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About Us

Dogwood 25 supports the educational achievement and social-emotional growth of Indigenous Learners in the British Columbia K to 12 public education system in order to increase their graduation rates.

Our Address

3126 West 38th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V6N 2X3
Legal Disclaimer
Dogwood 25 Society is a registered not-for-profit organization and follows all laws and regulations governing not-for-profit organizations in British Columbia.

History & Overview

The Dogwood 25 Society was founded in the Province of British Columbia in 2014 by Dr. Sid Katz. Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia and Mike Harcourt, former Mayor of Vancouver and Premier of the Province of British Columbia.

From its inception and to the present day, the sole purpose of the Dogwood 25 Society is to keep Indigenous Learners in school performing well and graduating with the full Dogwood Certificate leading to post-secondary education and/or significant employment opportunities. The work of the Society is governed by the BC Societies Act and is a registered charity which can issue tax receipts.

In the twelve years of its existence, the Dogwood 25 Society has carried out successful peer-mentoring programs in elementary schools and high schools in the Vancouver School District with large indigenous enrollments. This initiative was due, in large part, to a three- year grant awarded by the Vancouver Foundation Education Committee.

Currently, the main initiative of the Dogwood- 25 Society is the Indigenous Community-Culture-Math Education Mentoring Program (ICCME) which is being carried out in partnership with the UBC Faculty of Education and is focused on the teaching of mathematics to Indigenous Learners in a culturally responsive way. This program, led by Dogwood 25 Co-Chair Jo Ann Archibald, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education and Professor Cynthia Nicol of the UBC Faculty of Education currently includes over 150 teachers and administrators from ten school districts in the Province of British Columbia.

More recent funding to the Dogwood 25 Society, provided by the Recovery and Resiliency Funding Program of the Province of British Columbia in conjunction with the Vancouver Foundation, has enabled us to expand this initiative. This has led us to reach out to the Prince Rupert and Coast Mountain school districts and renew the participation of Haida Gwaii. We have also been able to expand the programs to include a Webinar series centering on Indigenous Pedagogies in mathematical education. Over the next year we intend to expand our teacher cohort in the Northern regions and throughout the Province.

The creation of the Dogwood 25 Society stemmed from the work that Dr. Katz had previously carried out as the founder of UBC Community Affairs in 2004 where a prime focus was the establishment of relations with the Musqueam Indian Band. The initial program established was ‘Bridge through Sport’ an annual soccer tournament jointly sponsored by UBC and Musqueam which, at its peak, attracted Indigenous participation from across the Province of British Columbia. A key component of ‘Bridge Through Sport’ was an after-school program held on the Musqueam Reserve which included a Reading Club and a Writing Club which emphasized the need to focus on school attendance, literacy and academic success. Another key element of this partnership was the establishment of an International Baccalauriate Primary Years Program at Southlands School, home to approximately 75 Musqueam learners yearly, which emphasizes Musqueam language and culture and was spearheaded by Dr. Katz, the Southlands School Principal, the North American I.B. Coordinator and the Vancouver School Board.