Potluck Café and Catering will be holding their annual fundraiser featuring Barney Bentall & the Grand Cariboo Opry at the venerable Vogue Theatre on December 11, 2010. For the past few years, Potluck and Barney have provided a toe-tapping good time for those in attendance. The show is comprised of humourous monologues and all sorts of amazing musical guests. This year’s performance promises to be better than ever!

Potluck is a social enterprise in the Downtown Eastside that runs a café and provides catering services, both of which serve hundreds of customers in the area. Potluck offers many great community programs to residents of the Downtown Eastside. They (rightfully) believe that no one should be deprived of quality, nutritious food and are committed to sharing this message.

BOB has maintained a good working relationship with Potluck for a number of years. We have partnered with them on numerous occasions, including collaborating with them for monthly SHINE dinners for clients, as well as employer breakfasts.

Barney and the band

BOB and Potluck also worked together to offer a Banquet Server Training Program last year. As a part of BOB’s Business Links program, clients were taught valuable skills in order to enter the workforce and were given the opportunity to interview with employers once they completed the training.

The night at the Vogue not only supports a fantastic cause, but is guaranteed to be a good time. Tickets can be purchased at: https://tickets.voguetheatre.com/Online/default.asp 

If you are not able to make it to the fundraiser and still want to support Potluck, visit their café at 30 W. Hastings from 8-4 Monday to Friday or donate here.

Perhaps because Thanksgiving is upon us, the BOB Supported Employment team is taking the opportunity to thank all of the great employers who have worked with us over the past year. We have had so much success placing clients with these companies and hope to maintain these good relationships in the future.

To read more, please see the newsletter in full:

October Employment Newsletter

Other items featured this month include:

• SFU Theatre Re-hires 10 Inner-City Residents
• Event Listings
• Job Postings

That’s what members of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (BIA) are hoping as they put forth an application for funding for a number of micro-gardens throughout the Strathcona neighbourhood. Aviva Insurance is holding a competition for the best ideas that support positive change within communities, and the BIA needs your votes to keep it in the running.

The proposed 20-30 gardens would be situated adjacent to public spaces in the area. This would contribute to the beauty of the neighbourhood, allow for the local growth of edible plants, and engage the community in the gardens’ collective upkeep. Barbed wire fences and other deterrents currently found in Strathcona can create an exclusion of people from their neighbourhood.

Building nice green spaces in urban areas is in line with the principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design.  The principles suggest that the use of openly visible space in a positive manner can strengthen a person’s bond with their physical environment. The more connected individuals feel with the space in which they live, the less likely they are to do harm to that space and to others. This interplay can create the ideal mutually beneficial relationship between a city and its residents, where each is influenced by the other.

The gardens would be constructed by landscapers from Mission Possible Enterprises, a non-profit organization in the Downtown Eastside which helps people with job readiness barriers find employment opportunities. Mission Possible hopes working with local youth in this endeavour will engage the youth with the neighbourhood and allow them to make a meaningful contribution to a large project.

Strathcona has always housed a progressive group of citizens with very strong views on what happens to their neighbourhood.  In the 1960s when urban activism was just beginning to take form, protests were held in Strathcona to fight the plan to build a highway through the neighbourhood. This helped spur a number of similar campaigns in later years in Canada and the US.  The pride and passion residents have with regards to their area is inspiring. It is very appropriate that Strathcona may once again have the chance to be a trailblazer in terms of community building.

You can read more about the project and vote for it here: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf5454

Every vote counts!

Here at BOB, we are committed to connecting our clients with businesses that realize how important a

nd beneficial it is to hire locally.  It is especially exciting for the Supported Employment Team when a client we have placed goes above and beyond at the workplace. This month, we have highlighted the story of David, who is one of those exemplary employees.

David is working at Calabash Bistro

Read more about David’s work at Calabash Bistro here:

SEPNewsletter – Sept 2010.

Other stories this month include:

• Employer Profile – Calabash Bistro
• Urban Farming Workshops
• Event Listings
• Job Postings

The Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council has been championing a Street Market and Fair which you may have seen lately (or may see in the future). The Street Market and Fair happens every Sunday from 12-5pm in Pigeon Park and provides an opportunity for local binners and residents to display and sell various items they’ve come into possession of or created themselves.  Many of these items are very useful and in excellent condition so come on down and have a look, you might find something you need!

The Market and Fair will be continuing until December of 2010 so don’t miss out on it.

For more information on the DTES Neighbourhood Council contact:

Tami Starligh at cosmictami@shaw.ca

or visit:

http://dnchome.wordpress.com/

or http://www.youtube.com/users/DNCVIDEOBlog