Building an Inclusive Community – Project “Hope Lives Here”

We have been hard at work preparing ourselves to redevelop our site at the corner of Hastings and Gore. The redevelopment will be about more than simply putting up a building (housing and services) to meet the needs of the community we serve.  We have been hard at work creating a place of inclusion and belonging that aims to banish the alienation and marginalization that plague too many in Canada’s poorest urban neighbourhoods. Only through the restoration of that spiritual sense of belonging can true healing and hope take root.

Why our approach?

Other approaches haven’t worked. We pour millions into the Downtown Eastside, but the chronic, toxic mix of mental illness, addiction, crime, injustice and poverty breeds an intractable alienation that resists our efforts. Well-meaning attempts to help often breed suspicion and hostility. It’s time for a different approach, one that focuses on the heart and soul as well as the body. It’s time to go deeper and address the alienation that keeps people in isolation, pain and fear.

It’s time to recognize that we all need a place to belong. At some level, to some degree, we all experience this sense of alienation. We’ve all experienced the marginalization that has become the chronic state for many in our community. The need to belong and have a place we can call home in the most complete sense unites us all. This place is what we’re building at the corner or Hastings and Gore, the heart of old Vancouver.

It is important that we build on the resilience, the strengths and the talents of the residents of the Downtown Eastside. This community has an enviable record of survival, self-advocacy and accomplishments against odds that others would find overwhelming. Campaigns to improve standards and safety in accommodation, to build affordable housing, to create parks and establish the Carnegie Community Centre are all huge accomplishments. More than in any other area of Vancouver local arts and culture are in the forefront of expressing hope and possibility for the future. First United is part of that tradition.

 More information will soon be available about Project “Hope Lives Here.”  We are excited about what the future holds and look forward to sharing that excitement with you!