Our Strategic Programs
2012 Grant Recipients
Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society (PICS)
PICS is a community services society that provides various programs and services including employment programs, settlement services, language services, social programs and housing services. They have teamed up with Alex Sangha, social worker and community connector, for the first phase of Dignity House, affordable housing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirited (LGBTT) seniors in Vancouver, and their friends and allies. This phase will determine the need and demand for the project and determine if the project is financially feasible.
Centennial Day Care Society
Centennial Day Care Society has partnered with the 1Up Victoria Single Parent Resource Centre Society and Victoria Silver Threads Service (the 'Trio') to co-locate in an intergenerational hub of family services serving young children, single parents and seniors. This unique collaborative designed, with shared spaces and coordinated programming, will reduce isolation and barriers to well-being, foster closer ties between the generations, and strengthen community. Over the next year, the project will further the shared goal of the Trio by enabling them to conduct the pre-development work necessary to take the project from concept design through to ready-to-build stage, and launch a capital campaign by late fall of 2013.
La Maison de la Francophonie
La Maison de la Fracophonie will use VCF funds to explore a second phase of a social purpose real estate planning project that will examine the impacts of either redeveloping their current site, or relocating to a new site.
Potluck Café and Catering
The Potluck Café Society will develop The Collective Procurement Network guided by the DTES Kitchen Tables Project. The network will be comprised of a collaboration of DTES food providers who share common purchases, goals and proximity that will be used to leverage the collective buying power of the group to secure the lowest possible pricing for quality food items using a sustainable purchasing model.
Sea to Sky Community Services
Sea to Sky Community Services Society is currently finalizing plans to construct a new Sea to Sky Community Services centre in Squamish with support from VCF. An opportunity to build this centre was created with the generous donation of land from Squamish United Church. Owning their own facility will put Sea to Sky on solid financial footing and make them better able to respond to current and future community needs.
Still Moon Arts Society
Still Moon Arts Society will use VCF funds to support a collaboration between arts, environmental, community and educational organizations to initiate ecosystem-based restoration of Renfrew Ravine and Still Creek. The project engages participants in implementation of a plan where youth lead and where the arts are an integral part of the expression of caring for the earth. This process will provide a model for environmental organizations to connect with urban populations.
REACH Community Health Centre
REACH, a community health centre located on the east side of Vancouver since 1969, endeavours to meet the medical, dental, and cultural needs of the community with an emphasis on prevention. In the development of programs, REACH strives to reflect the ongoing needs of the ever changing composition of the community. This grant will enable REACH to conduct a feasibility study to investigate real estate options for new premises, to meet the organization's current and future needs.
Squamish Helping Hands Society
Squamish Helping Hands, the only emergency shelter in the Sea to Sky Corridor, is committed to individual and community health through sustainable shelter and food solutions that endorse and encourage an end to hunger and homelessness in the community. In order to maintain their current level of activity and continue to address the level of shelter required in the community, Helping Hands has identified that its operating space needs must be addressed. VCF grant funds will allow Helping Hands to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on a proposed new site, to determine its suitability for addressing their space and programming needs.
Carnegie Community Action Project for the Downtown Eastside Low-Income Resident Network Project ccapvancouver.wordpress.com
The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver so the DTES can remain a low-income friendly community. This grant will support CCAP's Downtown Eastside Low-Income Resident Network Project, which will explore the potential of building a new network of diverse DTES low-income residents who sometimes take opposing positions on controversial community issues. The goal of this project is to support resident leaders to explore common ground and bring these leaders together to influence social change in the DTES.
Salsbury Community Society for the Co:Here Community Housing Project www.salsburycommunitysociety.ca
The Salsbury Community Society, an offshoot of the faith community of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, is a community of locally-rooted initiatives committed to the welcome and support of vulnerable people. This grant supports the second phase of the Co:Here Community Housing Project, which will develop a church parking lot into affordable supportive housing for low-income singles and families, as well as people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Fundamental to this project is a vision of community life in which people share physical space, material resources, and life experiences together. Embedded in an intentional community present on site, Salsbury Community Society hopes to create a place of home and dignity for those being pushed out of the neighbourhood.
Farm Folk City Folk for Young Agrarians http://farmfolkcityfolk.ca
Farm Folk City Folk (FFCF) is a not for profit society whose projects provide access to and protection of foodlands, support local growers and producers, and engage communities in the celebration of local food. This grant will support Young Agrarians (YA), a B.C. based project to grow young farmers. YA will strategically convene farm-involved individuals and organizations to collaboratively develop a province wide outreach program designed to network young farmers, grow the number of young people farming, and develop economic support for young farmer initiatives. The long-term vision of YA is to increase local food production and the economic viability of urban and rural farming, as well as to increase involvement of young farmers in advocacy and policy issues that support small-scale farmers.
PICS is a community services society that provides various programs and services including employment programs, settlement services, language services, social programs and housing services. They have teamed up with Alex Sangha, social worker and community connector, for the first phase of Dignity House, affordable housing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirited (LGBTT) seniors in Vancouver, and their friends and allies. This phase will determine the need and demand for the project and determine if the project is financially feasible.
Centennial Day Care Society
Centennial Day Care Society has partnered with the 1Up Victoria Single Parent Resource Centre Society and Victoria Silver Threads Service (the 'Trio') to co-locate in an intergenerational hub of family services serving young children, single parents and seniors. This unique collaborative designed, with shared spaces and coordinated programming, will reduce isolation and barriers to well-being, foster closer ties between the generations, and strengthen community. Over the next year, the project will further the shared goal of the Trio by enabling them to conduct the pre-development work necessary to take the project from concept design through to ready-to-build stage, and launch a capital campaign by late fall of 2013.
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La Maison de la Francophonie
La Maison de la Fracophonie will use VCF funds to explore a second phase of a social purpose real estate planning project that will examine the impacts of either redeveloping their current site, or relocating to a new site.
Potluck Café and Catering
The Potluck Café Society will develop The Collective Procurement Network guided by the DTES Kitchen Tables Project. The network will be comprised of a collaboration of DTES food providers who share common purchases, goals and proximity that will be used to leverage the collective buying power of the group to secure the lowest possible pricing for quality food items using a sustainable purchasing model.
Sea to Sky Community Services
Sea to Sky Community Services Society is currently finalizing plans to construct a new Sea to Sky Community Services centre in Squamish with support from VCF. An opportunity to build this centre was created with the generous donation of land from Squamish United Church. Owning their own facility will put Sea to Sky on solid financial footing and make them better able to respond to current and future community needs.
Still Moon Arts Society
Still Moon Arts Society will use VCF funds to support a collaboration between arts, environmental, community and educational organizations to initiate ecosystem-based restoration of Renfrew Ravine and Still Creek. The project engages participants in implementation of a plan where youth lead and where the arts are an integral part of the expression of caring for the earth. This process will provide a model for environmental organizations to connect with urban populations.
REACH Community Health Centre
REACH, a community health centre located on the east side of Vancouver since 1969, endeavours to meet the medical, dental, and cultural needs of the community with an emphasis on prevention. In the development of programs, REACH strives to reflect the ongoing needs of the ever changing composition of the community. This grant will enable REACH to conduct a feasibility study to investigate real estate options for new premises, to meet the organization's current and future needs.
Squamish Helping Hands Society
Squamish Helping Hands, the only emergency shelter in the Sea to Sky Corridor, is committed to individual and community health through sustainable shelter and food solutions that endorse and encourage an end to hunger and homelessness in the community. In order to maintain their current level of activity and continue to address the level of shelter required in the community, Helping Hands has identified that its operating space needs must be addressed. VCF grant funds will allow Helping Hands to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study on a proposed new site, to determine its suitability for addressing their space and programming needs.
December 2011 VCF grant recipients:
Carnegie Community Action Project for the Downtown Eastside Low-Income Resident Network Project ccapvancouver.wordpress.com
The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver so the DTES can remain a low-income friendly community. This grant will support CCAP's Downtown Eastside Low-Income Resident Network Project, which will explore the potential of building a new network of diverse DTES low-income residents who sometimes take opposing positions on controversial community issues. The goal of this project is to support resident leaders to explore common ground and bring these leaders together to influence social change in the DTES.
Salsbury Community Society for the Co:Here Community Housing Project www.salsburycommunitysociety.ca
The Salsbury Community Society, an offshoot of the faith community of Grandview Calvary Baptist Church, is a community of locally-rooted initiatives committed to the welcome and support of vulnerable people. This grant supports the second phase of the Co:Here Community Housing Project, which will develop a church parking lot into affordable supportive housing for low-income singles and families, as well as people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Fundamental to this project is a vision of community life in which people share physical space, material resources, and life experiences together. Embedded in an intentional community present on site, Salsbury Community Society hopes to create a place of home and dignity for those being pushed out of the neighbourhood.
Farm Folk City Folk for Young Agrarians http://farmfolkcityfolk.ca
Farm Folk City Folk (FFCF) is a not for profit society whose projects provide access to and protection of foodlands, support local growers and producers, and engage communities in the celebration of local food. This grant will support Young Agrarians (YA), a B.C. based project to grow young farmers. YA will strategically convene farm-involved individuals and organizations to collaboratively develop a province wide outreach program designed to network young farmers, grow the number of young people farming, and develop economic support for young farmer initiatives. The long-term vision of YA is to increase local food production and the economic viability of urban and rural farming, as well as to increase involvement of young farmers in advocacy and policy issues that support small-scale farmers.