For 21 years, Hum has been part of communities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Downtown South, and the University of British Columbia, on the unceded, ancestral, traditional territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Do you live in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Downtown South or somewhere nearby?
Would you like to learn more about Writing, First Nations Studies, Philosophy, Music, Art, Sociology, Popular Culture, Literature, History, Politics, Women and Gender Studies, Law, Architecture and more?
The Humanities 101 Community Programme (fondly known as “Hum”) offers four non-credit, university-level courses at UBC for people living in the Downtown Eastside, Downtown South (DTES/South) and surrounding areas who have a lust for learning—especially those whose economic situation, academic experience, financial and social well-being are compromised. Courses are tuition free, and all participants receive course materials, meal vouchers and childcare (if required), as well as student cards which give access to UBC facilities and services.
In Hum courses we study a different area each week, taught by excellent teachers in a respectful environment. They are grounded in relevant, interdisciplinary critical and creative thinking in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Hum’s Public Programmes are offered year round. These groups are open to the general public and are a great way for people to get involved in Hum. For Hum alumni, these groups provide a platform to continue on with their shared intellectual and creative practices. They typically begin with ideas generated by participants of the Hum Programme and continue to be shaped largely by those who attend. Public Programmes are a way to have fun, remain involved and connected, and learn something along the way.
If you would like to make a DONATION to an organization in the Downtown Eastside, Downtown South, or East Vancouver, here are some links directly to donations pages. Please write to us at h.u.m@ubc.cato have more organizations added to this resource.
Look for centralized, factual and current information about services being provided in the Downtown Eastside, updated frequently, at https://www.linkvan.ca/
DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE, VANCOUVER
Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC) http://dewc.ca/donate
Chinese Seniors Outreach at Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC) http://dewc.ca/donate
“Founded in 1978, DEWC is one of the few safe spaces within the Downtown Eastside exclusively for self-identified women and their children. High levels of violence, homelessness, addictions and poverty characterize the Downtown Eastside community. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, injustice and injury. We provide practical support to over 500 women, children and seniors, every day. As well as providing a refuge and shelter from conditions of poverty and violence, the Centre provides basic necessities….”
Aboriginal Front Door
https://abfrontdoor.org/index.php/component/sppagebuilder/?view=page&id=41
“The Aboriginal Front Door Society is a culturally safe, peer designed non-judgemental place for Aboriginal Peoples and their friends and family in the Downtown Eastside. We create hope and offer support through Aboriginal cultural traditions, caring and acceptance. We are a meeting place and a drop-in centre with a welcoming environment, providing opportunities to learn more about Aboriginal Peoples and Culture. When necessary, we can also offer other services, such as serving as a crisis centre, brokering long term and specialty trauma counselling, and doing court accompaniments. Our goal is to restore respect, dignity and pride to our members.”
DTES Response
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/m/47375/donation
Newly formed by four DTES neighbourhood groups to share neighbourhood needs. You can donate to any/all four of them listed below at this address or donate to their own websites “Though the initiative is a collaborative effort, Wendy Pederson, organizer of the SRO-C, organized a discussion that led to the response. “This situation is serious and it is urgent,” said Pederson in a March 23 news release. “In a neighbourhood where space, food, supplies, and everything is shared, if we have one infection, it could decimate this entire community. Living conditions are already dire, and this is only going to get worse if we don’t act now.” https://www.insidethejar.com/dtes-community-groups-organize-response-to-covid-19
Carnegie Community Action Project
http://www.carnegieaction.org/donate/
The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) works to increase welfare rates, improve social housing, and slow gentrification in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). Covid-19 Emergency Funds For DTES https://www.gofundme.com/f/ccap039s-covid19-emergency-funds-for-dtes and Facebook fundraiser https://www.facebook.com/donate/1119462651738379/1119582958393015/
DTES SRO Collaborative
https://connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/afbce93f-b0de-4fb4-b057-8d0a6f473c93
“The SRO Collaborative was established to organize SRO tenants in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Chinatown. SROs are typically small single rooms about 10×10 feet with a shared bathroom on each floor and typically without a shared kitchen. They were built at the turn of the 20th century for seasonal workers in the resource industry and over time became the last stop before homelessness. There are 87 privately-owned SROs that are open in Vancouver today that rent at about $600/month or less. They are known to be aging, decrepit, infamously lawless and inhabitable places to live with poor maintenance and numerous health and safety code violations.
Overdose Prevention Site
https://www.phs.ca/donate/
“PHS currently provides support and direct service for two Overdose Prevention Sites (OPS) in the heart of the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver.These sites operate as lifeguard stations for drug consumption, providing a welcoming and culturally safe environment, harm reduction supplies, sterile environments for safer drug consumption, lifeguards to witness consumption, best practices education for drug consumption, and low-barrier employment opportunities for community members.”
Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society
https://www.facebook.com/WAHRS-Western-Aboriginal-Harm-Reduction-Society-123348724365154
“As Urban First Nations, we celebrate our strengths that have empowered us as indigenous people to resist cultural extinction. We do this through peer support and the promotion of harm reduction.”
WISH Drop In Centre Society
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/m/44203/donation
“WISH’s mission is “to improve the health, safety and well-being of women who are involved in Vancouver’s street-based sex trade.”
PACE Society
https://www.pace-society.org/relief/?fbclid=IwAR35ktfleTZ8Lvo7eWB3-vjWYjsqw-6wwHMEil5blu6zGL9wLS5riMjf6i8
“We promote safer working conditions through education and support. Sex Workers are valuable members of our community and are entitled to the same rights as anyone else.”
Pamphlet “Sex work COVID-19: Guidelines for Sex Workers, Clients, Third Parties and Clients”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ymJ5motdh0zh453-wFs1p4syL3koC2dD/view?ts=5e7659cc
“The COVID-19 outbreak has created a lot of stress and panic, but sex workers are and always have been resourceful and resilient. We are experts at keeping ourselves and our community safe. We’ve been doing it for decades! We would like to share our wisdom and learn from each other on how to overcome this current challenge.” Produced by Butterfly – Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network and Maggie’s: The Toronto Sex Workers Action Project
SHEWAY: A Community Program for Women and Children
https://secure.vghfoundation.ca/site/Donation2?df_id=1743&mfc_pref=T&1743.donation=form1&set.SingleDesignee=1118&set.custom.Designated_Giving_Other=Sheway%20(11-79036000)&utm_source=vch.ca&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=grateful_patient&utm_content=sheway
“Sheway is a Pregnancy Outreach Program (P.O.P.) located in the Downtown Eastside. The program provides health and social service supports to pregnant women and women with infants, who are dealing with drug and alcohol issues. The focus of the program is to help the women have healthy pregnancies and positive early parenting experiences.”
DUDES Clubwith Indigenous men
https://my.charitableimpact.com/send/to/charity/canadian-men-s-health-foundation/gift/new
“We recognize that reclaiming, redefining, and decolonizing ideas of what it is to be a ‘man’ is essential, and that this is a process that men must undertake to support each other. Healthy, authentic, humble, courageous masculinity are core to our work.”
VANDU(Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users)
https://vandureplace.wordpress.com/2016/12/28/blog-post-title
“VANDU is a group of users and former users who work to improve the lives of people who use drugs through user-based peer support and education. VANDU is committed to increasing the capacity of people who use drugs to live healthy, productive lives. VANDU is also committed to ensuring that drug users have a real voice in their community and in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.”
MPA Society
https://www.mpa-society.org/get-involved/donate-now
“Inspiring hope and supporting recovery for people with mental illness by establishing and operating social, vocational, recreation, advocacy and housing programs that support people in their own communities. MPA Society is a non-profit and Registered Charitable organization founded in 1971 by people facing the challenges of mental illness.”
Insite Safe Injection Site, a PHS project
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/34075
Chinatown Concern Group
https://chinatownconcerngroup.wordpress.com/donate
“Mainly consists of Chinese residents of Chinatown and Downtown Eastside. We see that Chinatown is changing very rapidly. Chinatown is looking less and less like Chinatown and the Chinese community in Chinatown is being marginalized. Therefore, we organize together, through meetings, discussions, and action, to protect Chinatown. We are concerned about Chinatown’s future affordability and want to see more low-income housing and seniors housing in Chinatown. We initiated a petition campaign calling for an immediate moratorium on all new market development projects in Chinatown until there is comprehensive community consultation and clear policies to protect the future of Vancouver’s Chinatown.”
Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall
https://vjls-jh.com/support-us/donation
“Established in 1906, the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall…is a non-profit, community-based and driven organization, committed to education, culture and community. Our Mission, as an Educational and Community Institution is to: Promote through educational and event programming the understanding of Japanese language and culture to all Canadians; Actively uphold the history of Vancouver’s Nikkei community and to facilitate cultural exchange with other multicultural, neighbourhood and international groups. Our ultimate objective is to strengthen and enrich inter-cultural communication and understanding among our students and the broader local and global communities.”
Vancouver Moving Theatre (VMT)
https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/15236
Vancouver Moving Theatre creates art that celebrates the power of the human spirit; builds shared experiences that bridge cultural traditions, social groups and artistic disciplines; and gives voice to residents of the Downtown Eastside and beyond.
Megaphone
https://megaphone.nationbuilder.com/donate
“Megaphone is a magazine sold on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria by homeless and low-income vendors. Vendors buy the magazine for 75 cents and sell it for $2.”
Mission Possible
https://donate-ca.keela.co/mission-possible/default-donation-form-34
“Mission Possible supports individuals who are challenged with poverty to navigate their journey to a sustainable livelihood. We do this through supporting individuals with employment training and individual coaching in our Employment Readiness Program, and through offering supportive, transitional work opportunities in our social enterprises.”
First United Church
http://firstunited.ca/donate
Union Gospel Mission
https://www.ugm.ca/donate/?noredirect=1
DOWNTOWN SOUTH, VANCOUVER
Directions Youth Services
https://www.directionsyouthservices.ca/donate
“Together, we can support Vancouver’s most vulnerable youth so they are empowered to take the steps to build the lives they want.” “COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on homeless youth.To date, no funds have been earmarked by government to provide isolation spaces for youth with symptoms. Our two 24/7/365 emergency shelter homes are at near-capacity, and although we are maintaining staffing and services fully, our heroic staff at all our locations have to surmount huge challenges, including a major shortage of personal protective gear. Your support is needed more than ever. When you Donate to Directions Youth Services, you support us in helping the nearly 1000 youth per year to find safety from the streets, eat hot meals, receive medical care, find long-term housing supports, access detox, and much more.”
The Gathering Place Community Centre
https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/make-a-difference-at-the-gathering-place.aspx
“The Gathering Place Community Centre offers programs and services to the Downtown South community. We primarily serve vulnerable populations, including people on lower income, people with disabilities, seniors, people of diverse ethnic backgrounds, the LGBTQ community, youth, and people who are homeless. We provide accessible and engaging programs with a focus on food and nutrition, health, education, recreation, arts and culture, and community development.”
Dr Peter AIDS Foundation
https://www.drpeter.org/support-us/ways-you-can-donate/
Vancouver Recovery Club
http://www.vancouverrecoveryclub.com/?page_id=31
If their donations page isn’t operating, email them at info@vancouverrecoveryclub.com
“The Vancouver Recovery Club (VRC) is a federally registered non-profit organization dedicated to providing support services to individuals seeking recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. Since its inception in 1983, the VRC is the only 24-hour drop in and referral centre of its kind in Vancouver.”
Covenant House for youth
https://secure3.convio.net/chb/site/Donation2?df_id=1940&1940.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T&_ga=2.227035485.1763453616.1585693214-910660664.1585693214
“Covenant House Vancouver exists, now more than ever, to support young people experiencing homelessness and to provide them with a source of unconditional love and absolute respect. Our doors are open as we continue to provide food, shelter, and medical attention for some of the most vulnerable in our community.”
EAST VANCOUVER
UNYA: Urban Native Youth Association
https://unya.bc.ca/get-involved/#donate
“Throughout our programs, UNYA helps Indigenous youth connect with culture, build confidence and skills, and reach their fullest potential. Your contributions make it possible for UNYA to engage more Indigenous youth, provide them with culturally-relevant services and support, and create space for these young people to thrive.”
Aboriginal Mother Centre
https://www.aboriginalmothercentre.ca
“The Aboriginal Mother Centre, dedicated to moving mothers and children at risk off the streets provides, under one roof, all the support, tools and resources a mother needs to rebuild her health, self-esteem and skills to regain and retain her child. The centre, grounded in a grass roots setting, creates a healing community to nurture children and families to become vital members of their communities.”
Urgent Needs(includes an Amazon wish list) https://www.aboriginalmothercentre.ca/urgent-needs
“Covid 19 has created some urgent needs. Maura says “We delivered care packages to the elders, home cooked meals to the homeless that went in less than 5 minutes so we went and bought hotdogs and pizza and we took the women to a park on our bus (all wearing masks) and to spend their child tax at Walmart.” Thursdays typically sees a large group of seniors who count on the centre for a good meal as part of the Outreach program. With Covid 19 this has all changed and the Centre now goes to seniors. Maura goes on to say, “we need toilet paper for the elders, canned goods, wipes, diapers, infant formula and any cleaning supplies.”
Battered Women’s Support Services
https://www.bwss.org/take-action/donate
“Battered Women’s Support Services provides education, advocacy, and support services to assist all women in its aim to work towards the elimination of violenceand to work from a feminist perspective that promotes equality for all women.” We are here for you during COVID-19. The Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) crisis line remains open providing emotional support to women experiencing gender-based domestic violence and/or uncertainty during these difficult times.”
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter
https://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/help/donate/donate
“Rape crisis centres in BC receive no operational funding from any level of government. The funds we do receive to operate our transition house from the Province do not cover all of the costs of running the shelter. We rely greatly on charitable donations to assist women and their children get to safety and to carry out our equality seeking prevention initiatives.”
Broadway Youth Resource Centre
https://pcrs.ca/donate
“The BYRC is a one-stop youth centre that provides a wide range of social, health, education, employment, and life skills services to youth. It is a multi-service and multi-agency hub with a range of services for youth all under one roof. BYRC has been in operation since 1999 at the corner of Broadway and Fraser Streets in Vancouver.”
The Kettle Society
https://www.thekettle.ca/donate/
For 40+ years, the warmth of The Kettle Society has empowered people living with mental illness substance use, poverty and/or homelessness by providing outreach, housing, employment, community services and enrichment programs.
FOOD BANKS
It’s better to donate money, rather than food, because the food banks can buy food in bulk for less than a donor can.
Greater Vancouver Food Bankhttps://foodbank.bc.ca/blog/donations/donate-now
Surrey Food Bank: http://www.surreyfoodbank.org
Langley Food Bank: http://www.langleyfoodbank.com
Richmond Food Bank: http://richmondfoodbank.org
Food Bank BC:http://www.foodbanksbc.com
Food Bank Canada: https://www.foodbankscanada.ca
SHARE: http://sharesociety.ca/food-bank
Single Parent Food Bank: http://www.singleparentfoodbank.org/
UBC
UBC AMS food bankhttps://www.ams.ubc.ca/student-services/food-bank
Posted March 19 2020: “Open City of Vancouver Services in Downtown Vancouver” information re COVID-19
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