On Monday, June 1st, we had the honour of ringing in the next chapter of FIRST UNITED with 200 of you in our new building at 320 East Hastings! It was a day of celebration and gratitude as we looked around the new dining hall where we were gathered and saw the faces of so many people who played a role in bringing this building to life. If you were able to join us, thank you for being present to witness and join in this momentous occasion.

The day started with an intimate and powerful ceremony at the Hastings entrance of our building to unveil and bless the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh artists and the beautiful artworks they contributed to the building. Artists from each Host Nation were present with their families: Ocean Hyland (Tsleil-Waututh), Jonas Jones (Tsleil-Waututh), Floyd Joseph (Squamish Nation), Mack Paul (Musqueam), Brent Sparrow (Musqueam), and Debra Sparrow (Musqueam). We’d also like to thank HOST Consulting for their work in organizing the ceremony.

This new building is part of our commitment to putting reconciliation into action and the incorporation of Host Nation art on Host Nation land is one of the first and most visible ways this is demonstrated.

Photography by Maxine Bulloch

We’d like to thank Alec Dan (Musqueam) for starting the ribbon cutting event with a warm welcome, and express our gratitude to the drummers from each Host Nation for blessing us with their respective traditional welcome songs.

Throughout the ceremony, we were reminded of the history of 320 East Hastings and how this new space will support us in continuing and expanding our work to provide dignity, belonging and justice to the DTES community.

Thanks to the government officials, key partners and funders who shared their well wishes, memorable stories, and hopes for the DTES community:
• The Hon. Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, and MLA for Vancouver Little Mountain
• Dr. Dave Baspaly, Lu’ma Native Housing Society Board Chair, and Barb Lawson Swain, CEO of Lu’ma Native Housing Society
• Dr. Heather F. Clarke, FIRST UNITED Board Chair
• Rudy Kerklaan and Cari Copeman-Haynes, First Forward Capital Campaign Cabinet Co-Chairs
• Donald Mackenzie, Director for 625 Powell Street Foundation, a First Forward Transformational Donor
• The Very Rev. Gary Paterson on behalf of the United Church of Canada
• The Very Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, FIRST UNITED Executive Director during the launch of the redevelopment project
• Treena Duncan, Executive Minister of PMRC, and Simon LeSieur, President for PMRC, on behalf of the Pacific Mountain Regional Council of the United Church of Canada

Thank you to Heather, Treena, Barb and Rev. Bob Burrows for doing the honours of cutting the ribbon and marking this new milestone for FIRST UNITED!

We’d like to express gratitude to Y.P. Heung Foundation for the donation of Fred Herzog’s Chinatown photos, which guests admired on the third floor while touring our program spaces. We’ll continue to adorn the walls and space with art from local DTES artists and urban Indigenous artists.
And finally, we’d like to thank every single one of you for playing a significant part in making this building possible. On Monday we announced that we officially reached and surpassed our $39 million fundraising goal, and we couldn’t have done it without your collective support and generosity! Now, we have a stretch goal of $40 million to cover important startup, furnishing and activation, and contingency planning costs.

If you weren’t able to join us, there will be more opportunities to see our new space. We’ll have a dedication of our sacred space later this summer, and we’re continuing to organize group tours of the building (click to register) before we open to the public. You can also email firstforward@firstunited.ca to let us know if you’d like to be invited.

It was an honour to share this moment of celebration with everybody, and to take in what this new building means. It means dignity, belonging and justice for generations to come in the DTES. It will be a place where we know your name, and you are seen.

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National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

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