Dafna Ohana of the Job Shop put together some beautiful party platters. She used to work in catering and you can tell! Just one of her many talents.

Friends new and old attended the event. At left is Gabe Mo-Williams, the latest addition to the BOB family. His proud parents James and Ada are in the centre, flanked by former BOB CEO Shirley Chan on the left and Maureen Collier of BOB & Tradeworks on the right. Gabe was happy to meet everyone but found the party rather tiresome.

It was great to see so many people mingling and enjoying the spirit of the season.

Rob Holland and Seann Dory from Solefood Urban Farm came to the soiree. Rob kindly shared his story for the crowd, telling us how meaningful it is for him to continue working on the farm and how he got started there with help from the BOB Businesslinks urban farmer training program.

Heather Sinclair, formerly of the Job Shop, recently moved to IAM CARES Society. Here she is with Louise Hibbs of IAM CARES Society and Danielle Kottmeier, formerly of IAM CARES and now one of our own here at BOB!

The gang from Open Door were very cheerful and festive! They really enjoyed the choice dim sum we brought in from local restaurant Jade Dynasty.

Irwin Oostindie from W2 Media Cafe took time out between events to join us. Here he is with our very own Liz Charyna.

Liz presented Barb Mount from Impark with an award for the leadership they have shown in partnering with BOB to create a culture of diversity hiring. In the last year they have hired 11 individuals through us for everything from CSR to data entry. Their commitment to working with BOB has  improved the lives of many while also creating positive change in the culture of their call center. Trimpac-Sysco also received an award for hiring local residents, and we honoured Tradeworks Training Society and the Salvation Army Belkin House for their commitment to partnering with BOB and other agencies to create meaningful change in people’s lives.

The whole BOB team – Emily, Andrew, Liz, Danielle and Lani – still cheerful at the end of a long night!

In particular, they make hot sandwiches stuffed to the gills with gourmet meats, cheeses and veggies. They also have a nutella and bananna option for a sophisticated alternative to the old favorite PB&J. Their catering menu is more extensive, offering breakfast pastries, fruit platters, cheese platters, dips and more. They also offer free consultations if you want do do an extra special lunch presentation for your office, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with Thomas and let him know exactly what you need!

What we really admire about Scent of a Sandwich is that they’re on board with the idea of inclusive revitalization, where economic development that takes place in historically under-served communities like the DTES is intentionally inclusive of existing residents in businesses. Scent of a Sandwich has demonstrated their commitment to inclusive revitalization by partnering with local employment agencies like BOB and Pathways, hiring locally through the Pathways 100 Hired Challenge, and improving their formerly vacant storefront on Main Street between Pender and Abbot (in partnership with BOB and the City of Vancouver’s Facade Program). BOB also put on a BusinessLinks session with them to do a culinary & catering staff skills training event.

Furthermore, they’re also interested in being sustainable, and are doing all their deliveries by tricycle! Looks like they’re using disposable plates at the moment, though…surely that will change soon once they get more established.

You can check them out in their new location at 418 Main St. Welcome to the neighborhood from the whole team here at BOB!

Now that we’ve set the atmosphere..

The Challenge

At BOB, we want to challenge ourselves to act more sustainable and authentically green.  So..  In order to challenge ourselves we would like to have a challenger!  We are hoping that YOU or your workplace will be up for this challenge and we’ll see how it goes!

The Point!

We want to be more green and recycle..  But it can be quite intimidating.  So we have one challenge a month, so that it is manageable and you can learn the ways of the green.

The Challenge!

• 4 people from BOB, would like to challenge a team of 4.  Or if you have a bigger or smaller group, we’ll just adjust how we score. 
• You need a team name.  And it better be good.

• Each month there will be one ‘green/recycling task’ that each person in the challenge will have to complete.

• The team who has the highest percentage of participation that complete challenges each wins!!

What do they win, you ask?  Fantastic question!  The winning team receives the ‘cup of awesome’ for one month!!!  (I’ve attached a picture of said cup of awesome)  And we can all get together for a ‘green lunch’ (also known as a salad potluck) to celebrate all of our awesomeness.

The Cup of Awesome

6 Month Green Challenge!

(one task per month)

1. Home & Office Recycling – Recycle paper and plastics.  The PROPER plastics.  Know the numbers and throw them in.
2. Beyond the Blue Box – A month of recycling all household and work plastics that aren’t city recycled.  And find a venue close to your house to take them!  (Brittania is close for me..)
3. Paint! – Find old paint, or someone else’s old paint that is going to waste and take it to the closest paint recycler.
4. Batteries – You know the drill..
5. Electronics – Same drill..
6. Compost.  This one will require some creativity by us.  But we can do it!!

For all of the green yogis out there..  Yes, this may be beginner.  But some of us are.  Join anyway!  Show us how it’s done.

Let me know if you are in..   And let the best greeny’s win!!  (even though, really, we all win in the end)

To accept this challenge (or for more info) contact Emily and Lani at jobpostings@bobics.org

BOB is Involved with some Great Local Businesses

As you may know, BOB’s mandate is to support an economic development model for Vancouver’s inner-city that is inclusive of existing residents and businesses. This is no small task, so we try to take a comprehensive approach. We work with entrepreneurs to help them get loans and grants to start their businesses. We work with business owners to provide HR services that support hiring people who are from the inner-city and have challenges to find and keep employment. We work with jobseekers to connect them to the opportunities we post. And we work with new employees to give them the practical support they need to keep their job and succeed.

We believe that this two pronged approach – working with businesses and residents – is key to creating new opportunities in the inner-city economy that help build community and social capital. A great example of the success of this model is the newly opened W2 Media Café in the Woodwards Building.

The BOB Loans program provided a portion of the start-up funding for the café. This funding complemented the countless hours of hard work W2 management and volunteers put in since 2002 to make their vision of a socially inclusive media arts and culture centre in the DTES become a reality.

W2 hired all local DTES and East Van residents to staff the café. They posted positions through their networks and through BOB’s JobPostings service. BOB’s BusinessLinks program assisted the W2 team with interviewing and candidate selection, and also sponsored barista training for 12 folks to get FoodSafe certification, customer service training, a programming overview of the media cafe, and more. Some of the successful candidates also received further support through our Supported Employment Program, getting the bus tickets and food vouchers they needed to make it to their first paycheck, and the life skills support and resources they needed to help them adjust to life on the job.

BusinessLinks Barista Training - Photo courtesy Sakura Yoshita & W2 Media Cafe

Cafe staff are now getting great opportunities to build skills and pursue activities beyond the cafe counter; several of our BusinessLinks graduates enthusiastically report getting involved with event co-ordination, volunteer coordination and program development for projects like the W2 Letterpress Studio and kids & youth media camp.

We congratulate W2 on the great job they have done building a fantastic social enterprise and inclusive community resource centre from the ground up.

Did You Know…

Did you know that the BOB Loans Program has supported the start-up of several other local businesses you may have noticed? These include the reopening of Save-on-Meats at their iconic 43 West Hastings storefront, Scent of a Sandwich (opening soon at 418 Main), Calabash at 428 Carrall St, and Yogiberry at 306 Carrall St.

Andrew and Lani at Save-on-Meats. Lani's coffee is by W2 Media Cafe.

New Job Postings

Visit www.bobics.org and look under ‘HR Services’ to apply.

Intakes for the Cycleback Bicycle Repair Program are on-going. Contact Lani at lani.johnson@bobics.org to book an appointment.

W2 Media Café
Senior Barista
Cook

Recycling Alternative
Recycling Sorter/Tote Washer

Events
SHINE Supper – September 19th
All past and present clients of BOB’s Supported Employment Program are welcome to join us for dinner at the BOB office from 4-6pm! Catered meal by Potluck Cafe. RSVP to 778-328-7660 or emily.smith@bobics.org

In a recent discussion with my colleagues, we came up with a few ideas on the subject.

This neighborhood is used by many as a travel corridor to get downtown. These commuters’ objective is often to travel through the area as quickly as possible, in part because of the way the neighborhood has been stigmatized as neglected ghetto of crime and poverty. While some of that may be true, it doesn’t account for the fact that there is an underrepresented and diverse community of wonderful people here who call the DTES home and deserve to have it recognized and celebrated as such. Traveling through the neighborhood at 60+kph is certainly way too fast to get acquainted with the many unique community services, architectural features, libraries, urban farms, art galleries, eateries, and shops that exist here in the heart of the city.

Furthermore, many of the opponents of the speed reduction plan protest on the grounds that it is the pedestrian’s responsibility to see if it is safe before they cross. Sure, common sense dictates that this would be the best-case scenario. But life on any busy street is unpredictable. To those who hold this view I ask: Are you a driver? How would you feel if you struck and injured or killed a pedestrian, even if it was “their fault”? It doesn’t matter who the person is, where they live, or whether they made the mistake. No one wants to be involved in a pedestrian-vehicle accident. Therefore, slowing down to increase driver awareness and reaction time, thereby reducing pedestrian fatalities, benefits everyone.

And as many pedestrians know, crossing a busy street is not an easy task at the best of times for the most able-bodied person. There are a variety of challenges that can make it even harder. In BOB’s Supported Employment Program we work with folks who have a variety of barriers to help them get on the job; many of the barriers we see actually would make crossing the street a challenge too! Have you been low income for a prolonged period of time, with a degenerative eye condition for which you cannot afford glasses? You literally cannot see well enough to cross the street in safety. Are you experiencing psychosis due to a mental health condition or drug use? If so, the reality of cars speeding down the street or the relative safety of a crosswalk may not be as it seems to you. Are you elderly or physically disabled? You may need more time to cross the street than the crosswalk allocates. And the list goes on. Are any of these cases any less worth slowing down for than, say, a kid in a school zone chasing a ball into the street? I think not.

The DTES is home to a high population of individuals with a variety of challenges in part because there is a concentration of services here, as well as a much higher degree of access to affordable housing options than the rest of the city. Every neighborhood has its own characteristic demography, and municipal policy, programming and infrastructure is targeted to reflect those special community traits. Think about your own neighborhood or your child’s school zone and how traffic is managed there. Let’s applaud the City of Vancouver for taking action on this important issue while we slow down to stop and smell the roses (or gaze at the swiss chard at SOLEFood Urban Farm, or get to know some of the local characters who make this community great).

Other news on this topic:

Vancouver Sun

BC Cycling Coalition

DTES Pedestrian Safety Project

All photos in this post courtesy of BURST! Creative Group

That’s right, the much anticipated W2 Media Cafe is open for business! They’re serving yummy Saltspring coffee and a variety of other delicious offerings. Come for the food & drink, stay for the community, politics, media and art!

The media cafe is collectively run social enterprise with a mandate to provide accessible technology for media and communications to all those to all those who need it. And that need is a pressing one: according to W2′s statistics, at least 6,000 DTES residents are without telephone, internet, or computer access. We see this in BOB’s Supported Employment Program, where many of our clients describe having no phone or computer at home, and get only limited access to communications technology through inner-city community resources that are often very busy and only open during standard business hours; many see this lack of access to technology as an obstacle to achieving their goals in life and on the job. It can also make it hard to find a job, secure permanent housing, and assert one’s voice to advocate for political change.

Fojan, an acting student, is making delicious coffee and helping with W2 programming

In terms of community, W2 hired all local DTES and East Van residents to staff the cafe. BOB’s BusinessLinks program assisted the W2 team with with hiring outreach and candidate selection, and sponsored barista training for 12 folks to get FoodSafe certification, customer service training, a programming overview of the media cafe, and more. Cafe staff are getting great opportunities to build skills and pursue activities beyond the cafe counter; several of our BusinessLinks graduates enthusiastically report getting involved with event coordination and program development for projects like the W2 Letterpress Studio and kids & youth media camp.

Debbie is a mother of 3 made temporarily homeless by unwanted apartment renovations in East Vancouver. She plays goalie for the DTES Women’s Street Soccer team and is going to Paris to play in the 2011 Homeless World Cup. She and her family are now well housed. She cites her employment at the cafe, as well as the community she connected with there, as a key part of her return to housing stability. Congratulations Debbie!

Tech geeks, artists, and anyone interested in DIY electronics will appreciate the interactive light display largely DIY’d by W2′s Tech Director WillStacey. You control the interface from within the cafe. Adjust the display pattern and the RGB scale, and look up to see the results! More exciting interactive art and technology installations to come through their Media Artist in Residence Program. Sensitive to the needs of the neighborhood, the cafe also provides free community meeting space, publicly accessible washrooms and lounge, a community media lab, and much more.

BOB is pleased to be part of supporting the start-up of W2 Media Cafe through our Loans Program. We congratulate all the founders and staff on the cafe opening, and look forward to seeing more great things come out of this ambitious project founded on grassroots principles of social inclusion. Well done!

It is this Saturday.  And it looks like a fantastic idea, and one of the many reasons I love our community.  It’s in the ‘hood, a couple of blocks away from the BOB office at False Creek (see map link below).

Join Chloe Ben­nett, a stu­dent of Land­scape Archi­tec­ture at UBC for a lively dis­cus­sion about mason bee habi­tat. Mason bees are small blue coloured bees that are impor­tant gar­den pol­li­na­tors. They have spe­cific needs for nest­ing and Chloe will be able to guide you in the proper meth­ods of build­ing a mason bee home.  She will also share her expe­ri­ence in cre­at­ing the Van­cou­ver round­about project Bees Please.

Mason Bees with Cloe Bennett

Saturday August 13th 2011, 12:00-3:00pm

At the Bulkhead Urban Agriculture Lab (adjacent to Habitat Island in the Olympic Village)  googlemap

Check out this website..  It’s for Cloe, the presenter.  http://www.beesplease.ca

It’s free!  You can pre-register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2016095195/efbevent

For more info:  http://grow-urbanagricultureproject.ca/?p=1121

“Your Life is Your Message. Make it Inspiring”: Harbour Light Detox

Kathryn George is an Addictions Counsellor with the Salvation Army’s Harbour Light Detox Centre. Their 90 day abstinence-based treatment program is composed of 3 phases. Phases 2 and 3 provide a variety of life skills support to help clients succeed in the areas of career, education, housing, leadership, and mentorship. As Kathryn says, the program is “about the whole person” and encourages “a balanced recovery” to support a person’s transition out of addiction and into community life.

Part of that balanced recovery is often about becoming job ready and returning to work. BOB Employment Support Coordinator Ada Mo-Williams gives presentations about job readiness and community resources to clients in Phase 2 of the Harbour Light program. Her presence becomes a vital connection in the chain of support that many of Harbour Light’s clients access when returning to life on the job. Katharyn notes that Harbour Light graduates discuss how much they appreciate working with Ada in their group reflections, whether she has connected them to other employment resources like Working Gear and the Job Shop, or enrolled them in BOB’s Supported Employment Program.

Emily Smith, BOB’s Office Coordinator, loves receiving clients from Harbour Light. “They always have such a positive attitude, because they have put so much work into their success. Their enthusiasm really shines through, and they tend to be really excited about the counselling component we offer in the Supported Employment Program. And they always remember Ada and ask for her personally!”

Harbour Light graduate Nichlos Tilley has just enthusiastically re-entered the workforce and is employed as a warehouse receiver. Nichlos found out about the Supported  Employment Program through one of Ada’s presentations. He continues to be an active volunteer at Harbour Light and brings his contagiously positive attitude to everything he does. BOB’s SEP program helped him get the boots and  support he needed to succeed on the job. Nichlos is a recent addition to BOB’s Wall of Achievement, where we celebrate client success.

Kathryn is passionate about her work at Harbour Light, and says “it’s a real privilege to be able to walk alongside these men in their journey of personal growth and self discovery…and watch them become the person they were meant to be.” BOB staff are honoured to be a part of that journey as well. We congratulate Nichlos and all Harbour Light graduates on their success!

New Job Postings
Visit www.bobics.org and look under ‘HR Services’ to apply.

Fresh and Desired
Sales & Marketing

Impark
Part-time Customer Service Representative

Intakes for the Cycleback Bicycle Repair Program are on-going. Email lani.johnson@bobics.org to book an appointment.

Events
SHINE Supper, August 22nd. All SEP clients, past and present, are welcome to join us for dinner at the BOB office from 4-6pm! RSVP to Emily at 778-328-7660  or emily.smith@bobics.org

Sneak Peek
Next month’s newsletter will feature great local businesses like W2 Media Café, Save-On Meats, and Scent of a Sandwich, and tales of their success partnering with BOB!

Pathways was full of enthusiastic jobseekers

Congrats to Pathways for putting together another excellent Job Fair and Expo! This year’s expo did a great job showcasing socially responsible employers, promoting local hiring, and providing job opportunities for inner-city residents.

The theme of this year’s expo was the 100 Hired Challenge, where a number of local agencies partnered to challenge employers to put forward job opportunities with the goal of hiring 100 inner city residents.

Louise from Recycling Alternative

A variety of employers large and small took the challenge and presented job opportunities at the Expo:

• Spirit Builders
• Scent of a Sandwich
• Fortis BC
• TD Canada Trust
• EMBERS Staffing Solutions
• Recycling Alternative
• STEP BC

Debbie in her mobile salon

BOB’s Job Developer Andrew Bryson was at the Expo and reported that there was a great turn out, with most people bringing targeted resumes for the employers that were in attendance.

Thank you to Working Gear, who were open special hours during the expo to outfit people with interview clothes. Thanks also to Debbie from Colourbox, who donated her time and expertise to give professional haircuts to interview candidates. Thanks their help, jobseekers were able to look and feel their best for the interview!

Thomas from Scent of a Sandwich

The initial feedback from employers and jobseekers is very positive. It sounds like several people were invited to attend second interviews back at company offices, and some jobseekers were hired on the spot and start trial shifts in the near future. BOB is pleased to report that clients of ours were hired at Recycling Alternative, Scent of a Sandwich, and Impark!

TD Bank and Fortis BC

The Expo was also a great opportunity to bring attention to the idea of local hiring. We hope that the positive outcomes from this event will encourage all employers to look to the vibrant community of skilled, dedicated, and enthusiastic workers that we have here in the inner-city the next time they need to hire.

Thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, agencies, employers, and job seekers who made this event a community effort and a great success!

All photos courtesy of Carol Madsen at Pathways.