If you’re not familiar with the work of the Multicultural Health Brokers Co-op (MCHB), you’re not alone. It wasn’t until I met with the Executive Director, Yvonne Chiu, that I realized how amazing and important their work is for new Canadians living in Edmonton.

For such an amazing group that does so much to help so many, the MCHB’s asks to help them through this difficult time are relatively small – and they are a great opportunity for ACCA members to connect and help each other.

The first steps to starting a Com-Gen project could occur from the comfort of your home. If you are tasked with home-schooling, perhaps this could be fit with the curriculum; outsource the work to the more junior staff-members in your team/household. This is by no means an exhaustive list, or a step-by-step guide, but a list of resources that could help initiate a project

The ACCA Board of Directors held its regular meeting via Zoom conference call on Friday, March 27. Much of the discussion centred around COVID-19 and the impacts to ACCA and its members.

ACCA reached out to Service Alberta and the Office of the Director of Cooperatives for direction on how the public health emergency declared by the Government of Alberta may affect co-ops being unable to hold their required annual meetings.

In this time, it can be hard to navigate through all the information coming at you from all directions – and even more so trying to discern what is relevant to our members. ACCA has created a COVID-19 Resources page to help you sort through the information.

ACCA is looking for ways we can support our members through the COVID-19 pandemic. We have had some members reach out to us for support on some issues, but we fear many of you may be trying to cope with a constantly changing environment and haven't even had a moment to even think of what support you may need.

As Jared Blustein noted, being structured as a worker-owned co-op, The Allium is somewhat positioned to perhaps better weather this challenging situation.