 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
|
|||||||
|
FUNDED PROJECTS 2008-09 2009 Grants 1. Prevention Programs to support Children and Youth Kimount Club – Nourishing and nurturing inner city children every day!
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House – The heart of this neighbourhood, safety and support for seniors, children, youth, and families. 2. Grants to address the most urgent needs of the community WISH Wellness Centre – Providing respite – acceptance, caring, dignity and respect – for survival sex trade workers in Vancouver
Atira Women’s Resource Society – Providing homes, not just housing, for elder women in the inner city The Dugout – A remarkable oasis in the downtown eastside since 1967 The Kettle – Making a difference in the lives of individuals living with mental illness – 365 days a year! 3. Grants supporting community transformation United We Can – Building and maintaining relationships of dignity with hundreds of people in Vancouver’s most marginalized community. 411 Seniors Centre Thrift Store – A safe and inviting social enterprise store providing low cost clothing, books, household items, volunteer opportunities and income for the 411 Seniors Centre Hope in Shadows – More than just calendars: employment and empowerment for the community!
W2 Café at Woodward’s – A new front porch in the downtown eastside 2008 Grants Youth section Hastings-Tillicum Community School – The Kids First program at this school provides a safe and accessible program that is focused on academic and social/emotional development for inner city children who would otherwise be left unsupervised during the after-school hours. The program involves some 60 children from kindergarten to grade 7 on a daily basis. Kids First also encourages the development of social skills, especially important for English as a Second language children who have few opportunities, outside of school, to practice English in an informal, risk-free setting. This program is also a safe place where kids can take healthy risks and be involved in activities that will encourage them to direct their lives in positive ways. Your Central City support has helped replace the program’s 11 year old office equipment, which is also used by school staff, children, parents and community members who are involved in this program. Grants supporting Community transformation Lu’s: A Pharmacy for women by Vancouver Women’s Health Collective Society – When the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective was faced with cuts in provincial and health authority funding, they Grants to address the most urgent community needs The Dugout Drop-In Centre Society – Our annual grant to the Dugout Drop-In Centre Society was awarded to provide provisions to the centre for the coming year. CCF was one of the founding organizations involved with the Dugout and has continued to provide financial support and assistance to the Dugout for more than 40 years. The Dugout is a an inner city soup kitchen benefiting over 200 people per day 365 days a year. At the Dugout individuals can also seek advocacy, referrals and basic one on one counselling. Talitha Koum Society – Starr Peardon began her long journey to recovery from heroin addiction while she was serving time in prison. During this time of healing and growth, she dreamed of opening a home for women in conflict with the law. As the founding and current Executive Director of the Talitha Koum Society, she has made this dream come true. This society has three residential houses which are dedicated to rehabilitating and supporting women of the downtown area who have a history of substance abuse, poverty, lack of education and incarceration. One of the houses is dedicated to supporting women who have children or are expecting a child either through pregnancy or the result of their efforts to regain custody of their children previously taken into care. Up to 25 women pass through Talitha Koum houses every year with the help of staff and community volunteers. The program is based on the philosophy that wholeness comes through the development of balance between body, mind and spirit. They address dependence and helplessness by promoting healing and self-esteem through non-judgemental acceptance and respect. They also emphasize family reconciliation with the family as a partner in the treatment process whenever possible. CCF is pleased to have provided a grant to fund the repairs and upkeep of the three houses to enable this Society to continue to support women and families in the inner city.BACK TO TOP>> Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre Association – Imagine, a lunch service with 125 women, 2 wheelchair scooters and 1 toddler trying to move around a space the size of a singles tennis court furnished with tables and chairs. Toddlers, babies, elders (speaking various languages) and teenagers all intermingle with women, some with mental health issues and some heavily involved in their addictions. Well, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre describes this daily occurrence as “a beautiful, humbling and transformative experience, it can also be volatile and stressful”. With such strain on the Centre, crucial funds were given by CCF to renovate the existing bathroom and shower facilities (increasing the number of showers and toilets by 30%) and to add a community laundry facility for the residents of the area. The Womens Centre offers a drop-in centre 7 days per week for women escaping violence or at the risk of homelessness. The Centre’s mission is to provide basic needs and promote positive change for women and children in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. They provide practical support to over 300 women and children daily to survive the conditions of ill health and violence that surround them. They work to provide security and support to encourage women to make long-term change by identifying and removing barriers to full participation in the larger community. www.dewc.ca Wish Drop-in Centre Society – This Society’s mission is to increase the health, safety, and well-being of women involved in the survival sex trade in the downtown eastside. Approximately 450 women come to this drop in centre in a week seeking a safe and warm place where they can attend to their basic needs – including a hot meal, shower, clothing and referrals for healthcare, shelter and detox support. CCF funds are being put to good use to furnish the new WISH Wellness Centre, which will be open 24 hours a day to ensure women will always be able to find help and support in the community when they need it. This wellness centre will include a Women’s Health Clinic run in partnership with the BC Centre for Disease Control, BC Cancer Agency and BC Women’s Hospital. A study of the health needs of the WISH Drop-in Centre called the MAKA Project determined that 26% of women reported being HIV positive, 67% reported HCV positive, 65% live in single room accommodations, shelters and on the street. 65% of the women interviewed entered the sex trade before they were 18. WISH is making a difference in addressing the safety and health conditions of these women. www.wish-vancouver.net Grants to support Children and Youth Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society Urban Promise – Urban Promise provides afterschool programs and summer day camps for elementary aged school children who would otherwise be vulnerable during these times. It provides a safe place for these children to do homework, receive food and make friends in a fun and caring environment. CCF’s grant has made it possible for Urban Promise to purchase a laptop computer and camcorder which will be used by facility staff to document their programs. It will further enable the instalment of a recreational kitchen which will be used by the children when at the centre. The Executive Director of Urban Promise describes his experience: “After years of working with children and youth, I continue to be energized and encouraged by the potential that I see in them. I see their potential to make a difference and to be a positive influence to those around them . . . we have the opportunity to see children from as young as age six to staff in their late twenties blossom and begin to shine as they identify and realize their potential. We see it everyday”. www.urbanpromise.ca |
||||||||
A Central City grant has helped Kiwassa replace the original 17 year old carpeting in their always busy activity areas with new marmoleum flooring that is very durable, easy to clean and safe for the children and families that play there. Kiwassa has been providing a wide variety of community services and programs in northeast Vancouver since 1949 reaching children, youth and families, with an emphasis on the special needs of the socially and economically disadvantaged including many new immigrants and aboriginal families. These services include food security programs, youth leadership and recreation, family support and counseling, seniors’ health and wellness, and aboriginal programs. As they enter their 60th year of operations, this new flooring will help them continue to grow and evolve with the community. 
With up to 70 children and youth attending the Kimount Club’s after-school and evening programs daily, staff members are kept very busy by these energetic, and sometimes needy kids. Their duties previously included up to three hours of hand washing dishes after each meal. With your generosity, Central City was able to buy and install an industrial dishwasher so that staff can clean and sanitize these dishes more efficiently and effectively and spend more time with the children to give them the care and attention they need and deserve. Kimount has partnered with the Kidsafe Project Society to run full-day programs on professional days and spring, winter and summer breaks to ensure that children and youth have a safe and nurturing place to go when school is not in session. Kimount and Kidsafe also provide nutritional programs which include cooking lessons and healthy lunches and snacks daily for up to 60 participants. We are pleased to contribute this essential equipment for the Kimount Club which has been providing great programming for almost 70 years.
Your generosity has enabled Central City to provide Take a Hike with a grant to purchase a van and trailer so that these students – along with the gear provided by Central City back in 
Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA) was formed in 1988 to address Native youth issues when growing numbers of youth began leaving reserves for the city. Many continue to move to the city with few job skills, minimal training or education, and little or no knowledge of where to go for help. Today, approximately 60% of the Native population lives in urban settings, and 60% of the overall Native population is under the age of 25. UNYA supports these growing numbers of vulnerable Aboriginal youth by providing a solid continuum of advocacy, preventive and support services in a safe, healthy and positive environment through 18 preventative programs. Central City Foundation donors have made it possible for UNYA to purchase and install a lift (basic elevator) for their newly renovated building so that all youth have access to the facilities. Native youth are one of the fastest growing groups with disabilities, so it is essential that their space be accessible. Central City also provided Urban Native Youth Association a van back in 
the centre for the coming year. Central City was one of the founding organizations involved with the Dugout and has continued to provide financial support and assistance to the Dugout for more than 40 years. The Dugout serves 3 meals to over 200 people a day and is the only soup kitchen serving breakfast 7 days a week. Their approach is to provide shelter and services to neighbours. for whom supportive housing is too threatening and who are uncomfortable with even the minimal-barrier shelters, by providing an “indoor park” with a sense of community and homeliness without feeling institutionalised. At the Dugout individuals can also seek advocacy, referrals and basic one to one counseling. The Dugout seeks to be a warm, safe, we3lcoming place where inner city residents can find a place to relax, visit or play card with friends and feel part of the community.
programs, on-site medial support, clothing, recreational rehab, employment and training as well as community advocacy 365 days a year. The Kettle Drop-In life skills training and leisure social-recreational activities last year had over 45,000 participants. The Kettle Drop-In meal program serves over 22,000 meals to 2,500 individuals annually including every holiday. Their Community Services approach, based on an empowerment model, is to support individuals to build self-esteem and then give options for rehabilitation and recovery. They also work with the community to help break down stigma around mental illness. Your Central City support has enabled the Kettle to replace the 10 year old flooring of their very busy drop in centre. 
these individuals live in single room occupancy hotels on fixed incomes, many have addiction and health problems and some are homeless. United We Can is also an important source of income for around 150 “green collar” employees. Individuals in these jobs are primarily those who face multiple and significant barriers to mainstream employment, with their shifts at UWC being one of the few meaningful engagements they hold. This recycling program is an incredible social change agent as UWC builds and maintains relationships of dignity with hundreds of the most marginalized people in our inner city. Central City is providing a grant to replace the scraped together donations of old desks, furniture and plywood with new stainless steel sorting stations, shelves, and equipment including an electronic forklift and a point of sale system – to assist them in expanding their recycling depot. We are delighted to support the Recycling Centre’s organizational capacity to ensure their long-term sustainability. UWC also runs social enterprises that refurbishes bikes and used computers, cleans city lanes and promotes urban agriculture. United We Can’s social enterprises are beacons of economic revitalization as their activities empower, rather than displace, the low income community in the Downtown Eastside. 
W2 Café will provide employment and economic development for the downtown eastside as well as create a “front porch” – a welcoming haven and gathering place for local residents, artists, students and Woodward’s tenants – for the W2 Community Media Centre. This centre will act as a catalyst in the revitalization of Vancouver’s downtown eastside by emphasizing the development capacity by and for DTES residents. This new media and creative hub will build upon existing strengths in the neighbourhood through member organizations and will be a central element in the creative district emerging in the DTES. The people and organizations involved in creating W2 are adept and engaged in working with people from a wide range of marginalized populations. They bring core skills of organizing and running democratic community-driven programs and events. DTES residents will be assured of walk-in access to training and production systems for media and community arts production. W2’s permanent site in Woodward’s will feature 200 capacity performance space, community TV studio, FM radio station, letterpress, youth media centre, access to the 500-capacity public atrium and community lounge. A Central City grant will provide much needed equipment, including an essential point of sales system and signage, for the 100-seat W2 Café. 
This Society works with offenders and their families so that the offender has the means to make the transition from criminal behaviour to positive social contribution, ending the criminal cycle that would otherwise persist from generation to generation. This work involves one to one discussions around the offender’s life, and more precisely the lives of the people they have negatively affected. With much to overcome, including intergenerational affects of the residential school system, this Society boosts these individuals, their families and their communities. The program ensures cultural relevance for participants by integrating Traditional Aboriginal Culture, including the use of the sweat lodge or long house, smudging, as well as sharing and healing circles alongside other healing elements such as alcohol and drug rehabilitation and peer counseling. The outcomes are exponential, including family reunification, community safety, empowerment of individuals, and strengthened Métis culture and community. 
determined a social enterprise in the form of a pharmacy for women would meet their need to generate income while meeting a need in the community. Their extensive research indicated that women in the Downtown Eastside are not accessing health care at levels to match the demographics of the area as women don’t feel safe in many of the pharmacies, the majority of which are focused on dispensing methadone. CCF is responding to this need by funding for the development of ‘Lu’s: A Pharmacy for Women’ which will be located in the retail space of CCF’s Cosmopolitan Hotel at 29 West Hastings Street. The Pharmacy will be more like a wellness centre as it will also house the current services of VWHC, providing a unique combination of a pharmacy, primary care from health practitioners, and health information services. We are excited about this 
innovative and well-planned venture which will further the Women’s Health Collective’s mission to “value women’s knowledge, support one another to take charge of our own health, and raise awareness and inspire actions for the feminist advancement of women’s health”. The UBC Architecture School is also collaborating to design a warm, inviting and well-designed space which will be built using sustainable and recycled materials. Women who live, work and study in the area are welcome and encouraged to utilize the services at Lu’s, and by doing so, support a social enterprise that is improving the well-being of women in the Downtown Eastside.