Health & Quality of Life Projects
Aboriginal Front Door Society
Community Capacity Building
This project contributed to the development of a plan for sustainability and a partnership model to build community capacity in this grassroots aboriginal organization. (2004)
BC Coalition of Experiential Women
Bad Date Reporting Pilot Project
This research project focused on reducing the high rate of violence perpetrated against street-based sex workers. A bad-date reporting and response strategy was developed through evidence-based research that included the active involvement of sex workers. The objectives were to increase the safety of sex workers; educate sex workers, police and protective services personnel about bad dates; and increase the effectiveness of prosecution for assault crimes against sex workers. (2004)
Central City Foundation
717 Princess Street Child-Care Centre
The Central City Mission Foundation purchased a building at 717 Princess Street in the Downtown Eastside to ensure continuation of a 90-space child-care centre at that location. The Vancouver Agreement contributed along with other community and government agencies to the purchase price to ensure continued services for the child-care centre. (2004)
The Crossing at Keremeos
The Crossing at Keremeos is the first long-term residential treatment centre for youth in B.C. Young people aged 14-24 enter the program after withdrawing from drugs and alcohol, then stay for six months to a year, depending on their needs. Central City Foundation and From Grief to Action, a parent support and advocacy group, partnered with the B.C. Ministry of Health and the health authorities to create this much needed facility. (2008)
City of Vancouver
Collaboration for Change
Led by the City of Vancouver, this project spearheads an action plan to assist Vancouver residents who have mental health and addiction problems, and who are homeless or living in substandard conditions. Through an innovative collaboration among a broad range of institutional and community stakeholders, Collaboration for Change brings an integrated action-oriented approach to an urgent situation facing some of the City’s most vulnerable citizens; a circumstance that also is faced by other municipalities in British Columbia. With a focus on increasing access to the appropriate range of housing, health and social services, this initiative integrates with other complementary projects and plans. These include the development of supportive housing by the Province on 12 City sites, the creation of a community-based foundation to assist social housing initiatives, and the City’s Homeless Action Plan. (2008) Read the reports: Collaboration for Change – Progress Report, Collaboration for Change – Appendices.
Olympics Community Liaison
The Olympic and Paralympic Partners hired a community liaison person to lead engagement with inner-city communities regarding potential neighbourhood impacts and opportunities related to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. (2009)
Youth Engagement Strategy
This youth engagement strategy had two phases. Phase one engaged and trained youth in facilitation so they could host discussion groups about how to prevent problematic drug use and other social development issues. Data from these events was compiled for inclusion in the youth chapter of the City of Vancouver’s Prevention Strategy. Phase two involved both youth and youth service providers in designing a model for ongoing youth participation in service planning with the Vancouver Agreement’s Youth Task Team. (2006)
Family Services of Greater Vancouver
Youth Service Integrated Centre
Family Services of Greater Vancouver offers services to at-risk youth five days a week, 24 hours a day in the downtown core. Vancouver Agreement funding contributed towards a new centre, located at 1134 Burrard St., to operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day throughout 2005. In 2006, Vancouver Coastal Health assumed funding for the centre. The centre provides a range of services to street-involved and homeless youth including: a resource centre and day school, housing assistance, vocational and employment programs, addiction and mental health services, primary health care services, peer support and outreach, life-skills training, counselling, and recreational activities. (2004)
Kiwassa Neighbourhood Society,
Hastings North Business Improvement Association
Living in Community (LIC)
Under the direction of a Steering Committee, LIC developed a well-informed and comprehensive approach to addressing the health and safety effects of the street-based sex trade in Vancouver on those working in the trade and on other community members. The initiative also raised awareness among citizens, community organizations, businesses, and government of the issues facing street-based sex-trade workers. In addition, it facilitated discussion and developed innovative partnerships between community groups, including those that work with sex-trade workers, residents, businesses, and governments. Recommendations on how to address street-based prostitution and related issues in Vancouver were presented at a community forum and an implementation plan is in place. (2004, 2007) Read the reports: Living in Community 2007, Living in Community – Implementation Plan 2008.
Ministry of Public Safety/Solicitor General
Building Capacity
The Building Capacity project assisted women’s service organizations in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to build long-term organizational sustainability by enhancing operational effectiveness, board, staff and volunteer training and skill development, inter-agency liaison and networking, and partnership development. The Vancouver Agreement Women’s Task Team, working with Status of Women Canada and provincial Women’s Services, oversaw a process for this initiative. (2005)
PACE (Prostitution Alternatives Counselling & Education Society)
Community Tool Kit & Employment
Former sex workers were employed to consult with a range of Vancouver residents, including businesses, community groups and current sex workers, on issues of safety related to sex work. The information contributed to the Living in Community discussion document about Vancouver’s sex industry. In addition, a customized Tool Kit was developed as a resource for neighbourhoods, businesses, community groups and sex workers in order to develop strategies these groups can use to increase personal and community safety throughout the city. The Tool Kit was disseminated through Community Policing Offices, Neighbourhood Houses, residents’ groups. It is posted on the Living in Community website. (2006)
RainCity Housing and Support Society
Women’s Leadership Institute
Several organizations that serve the most vulnerable women in the DTES are collaborating to design and implement a year-long leadership development program for front line staff and emerging leaders. The women who work in these organizations have very limited opportunity for training and development. Anticipated outcomes are: Increased educational and employment readiness among participants; Emerging leaders strengthen their leadership capacity; Greater coordination of service delivery among DTES women’s agencies; and Women’s organizations develop partnerships that enhance their own skills, their ability to deliver services and their capacity for affecting change in the lives of women in the DTES. (2009)
2010 Legacies Now
Chill Program
The Chill Program was a partnership of 2010 Legacies Now, the Vancouver Agreement, Bell Canada and Cypress Mountain to provide an after-school learn-to-snowboard program for at-risk inner-city youth aged 12 to 24. Chill provided all equipment, transportation, clothing, lift tickets and instruction for participants in the six-week program. (2005, 2006, 2007)
University of BC
Portland Community Dental Clinic Endowment Fund
This allocation supports ongoing operations of the Portland Community Dental Clinic through a grant to the University of B.C. Portland Dental Clinic Endowment Fund. The UBC Faculty of Dentistry worked with the Portland Hotel Society to meet its fundraising goal to increase the fund to $1.1 million. (2004)
Vancouver Agreement Coordination Unit
Vision for Persons with Disabilities
This decade, Vancouver hosted two very high-profile international events: the 2006 World Urban Forum and the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Vancouver Agreement partners worked to ensure that Vancouver is a truly accessible city for all residents and visitors. A strategic plan was developed to support the vision of making Vancouver and B.C. world leaders in accessibility. (2005) Read the ‘Measuring Up’ Report.
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
Crystal Clear
This project focussed on three main activities: a harm reduction education campaign and peer-training program; professional training and a resource website for front-line workers; and a youth-led theatre and film project. All activities were targeted toward methamphetamine prevention and harm reduction for low-income youth. (2004) Look at the guide.
Expanded Addiction Treatment Services
This funding helped deliver three key programs: expanded access to methadone treatment; adult outpatient withdrawal management services, including medication substitutes and acupuncture; and youth withdrawal management services in order to expand and centralize access to all withdrawal management services for youth. (2003)
WISH (Women’s Information Safe Haven) Drop-in Society
Mobile Access Project (MAP)
Operating from a converted ambulance, a mobile drop-in centre for sex workers in the Downtown Eastside from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. provides services when virtually no services are available to these women who regularly face violence and abuse in their work. MAP is designed to provide respite and safety to sex workers, and offers emergency medical advice and assistance, resource and referral information for counselling and drug treatment, and provision of condoms and clean needles. (2005, 2006) Read the evaluation.
WISH Wellness Centre Operations
Since 1984, WISH has worked to increase the health, safety and well-being of women working in the sex trade in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In November 2003 the organization received the $1 million Vancity Award to create the WISH Wellness Centre, a 24/7 facility for women working in survival sex. Through its Women’s Strategy, the Vancouver Agreement will provide funding to operate the facility, which is scheduled to open in fall 2008. (2005, 2006)
Youth Funders Committee
Youth Services Database
This project established a database that to allow all services for at-risk youth, from government and non-profit groups, to be catalogued in order to screen for gaps or overlaps in service, and to determine funding priorities. The database tracked all programs and projects funded by the Youth Funders Committee in order to strategically assess allocation of resources and funding deficiencies. The Youth Funders Committee was comprised of representatives from the three levels of government as well as the United Way Vancouver, the Vancouver Foundation, and the National Crime Prevention Centre. (2004)
In addition to the projects funded directly through the Vancouver Agreement, the federal government sponsored several projects in the spirit of the Vancouver Agreement.
Urban Aboriginal Strategy
The Urban Aboriginal Strategy (UAS) is a national strategy of the federal government to reduce the socio-economic gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada. In Vancouver, the UAS is a partnership opportunity, providing four federal departments, two provincial ministries, the cities of Vancouver and Surrey, and aboriginal organizations a vehicle to address conditions of urban aboriginal people. The four priority areas are: youth, health, homelessness, and arts and culture. Funds are managed and administered by the Urban Aboriginal Strategy Steering Committee comprised of eight government and eight aboriginal community representatives.
Urban Aboriginal Homelessness Program
The Urban Aboriginal Homelessness program (UAH) is part of the federal government’s National Homelessness Initiative. UAH has provided funding to Lu’ma Native Housing Society to administer projects and activities that meet the objectives established by the National Homelessness Initiative. Projects are designed to meet the needs of aboriginal people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in the Downtown Eastside, and include provision of housing and localized support services, education, training, and counselling. In order to meet community needs, specific programs are designed for aboriginal women, elders, families, youth and children.
