Here in Vancouver, Canada’s QMUNITY and Vancity marked this year’s celebrations with the 8th Annual International Day Against Homophobia Breakfast on May 17 at the Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver and the theme was “Queering the Workplace: How LGTB Inclusion is Good for Business”.

And this evening, Vancouver’s Rainbow Refugee Committee is having a benefit tonight where they will be showing 3 short films on queer refugees followed by a Q & A with filmmaker and NGO journalist Paula Stromberg.  The event starts at 7pm, suggested donation at the door is $10, or donate what you can. It’s at the Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway near Main.

But how does IDAHO relate to homelessness? Yesterday the Tyee wrote about a Queer and Trans Poverty Study, a research project that’s being done by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition. Studies have been done in other major centres in North America, showing that the queer and trans community is over represented in homeless populations. We definitely experienced that at some of our temporary shelters over the past three years, but this study could go a long way to back this up and lead to more solutions. Check it out!

How are you celebrating the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia?

Your all time favourite Girls Rock Camp Vancouver has partnered with our first ever DTES Women’s Rock Camp. And we are REALLY excited!

But we need your help. Volunteers are needed for some or all of the days of the camp. And the deadline is coming up fast!

• What: DTES Women’s Rock Camp
• When: June 4^th to 6^th, 12pm to 6pm, and June 7^th, 1pm to 8pm
• Where: Chapel Arts, 304 Dunley, Vancouver

Visit www.surveymonkey.com/dteswomensrockcamp, fill out the application and we’ll be contacting you with more training details.

We need 10 to 12 volunteers with musical experience, and 10 to 12 volunteers to help with everything that happens behind the scenes. You’ll be joining RainCity support staff and a core group of Girls Rock Camp organizers to make this the most amazing rock camp ever! Transgendered, Gender Variant and Gender Queer folks are more than welcome!

Benefits include:

1. Inspirational and information rich training by long time social advocate Vikki Reynolds, PHD, RCC and Hayley Sinclair, Peer Programs Coordinator, Vancouver Coastal Health.
2. Food!
3. Probably the MOST FUN EVER and an opportunity to work AND learn from some of the toughest and most rad campers you can ever hope to meet!

If you have any questions about volunteering or the camp itself, you can contact Aaron, Tara, or Danielle.

Thanks for volunteering!

While it isn’t a home, providing a low barrier shelter is a great way to bring people inside that have been living on the street for years. Once inside, a person can stop wondering where the next meal is coming from, or if they’ll be safe when they’re sleeping, and start to focus on locating affordable housing, like our Lux Apartments, or make friends that can become room mates, and then pool their resources in order to make a place more affordable.

Providing low barrier shelters and building new housing like the Lux or the Budzey Building – these are great ways to address homelessness!

What else can Vancouver do to end homelessness?

I’m choosing to take time, each week running a little further, a little longer, shortening the periods of walking in between the spats of running, and doing it all in a gradual, healthy, and mindful way so that when June 24 shows up, I’ll be ready. First I chose the goal, and then I decided how I would reach it.

The same kind of steps can be applied for other choices people make, like choosing to stop using drugs. While some individuals can stop using substances on the spot, a lot of folks can’t, including those who have been using for a long time. There are many safe ways, like methadone maintenance, where a person can gradually reduce the amount of drugs they use, until the day they are drug free. This is Harm Reduction at work, and so is choosing to switch from something like crystal meth to pot or alcohol, both options doing far less damage and are therefore healthier choices. But the choice has to be theirs.

If I started running or stopped using substances because someone else told me I had to, the personal gain wouldn’t really be mine; I couldn’t take credit for the change or the gain, because it’s wasn’t my choice. And if I didn’t succeed, I could blame someone else.

Choice. Action. Results. This happens so many times each day that we lose count, and we’re either better or worse off each time. But when the choice to act is our own, the success is also our own, and personal success leads to improved self-confidence and self-respect, which can lead to more success.

What choices did you make today. What were the results?

Bad news – last week the Metro Vancouver Homelessness Count released their final numbers, and while the overall numbers didn’t change, the female share of the homeless population increased. In the 2005 count, one in four counted was female but in 2011 it was nearly one in three. And the number of homeless families counted increased; 56 homeless families with 54 children were found, the highest number of families ever recorded in a Count, the majority of these families led by single mothers.

Good news! In only a few short months we’ll be breaking ground for our newest and biggest building, the Budzey Building (named after Lorna Budzey). 147 units! And the best part? All the units are for women! 101 units will be studio suites for women on their own, and 46 units will be two and three bedroom units for single mother led families. We’re really excited about this, as both the building and the women and families living there will have a positively huge (and hugely positive) impact on the Downtown Eastside.

What good news will you celebrate on International Women’s Day?

But we made it, and it was so worth it! For the second year now, a group of students that this year included the amazing trio of Tiffany Jeen, Riyanka Minhas, and Jocelyn Tsai, have arranged a unique kind of fundraiser, ‘A Dare to Remember’. The students vote on which teachers they want to participate in funny, humbling, maybe even embarrassing performances, and the teachers with the most votes are committed to doing a dare to remember. But their votes cost money. This year they raised over $1000 for RainCity Housing!

I don’t know about you, but when I was in high school, I was selling chocolate covered almonds so I could go on a band trip, not raising money for someone else. And I don’t think I even knew what homelessness was.

So we were able to thank everyone that cared and dared, we laughed and laughed, and were reminded once again that anyone, any age, can do something to help end homelessness. Oh, and the car did make it back, even though the light stayed on.

Thank you, Seaquam Secondary!

Have a look at last year’s ‘A Dare to Remember’:

It’s also to remind us that changes still need to be made in order to make every neighbourhood safe for every person. Visit their site to find out what action the Feb 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee and others are taking internationally in order to address this.

Last year Alejandro Zuluaga and Harsha Walia made an amazing short film, “Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside” that documents the 20 year history of the annual women’s memorial march for missing and murdered women in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. We posted a link to this amazing video last year. It’s definitely worth watching again and sharing online.

On Valentine’s Day come out to show your love and support. And remember.

While our ‘Streetmelt’ campaign didn’t make it to the finals, it did generate a lot of interest and support in this social enterprise idea. It’s now in a redevelopment stage and we would love any creative, logistical or financial input that would take it closer to becoming a reality. Call or email us!

On November 21, we had a Folding Party for our annual appeal. The gorgeous package was conceived and designed by Flipside Creative – all for free! And many of their staff, along with several other volunteers, made up the Folding Party group that assembled 6000 packages. Thank you, Flipside, and our volunteers that made this happen. Maybe one of your neighbours got one in the mail. Or maybe you did. Tell us what you think!

Our Donor Recognition Event on Nov 28 was warm, well attended and wonderful.  We decorated Heritage Hall on Main Street with art hanging from clotheslines, made grill cheese sandwiches fresh right in the hall, had a park bench and street buskers  – we brought the outside inside. Let us know what you thought if you attended, and thank you once again to all of our donors.

You might have heard in the news that all three of our temporary shelters are now up and running and each one filled up within days of opening. That’s 120 people that are now inside and no longer living on the street or in other unsafe situations. One is a reopened location, 1442 Howe Street, and opened on Dec 5. The other two are new; the Marble Arch opened on Dec 15 and is a renovated Hotel at 518 Richards with the shelter set up in what was once the pub, and the other is at 2950 Prince Edward, near Mount St Joseph’s Hospital, and opened on Dec 21.

Earlier this month we found out we were chosen to design and run a supported housing development in Coquitlam. It will be two programs – a 30 bed emergency shelter, and a transitional housing program with 30 studio suites for folks that are homeless. But it will be crucial to build healthy relationships with our partners, our neighbours and the larger community and we look forward to doing just that.

So thank you to all that made all of the above possible this past year. It takes more than a building, or a nonprofit, or even a city to end homelessness. It takes all of us.

What will you do to end homeless in 2012?

Street Melt! It’s a social enterprise idea that’s competing against entries all across Canada as part of the Aviva Community Fund grant competition.  It’s a chance to provide people an opportunity to become a part of the community and educate that community. It’s a chance to build self-esteem, create confidence, and provide entry level employment.

Right now many people living in our housing programs are looking for something like this because, deep down, people have a need to contribute. People need a home, and friend and something to do. This is the something to do part.

But to make it happen we need your help! The ideas with the most votes go on to the next round. After you register you can vote once a day, every day until Oct 19. The sooner you register, the more votes you have. You can register to vote here. Once there you can either use your email or facebook info to register.

Check our website often and after Oct 19 we’ll let you know if we made it to the next round. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe Street Melt will share in the $1,000,000 Aviva Community Fund. Which would be good, because everybody loves grill cheese sandwiches!

PS – check out Breakfast TV on City TV tomorrow morning when our Communications guy, Bill Briscall, will talk about this great idea.

First:

We had Jaime and Catherine get supplies from Home Depot and then assemble and brighten up our ‘house’.

Then:

We had Dueck provide a truck and swag for the parade.

Next:

The Parade, of course! We had staff, friends, family, friends of family, spouses, and – just like last year – the amazing Carnival Band!

And finally:

Our booth at Sunset Beach. Many people dropped by to show support, ask questions, or just wish us a ‘Happy Pride!’ Yes, there are no people in these pictures – that’s cuz when we were talking with folks we couldn’t take the pictures!

There are many more pics at our Flickr page, thanks to Jean Cueta, Vancouver-based photographer extraordinaire. And you should check out the Carnival Band’s Flickr page as well. And I almost forgot – there are videos! Below is just one clip, courtesy of ‘butchnews’. There are more video links at our Pride 2011 page. Happy Pride!!