and officially adopted. Although founded as a Christian organization, YWCA Metro Vancouver membership is now open to any who wish to join, regardless of gender or religion. YWCA Metro Vancouver identifies as a secular organization, but has kept the “C” in its name due to the influence of Christianity in its legacy. Additionally, in 2011 the organization changed its name to YWCA Metro Vancouver to “reflect [its] commitment serving communities throughout the region spanning Burnaby, Surrey, the Tri-cities, Maple Ridge, Langley/Aldergrove, Abbotsford, New Westminster, Richmond and North Vancouver” (“About the YWCA: Our Story”).

YWCA Metro Vancouver uses an integrated service model, considering the context of Vancouver and characteristics of the community served to inform its work. Early services included housing, an Employment Bureau, and Traveller’s Aid aimed at job-seeking young women new to Vancouver. Additional programs and services were influenced by priorities regularly identified by the organization. To provide these young women with social opportunities and improve their employment prospects, the YWCA began its fitness programs and adult education courses in the 1910s. Due to the outbreak and aftermath of World War I, in the 1920s YWCA provided counselling and sewing services for military hospitals, expanded its Health Education department, housed soldiers and their families, and assisted in resettling orphans, refugees, and soldiers’ families. The organization shifted its programming from a focus on Bible studies and church-going to personal and professional development programs and social and educational clubs. In response to the Great Depression in the 1930s, the YWCA focused its services towards providing affordable housing to homeless women and offering classes and training in marketable skills to assist women’s employability. Simultaneously, an emerging focus on international engagement, teenage programming, and leadership training in the 1930s led to Hi-Y programs for high schoolers and the founding in 1938 of the “Chinese Department” that would later become the Pender Y. A branch of the YWCA addressing Vancouver Chinatown’s community needs, Pender Y ran from 1944 to 1978. In the 1940s, the YWCA as a national movement focused on accommodating soldiers and their visiting relatives, as well as supporting women assuming additional responsibilities while male family members served overseas. After the war, the YWCA developed programs to advocate for women to keep their jobs and responsibilities when faced with the societal pressure to relinquish them. From the 1940s to 1960s, further developing YWCA programs and services were decentralized to branch YWCAs, including the West Vancouver Community Association and Vancouver East Community Y, among others. The YWCA responded to the Baby Boom of the 1950s by gearing its services to help mothers at every stage of motherhood. By the 1960s and 1970s, the YWCA identified priorities including leadership development, financial development, and social action. The organization became more vocal on Canadian and international social issues, prioritized transient youth and domestic abuse survivors, and expanded its employment guidance, counselling services, and mentorship programming. Munroe House, Canada’s first long-stay transition home for women and their children escaping abuse, opened in 1979. In the 1980s and 1990s, the YWCA identified childcare for teenage, working, and/or single mothers as an unfulfilled need and opened several childcare centres. Since the early 2000s, YWCA Metro Vancouver has focused on affordable housing, employment programs, ending gender-based violence, fitness and education, legal supports, and universal childcare. Several Vancouver-based community service organizations have found their beginnings as YWCA Metro Vancouver services before separating and becoming independent, including MOSAIC and Big Sisters.

YWCA Metro Vancouver continues to be an important and active part of its community.

References:
“About the YWCA: Our Story.” YWCA Metro Vancouver, 2023, https://ywcavan.org/our-story.

Sheila Zerr was born and raised in Powell River, B.C., and graduated from the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. She continued her studies with a BSc in Public Health Nursing in 1967 and an MEd in Psychopedagogy in 1971 from the University of Ottawa. As a staff nurse she worked in Vancouver, Fredericton and Ottawa. She taught at the Ottawa General Hospital, the University of Ottawa, the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia.

Sheila’s many achievements have been recognized in awards including a medal commemorating the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty’s accession to the throne. She also received an Award of Distinction in 1999 from RNABC for her outstanding contribution to nursing in Canada and a number of honorary life memberships.

Her community and professional involvements include chairing the Planning Committee for the International History of Nursing Conference in 1997, and Committee Chairperson for the Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing, Learned Societies Conference, in 1989. She has been active as a consultant in the production of films and books.
Her own writing includes co-authoring Pharamacology and the Nursing Process and a chapter in Fundamentals of Nursing. She initiated ASA research to increase people’s awareness of the effects of non-prescription drugs and was active in the St. John’s Ambulance Child Care in the Home program. More recent interests include nursing in the north and a book on the pioneer nurse Gertrude Richards Ladner. Sheila has raised over $15,000 for HoN scholarships by handcrafting a collection of miniature historical nursing figures. Her creation of dolls has been a long time interest, with their costumes used to portray the development of nursing.

Sheila is a founding member of the BCHoN Society and was instrumental in initiating the oral history project. She has remained involved with the Royal Jubilee hospital and the School of Nursing Alumnae, and ensured Begbie Hall, at RJH, was selected as a residence worthy of National Historic significance. Sheila has been an active member of the community, serving on various committees to improve health care, particularly the Delta Health Care Association.

Jacob Zilber taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia from 1957 to 1989. He served as chairman of the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing Committee before establishing the UBC's Department of Creative Writing in 1965. Zilber was also one of the founders of UBC's Prism magazine and served as its editor from 1966 to 1973. Jacob Zilber was born on May 15, 1924, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin in 1948, earning Honors in General Scholarship. He went on to study a Masters of Arts from the University of Washington in 1957.
Zilber joined UBC's Department of English in 1957 as a Lecturer until 1962, when he became an Assistant Professor. In 1965 he held the position of Associate Professor and became a full Professor by 1975. Zilber held memberships in various professional and learned societies such as CAUT and the UBC Faculty Association. He was also a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, the first director of the B.C. Writers Service and served as a judge for the ACTRA awards. As a prolific writer, Zilber's literary work has appeared in various Canadian and American magazines, while his plays have been presented in Vancouver and off-Broadway in New York. In addition, a co-written screenplay, The Inbreaker (1974), became a feature film produced by the Bob Elliott Film Company of Vancouver. Zilber retired from teaching in 1989.

Glennis was born April 5, 1935 in Parkman, Saskatchewan. She grew up in New Westminster, B.C. and attended Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia School of Nursing, graduating in 1957 and 1958 respectively. She later received a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University in 1969 and a Master of Arts in Communications from Simon Fraser University in 1981.

Glennis’s diverse working life has included positions at Maple Ridge Hospital; New South Wales, Australia; and the Royal Columbia Hospital in New Westminster (as an instructor). She was an Assistant Editor for The Canadian Nurse from 1963 to 1969 and an editor/reporter for the Canadian Press from 1969-1972. She states that she found the most interesting aspects of her career the combination of nursing and journalism for The Canadian Nurse and The Canadian Press, and later as a freelancer in medical journalism.

From 1973 she has been a freelance writer, editor and writing consultant, working mainly with individuals and organizations in health care areas. A special area of interest is history of nursing and health care. She has a long list of publications and other professional credentials, including editing eight volumes of proceedings published by various health care associations or universities. As a writing consultant she has been a resource person for many workshops and a guest speaker at public lectures and meetings. She has been active in many professional organizations.

Dorothy Zoellner, nee Whitham (1929-2020) attended elementary and secondary school in Kelowna, graduating in 1947. She then attended university in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a teaching certificate in 1951. During her time at UBC, she met William J. “W.J.” Zoellner, whom she married in 1953 in Kelowna. The couple had two sons. The family lived variously in Victoria, Courtenay, and Nelson, and finally settled back in Kelowna in 1973. Zoellner was a teacher at Kelowna Secondary School and retired from this position in 1987. Zoellner also wrote for the Kelowna Daily Courier, was the president of the Okanagan Historical Society from 1987-1988, and actively participated in various historical and community events in the city. Acting as a tour guide along with Alice Lundy, Zoellner led tours around the region focusing on the area’s history. The two went on to publish two self-guided tour books, Tours Made Easy (1990) and More Tours Made Easy (1995). Dorothy Zoellner passed away in April 2020.

Leon M. Zolbrod was a pioneer scholar of traditional Japanese literature who first came into contact with Japan during his service with the American military in 1948 and later taught English there. Zolbrod earned his MA and Ph.D. degrees in Japanese literature from Columbia. He taught at the University of Indiana and then Kansas before moving to the University of British Columbia in 1967, where he taught Japanese language and literature for twenty-three years. Much of Zolbrod's research and publication activities focussed on making the literature of Edo Japan more accessible to Western audiences. His first book was Takizawa Bakin (1967), and he later edited and translated Ugetsu Monogatari (1975). In addition, Zolbrod completed a significant study tentatively entitled Reluctant Genius: The Life and Work of Buson, a Japanese Master of Haiku and Painting, not published. Leon Zolbrod passed away in Vancouver on April 16, 1991.