Faces we

Contributors
Director’s Corner
Executive Director
Sean Condon
Operations Manager
Jessica Hannon
Vendor Coordinator
Misha Golston
Managing Editor
Stefania Seccia
Art Director
Harry Olson
Editorial Support
Geoff D’Auria
Photographers
David P. Ball, Jackie Dives, David
Denofreo, Jamila Douhaibi, Adam
Gilmer
Writing Workshop Facilitators
Surya Govender, Blythe Hutchcroft,
Julia Kochuk, Helen Polychronakos,
Shannon Rayne, Yvonne Robertson
Board of Directors
Nezihe Aquino, Bob Dennis,
Emma Gauvin, David Lee,
Kevin Hollett, Michael Roberts,
Jo Shin
Volunteers
Brit Bachmann, Maddisen Dellsplain,
Keith Martin, Jenn McDermid, Scott
Neufeld
Editorial Contributors This Issue
Savanna Bazuik, Jamila Douhaibi,
Katie Hyslop, Megan Lau, Ron
McGrath, Sarah Ouellette, Alex Walls,
Clare Yow
Emma Gauvin
Board member
Emma Gauvin is a social worker with Vancouver Coastal
Health and is passionate about reducing barriers to health
care. She is currently the social work practice lead for
the “Hope to Health” initiative, which aims to increase
the quality of life for people living with or at risk of HIV.
Previously she worked as a frontline social worker at several
innovative health-care programs in the Downtown Eastside.
Emma has been an avid reader of Megaphone since 2008 and
is thrilled to be a member of the board.
Jackie Dives
Photographer
Jackie Dives is a self-taught documentary and portrait
photographer living in Vancouver, B.C. For four years, she
photographed women giving birth and shared these photos
both in print and online in order to bring attention to a
misunderstood topic. She is a two-time prize winner at the
annual 12x12 Film Photo Competition, and the 2011 recipient
of a two-week artist residency scholarship with the Metchosin
International School of Art. Her work has been featured by The
Tyee, the Huffington Post, Vice, the Daily Mail, My Modern
Metropolis, the Medical Observer, Feature Shoot, Beautiful/
Decay, and Disney.
Jamila Douhaibi
Writer
Jamila Douhaibi is a born-and-raised Vancouver Islander
originally from Nanaimo, B.C. She obtained a degree
in anthropology and environmental studies from the
University of Victoria in 2012, and has traveled to most
continents and "wwoofed" on organic farms across
Canada and in South America. Currently working for the
Wilderness Committee, an environmental non-profit
organization, she has worked for a number of NGOs in
Victoria and Northern B.C. Outside of work and writing
for Megaphone, her time is filled with reading, writing
poetry, volunteering, adventuring, and creating various
craft and food concoctions.
A look ahead to 2016
With 2015 firmly behind us, Megaphone
is finally ringing in the New Year. Between
the annual Hope in Shadows calendar
and the special holiday issue of the
magazine, vendors had a very busy end
to the season, so please excuse the delay.
(There will still be fireworks, however.)
On behalf of all the vendors, a big thank
you to everyone for your support over the
year—you helped make it a great one. I’m
really proud of the vendors and staff for
all we accomplished. Some of the 2015
highlights include:
• Taking over the production of
the Hope in Shadows calendar
• Releasing our fifth annual Voices
of the Street literary issue
• Winning an international street
paper award for our vendor app
• Creating our own vendordesigned
wrapping paper
• Providing an employment opportunity
to even more homeless and low-income
people in Vancouver and Victoria
We also had a really successful
winter fundraising campaign, passing
our goal and raising a total of $20,914.
(Cue the fireworks!) This was amazing
and goes a long way toward ensuring
that Megaphone can provide the
necessary training and support for
the vendors to succeed this year.
A huge thank you to everyone who dug
deep and helped support our campaign.
Megaphone works because we’re all
invested in it. We’re all really proud of
the vendors and writers and see them as
valuable members of our community. So
thank you for seeing the big picture and
doing what you can to make it work.
I’m really excited for 2016. With
both Hope in Shadows and Megaphone
we’re hoping for big things. And with
your support, I know we can do it.
One big thing on our horizon is a
cashless payment app. We’ve heard from
both our customers and vendors that
there are times when you’d like to buy the
magazine but can’t because you’re not
carrying cash. Well, the future is here.
With the help of the team from Mount
Pleasant’s own Denim and Steel, we’re
turning our vendor finder app into one
that will allow you to buy the calendar
and magazine through your phone.
We’re expecting it to launch late spring/
early summer. (Cue more fireworks!)
So thank you again for all your support.
I look forward to giving you updates in this
space about how Megaphone and Hope
in Shadows will move forward in 2016.
Sean Condon
Executive Director
Megaphone Magazine
Stefania Seccia
Managing editor
Megaphone is published
every month by Street Corner
Media Foundation.
121 Heatley Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
V6A 3E9
info@megaphonemagazine.com
Stefania Seccia has been writing for Megaphone since 2009
shortly after graduating from Langara College’s journalism
program. Her work has appeared across Canada, in the
Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver
Province, the Windspeaker and many others. She’s worked for
many newspapers, including the North Shore News, 24 hours,
Metro—but first got her start at community paper Tofino-
Ucluelet Westerly News. This is her first issue as managing
editor for Megaphone. Beyond the written word, her interests
include snowshoeing, raising her new puppy, and playing
Dungeons and Dragons.
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