On November 3, 2018, a major event for the BC Francophone community took place in conjunction with the 2018 Parents’ Conference: the first Summit on the transmission of French language in BC, attended by more than 250 key participants from the Francophone community in British Columbia.

The gathering was a great success, and it met its objectives of promoting connections and collaborative work between the various sectors of the community, exchanging expertise and best practices, and searching for innovative solutions — all while keeping children and young people as the primary focus.

The summit’s program offered talks and panels presented by specialists (such as a sociologist, a lawyer, a linguist) on aspects of French language transmission; interactive workshops; and discussions about the tools available to the Francophone community. 

Around each table, the workshops brought together parents, young people, artists, people working in the education sector, and representatives from community organi-zations.

The positive energy was palpable throughout the summit and showed, beyond a doubt, the will of members of the Francophone community west of the Rockies to live in French, today and tomorrow.

After a day full of lively exchanging of views and passionate discussions, the summit ended with personal commitments from the participants. They were asked to outline a concrete action that they will take to transform their environment so as to contribute more actively to the transmission of French to small children, older children, and the young people around them.

A summary report, recapping the ideas that were exchanged, is currently being drafted and will be released in the coming weeks. In addition, the speakers’ presentations were filmed and will be available soon on the Summit’s website: www.sommetCB.ca..

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The Summit on the Transmission of French Language in British Columbia is the result of the collaboration of nine Francophone organizations: la Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique, la Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, la Société de développement économique de la Colombie-Britannique, le Conseil jeunesse francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, le Conseil culturel et artistique de la Colombie-Britannique, l’Assemblée francophone des retraité(e)s et aîné(e)s de la Colombie-Britannique, Réseau-Femmes Colombie-Britannique, le Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, and le Bureau des affaires francophones et francophiles de l’Université Simon Fraser.

The partner organizations thank the Government of British Columbia's Francophone Affairs Program for its financial support toward the organization of the Summit..

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