Whitecaps footballer, Portland FC and Portland Phoenix coaches!
Today’s a great day for some soccer. Sure it is a bit wet and cold in Vancouver. But that’s how we roll on the Westcoast. So if you’re downtown, think about stopping by the Art Gallery lawn and support the 24 Hour Soccer Marathon.
The kick off was at 7:45 AM this morning and throughout the day there will be some great music, food, entertainment and soccer (cue jazz hands!). The whole marathon is aimed at raising awareness around the New Fountain Shelter, an amazing homeless shelter that’s been in operation since early 2009.
Opened at Christmas in 2008, the New Fountain Shelter, funded for only 27 beds, regularly sleeps close to 40 people night after night. In addition to providing a temporary shelter for Vancouver’s homeless the New Fountain has connected over 300 people to safe, permanent housing and works hard to connect people to the medical and social services they need. BC Housing has announced that funding will not be continued beyond April 30th, after which time the Shelter would be forced to close, putting people back on the streets.
To help draw attention to the shelter and all the great work it does, Portland FC and Portland Phoenix (both of which have many players drawn from the New Fountain) will be playing for 24 hours straight to highlight the shelter and its great work. Pop by on your lunch break, coffee break, after work or at 2 PM on the way home from the bar. We’ll still be playing soccer! Check out some great initial photos from the event. Special shout out to some VIPs that took time to come out and show support to the shelter. Note the really,tall guy is David Eby, who is making a run at an MLA seat in Vancouver West Pt. Grey against new BC Premier Christy Clark. In goal is Vision Vancouver Councillor Andrea Reimer and on the field playing is Vision Vancouver Park Commissioner Sarah Blyth. Great work everyone!
It’s been an exciting time for a number of young men who herald from the Downtown Eastside. After over a year of practice, eight young men (six of whom are from First Nations around BC) will be heading to Rio on September 15 to represent Canada in the Homeless World Cup. Haven’t heard of the Homeless World Cup? Here are some fast facts:
The Homeless World Cup is a world-class, annual, international football tournament
It uses soccer (aka football) as a catalyst to encourage people who are homeless to change their lives; and to change the attitudes of governments, media, public and key influencers to create better solutions to homelessness around the world
64 Teams are competing this year
Last year’s cup was in Milan and the next will be in Paris
Team Canada is going to win (probably!)
Team Canada was drawn from Portland FC, a team drawn from the Portland Hotel Society managed HEAT shelters and the Eastside Sun Eagles, a pick up team of DTES residents. It’s exciting the Team representing Canada will be coming from an area often written off as a hopeless basket case of poverty and addiction. Its neat to think of such a success coming from such a tough as nails neighborhood. It is a success that’s being talked up around East Hastings most days and is capturing the imagination of many Vancouverites. Last week, this spirit was showcased on CTV and endorsed in an editorial in the Vancouver Province. This weekend, the team met Bobbie Lenarduzzi and were recognized at a Vancouver Whitecaps game.
While individual players are kicking bad habits one after another, Portland organizers and volunteers are increasingly looking to expand the Portland FC model and reach out to the dozens of other shelter residents spread around the Downtown Core. A women’s team is in the process of being formed.
None of this could have happened without the rallying support of dozens of coaches, coordinators and supporters. As a team member, its been truly heartening and inspiring to see how activists, businesses and non-profit organizations in and around the DTES have come together to donate what they can (be it time, supplies or money) and provide the team with the resources they need to succeed. Be it businesses like Fairware, Farpost, London Drugs, Eclipse Awards, Darwin Construction, Anti-Social or organizations like Coastal Health, UBC Psychiatry or the Portland Hotel Society, Portland FC and Team Canada represent a effective (and hopefully duplicable) model of what can happen when a community comes together to make a good idea happen.
In the end, no matter what the results are in Brazil, Team Canada and the community that’s come together to support it are all winners.
As desribed by co-creator Anthony Munoz, Gastown is a meeting of worlds – from hipster hang outs to dot com start ups to the Lower Eastside’s down and outs. Take a journey through the streets of Gastown through the eyes of those who frequent the streets, and experience the less glamorous side of Gastown.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to an ongoing segment here at The Daily Gumboot. It’s called “Get to Know Your Community” and, basically, it goes like this: each and every Sunday we will profile someone from a community somewhere. Each person is asked the same five questions (see below as well as in the “Ideas from Everywhere” page). At the end of the profile, the Gumbooteer (member of this blog’s Editorial Board) who found the person will list their three favourite things about the highlighted community member. Savvy?
Here are some ideas from everywhere. Here is one way that we try to build community. Have fun with it!
1. Who are you?
A sucker for punishment. After 13 years of university, I’ve finally had a real job for the last year and a half as a Psychiatry Resident at UBC. I’m currently working at St. Paul’s Hospital and continuing to learn things from supervisors and patients. Before starting medical school, I did a PhD in Neuroscience that focused on measuring EEG/brain waves in people with schizophrenia with the aim of trying to understand the illness better. Now I’m trying to combine research and clinical work so that each enhances the other.
2. What do you do for fun?
I’m always up for any kind of team sport. Soccer and ball hockey are probably my two favourites. It’s great to lose yourself in the excitement and unpredictability of sports, and victory and defeat are both so much better when shared with a team. I also like to watch hockey and go to movies and concerts with friends and family.
3. What’s your favourite community and why?
Portland FC forever! I’ve been fortunate enough to play with and coach this amazing soccer team of residents from Portland Hotel Society buildings and other hotels and shelters in the Downtown Eastside. I’ve seen skill, dedication, and most of all camaraderie beyond anything that I’ve seen on any other team. In addition to a great team, we’ve got a great network of volunteers as well, and it’s an honour to work with everyone. Look out Toronto and the rest of Canada, because we’re coming to the National Street Soccer Championships!
4. What is your superpower?
I’ve been told that my limerick-writing abilities are wasted in my current profession.
5. How does your power help you build community?
It’s fair to say that it’s crimeless
If in the end your message ain’t timeless
But if you’re going to spread reason
From season to season
You’d best be sure it’s not rhymeless
My three favourite things about Alan Bates are…
1. He’s cool as a cucumber. That’s sort of what has to happen when your dealing everyday with folks suffering from a dogs-breakfast of mental illnesses. Despite his ability to calmly help people deal with serious struggles, Alan’s also got a deep compassionate streak. He does what he does because he cares and that’s just groovy.
2. He’s a world class soccer coach. Alan is the master of drills. He’s a calm and structured voice in the sometimes unstructured community of Portland FC. He’s also got mad skills and a coach’s passion for his team. Take a recent tournament played in North Van. Portland was in dead heat with their arch rivals and the team was getting some suspect calls from the ref. Despite this, Alan managed to retain a strategic head while still moving to within millimeters of the sidelines and (in the time honored tradition of all great coaches) gestured wildly in an effort to advocate for our team – or so goes the word on the street.
3. He’s genuinely committed to making a difference. Over the past year I’ve practiced and played with Alan every week. It has been a terrific experience and I’ve constantly been impressed by his strong belief in the team and the good it is doing in a community he very obviously cares about. The Downtown Eastside needs more people like Alan and the profession of psychiatry needs more doctors like him.
Your Olympic Neighbourhood this week is…The Downtown East Side (with special appearances by Chinatown and Gastown)!
As a key media outlet for the 2010 Olympics, the Daily Gumboot is excited to bring you our “Olympics Neighbourhood” segment. Here’s how it works: each week, Managing Editor, Kurt Heinrich, and Editor-in-Chief, John will profile a different Vancouver neighbourhood with a specific focus on things that might interest out-of-town visitors who arrive in The Couve for the Olympics. We will do this between now and the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and the story will be told be the Gumboot’s editors asking and answering the five questions below. These are the straight goods that you can’t get from VANOC, the Ministry of Tourism or the City of Vancouver. Let’s get to it!
1. Where is this neighbourhood exactly and how do I get there?
JOHN: Well, I will once again leave it to Kurt to create and deliver an amazing Googlemap. This neighbourhood is part of the “Olympic Corridor,” so you will be walking to it, my tourist friends. As mentioned in the video, many a tourist has aimlessly wandered or bicycled into “Canada’s poorest postal code” while trying to navigate their way from Gastown to historic Chinatown. Many tourism bloggers will tell you to be wary of such misadventures. We say “explore all communities” and “talk to strangers” here at the Daily Gumboot; just be sure to bring common sense along during your exploration.
KURT: Here’s the map. The big red icon (surprise, surprise) shows roughly where the neighbourhood is.
2. Why should a tourist/traveler be interested in it?
JOHN: Well, there are a lot of problems in the Downtown East Side; addiction, abuse, poverty, neglect, violence, and injustice are right out in the open. In spite of many political and business leaders’ best efforts to “clean up” the DTES before the Olympics, the homeless remain in this neighbourhood. And so does hope. Believe it or not, a lot of good people do a lot of good things in this neighbourhood. From Tradeworks, a woodworking cooperative, to United We Can, a collection of social enterprises that create employment for disadvantaged folks, to the Potluck Cafe, see the video, the DTES possesses some fantastic stories of human innovation. Look. Go to the West End, Yaletown and Kits and strike up a conversation. Then go to the Downtown East Side and have a chat with a local. Which conversation is more interesting and memorable? Yeah…that’s what I thought.
A tough life on the streets.
KURT: There are also a lot of terrific places to see. Some of Vancouver’s best heritage sites exist in the Gastown area (right next to the DTES). There you can see dozens of turn of the century (and older) buildings. The brick buildings with wood ceiling beams are fascinating to see and not duplicated anywhere else in the city.
3. What good and/or unique things are there to eat?
JOHN: Chinatown is full of unique things, such as duck, which is a favourite of my editorial partner, Kurt Heinrich. With the delicious restaurants of Gastown just a stroll away, you will be in position for good eating.
KURT: Good places to check out include Nuba (for healthy middle eastern and Mediterranean food), the Potluck Cafe (mentioned in our video), the Carnegie Cafeteria (if you’re all tapped out after paying thousands for Olympic tickets and want to buy a meal for just 2 bucks), the Cambie (great for burgers and really cheap beer), and Hons (a Chinese cuisine experience like no other).
4. What can I do for fun in this neighbourhood?
Gastown - chock full of heritage...
JOHN: People watching is always a good bet. Many Canadians affiliate altruism with fun, so lending a hand and helping out at one of these fine establishments would certainly add an interesting and meaningful chapter to your Olympic visit. I also highly recommend taking in some kind of performance at the Firehall Arts Centre (if you have time you can check out the Vancouver Police Museum, too). And, if you’re lucky, you will be in the ‘hood on a day when the Portland FC street soccer team is playing a game.
5. What are your three favourite things about the Downtown East Side?
1. Holy crap, this is hard. I will forgo one answer to just say that, in the eyes of the world, what does it say when a country as rich as Canada lets people become marginalized in such a way? It doesn’t say much. And we can do better. We must do better.
2. Bus rides on the Number 20. A return trip on the last bus to my neighbourhood, Commercial Drive, from Downtown is, well, an experience. I’ve had my fortune told. Been asked to sell my girlfriend. Intervened in what was possibly a gang fight. Held a baby. Sang carols. Debated the meaning of life. Been educated about micro-lending and community currencies. And had my hair brushed. If you really value personal space, perhaps take a cab.
3. The DTES Bazaar. Nice try, Marrakesh, but Vancouver has a pretty darn good street bazaar where you can find all kinds of stuff – sure, mostly none of it is obtained legitimately and the whole bartering economy serves to provide temporary fixes for people who are holding on to some sort of life by the skin of their grubby and malnourished fingertips. Or something less dramatic. Besides, where else in Vancouver can you come across this delightful – and possibly not hypothetical – scene?
DTES BAZAAR WHOLESALER: Anyone want to buy a bike? Nice bike here. Good price.
DISTRESSED TOURIST: Hey! That’s my bike!
DTES BAZAAR WHOLESALER: No. No it’s not. It’s my bike. But I’m selling. Wanna buy it?
DISTRESSED TOURIST: I’ve had this bike for three years. My wife and I rode over from Victoria yesterday. I left it for a few minutes outside while I went into a grocery store to buy some fruit. That scratch – right there – that happened riding the Galloping Goose trail in Saanich! It’s mine!
DTES BAZAAR WHOLESALER: No, that didn’t happen. And these two guys say that it’s my bike.
FIRST BAZAAR BYSTANDER: Yeah, it’s his bike.
SECOND BAZAAR BYSTANDER: He rides it all the time. I seen it.
DTES BAZAAR WHOLESALER: So, do we have a deal?
[and scene]
So there it is. In 2006, when I landed at the airport in Nairobi, a gentleman named Mohammad gave me some good advice; he called it the Two Rules of Africa: “never underestimate peoples’ kindness and don’t trust anybody.” The same might apply for your visit to this Olympic Neighbourhood, too.
3. The DTES Bazaar. Nice try, Marrakesh, but Vancouver has a pretty darn good street bazaar where you can find all kinds of stuff – sure,