On site at this years Livestock Block Party will be the 2ND ANNUAL LIVESTOCK SNEAKER DRIVE! After the great success of last years drive we have teamed up again with The Portland Hotel Society and LifeSkills Center for another go of it. Adidas will once again graciously kick off the donations with 175 pairs of new shoes but it is the personal donations from the public that make the huge difference.

On Sunday September 13th, the day of the block party bring down any used, new, mens, womans, kids shoes (any footwear, NOT JUST SNEAKERS!) that are cluttering your closet and they will find a home on the feet of the Vancouver Downtown East Side’s most needy.

Last year we gathered over 600 pairs of shoes that later were distributed to a lineup that stretched around the block at the LifeSkills Center!

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Here is some info on both PHS and LifeSkills (make sure to click “more” for all of the info!):

PHS:

The PHS grew out of the Downtown Eastside community, in an initiative that began in 1991. An agreement was signed with the owners of an old Hotel (now named the Pennsylvania Hotel) at 412 Carrall St. on a corner in the heart of Vancouver’s poorest community. This 70 Room single occupancy hotel was to be operated by a non-profit society, to house the homeless. The Society was formed in 1993, spearheaded by Liz Evans, a former nurse who began working at the Hotel in 1991.

The Society was established due to the fact that the Portland quickly became home to some of the City’s “Hardest to House” residents. People for whom housing stability had previously been impossible. A group characterized by tremendous personal chaos, emotional instability, living in extreme poverty, frequently suffering from mental illness, living with addictions and often facing serious illnesses such as HIV/ AIDS, Hepatitis, TB and malnutrition.

Since it’s inception, the PHS has been attempting to provide housing and services to people living in the community, in a way that is realistic and relevant and has tirelessly supported the basic housing needs and rights of this group. This objective has become increasingly clear over the years, as the low-income community has had to face the increasing threat of gentrification, and obsolescence. The PHS knows that there is a continual struggle to secure enough decent housing units to stabilize the lives of those still considered homeless or ‘under-housed,’ before there are huge numbers displaced in the community as a result of new developments that are unwelcoming towards existing residents.

In it’s hotels, the PHS has built a model of housing that attempts to do a little bit more, with one of the only housing resources available to a certain population living in the DTES. The PHS attempts to operate its hotels in a humane and supportive way, to secure and stabilize tenancy, for a group otherwise frequently faced with eviction. The resources that go into the Hotels to support this work are minimal, but as such, they are a good beginning. They do not, however, replace the need to build new and better-equipped homes.

LIFESKILLS CENTRE:

The LifeSkills Centre is a unique and groundbreaking resource centre for high-risk drug users in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. The centre provides a barrier free environment for drug users to access basic services such as laundry and showers, and to enter low threshold programs and classes. The Centre boasts over 3500 registered card-carrying members, and facilitates an average of 850 visits daily. Many of the initiatives provided through the LifeSkills Centre are based on the idea that there is hope for people living with addictions. The LifeSkills Centre creates opportunities to reach those who have the least in material and cultural capitol and have been in the past, considered hard if not impossible to reach. We continually fulfil a harm reduction mandate based on the immediate needs of the individual, designed to encompass the broader needs of those who are isolated and multiply barriered.

The LifeSkills team (comprised of both PHS staff and Peer Workers ) has identified some key elements that were directly effecting the wellbeing of the LifeSkills Centre member. A constant deficit in quality, nutritionally balanced, free, and easily available food appears to be a growing problem. In our plight to address the changing needs of the community and meet the immediate needs of the individual, community kitchen initiatives, and over 250 meals are provided daily, supported by fruit, pastries, juice and milk.

We aim to empower the lives of our visitors, and provide the tools to support them in their daily struggle to achieve stability, and maintain or secure housing and employment. Successful pre-employment programs like the Interurban, Literacy In Sight, and The Radio Station Café have already provided, inter-personal skills, and capacity building, literacy programming, training and employment for community members.