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The Powell Street Festival takes place on the traditional, unceded and occupied territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
Community Care Programs
Year Round Downtown Eastside Community Programming
Powell Street Festival Society’s Advocacy and Outreach Committee hosts a series of year round events at Oppenheimer Park which incorporate capacity building opportunities for peers, distribution of meals, and cultural activities which share Japanese Canadian history and culture.
Since our pandemic pivot and the success of our Telethon last year, we have been supporting Downtown Eastside grassroots efforts to build capacity and sustain people’s well-being during the health crises of Covid19 and fentanyl overdoses. Our support continues to fund the weekday preparation and delivery of 200 daily meals through the WePress Community Kitchen and a weekly grocery delivery program to 190 Chinese seniors thanks to the generosity of Bing Ho’s family and friends and the SRO Collaborative’s distribution network.
We are presently exploring micro-programs to empower tenants in historic Japanese Canadian SROs (single room occupancy housing) with resources and projects from communal cooking to building repairs to improve living conditions, impart new skills and build community.
Our community engagement programs provide meaningful and sustainable connections to the historic location of the early Japanese settlers prior to their forced removal during the Second World War. Through our practice of social justice, we honour this heritage while seeking to be accountable as settler-colonizers and acknowledging the larger narrative of displacement and injustices on these unceded territories of the Tsleil- Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam peoples.
昨年のパンデミック対策とテレソンの成功以来、私たちは、Covid19とフェンタニルの過剰摂取という健康上の危機に面している人々のため、収容可能人数を確保し、彼らの健康を維持し、イーストサイドのダウンタウンの草の根活動を支援してきました。また、ビン・ホさんのご家族やご友人、そしてSRO Collaborativeの流通ネットワークのご好意により、平日にWePress Community Kitchenで毎日200食の食事を作り、配達するプログラムや、中国の高齢者100人に毎週食料品を配達するプログラムにも継続して支援を行っています。
私たちは現在、日系カナダ人の歴史的なSRO（一人部屋住宅）の入居者を対象に、生活環境の改善、新しいスキルの習得、コミュニティの構築を目的とした、共同炊事や建物の修繕などの資源やプロジェクトを提供するマイクロプログラムを検討しています。
このようなプログラムを通じてこそ、パウエル祭は日系開拓移民が第二次世界大戦で強制移住させられる以前に住んでいた地域との関係を意義ある、長期的なものにすることができます。社会正義の活動を通して、我々は自分たちの遺産を祝福しながらも、開拓移住者として、入植者としての責任をもち、ツレイワトゥース、スコーミッシュ、マスクイアムの人々の譲渡されていない領土において今日まで継続する強制移住と不正義の歴史を認識します。
PowellStFest Community Kitchen
PowellStFest Community Kitchen program is our meal program servicing the DTES neighbourhood. The meals help fill the gap of insufficient food for low-income community and the cooking program provides an opportunity for people to cook together, learn new skills, and build community. This not only provides a positive mental health experience but gives people the sense of gratification and steady income.
As of mid-October 2020, PSFS contributes to the WePress Community Kitchen based in the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall’s (VJLS-JH) facility to cook and distribute 200 meals per day, Mondays through Fridays. We are also supporting a pilot project with Health through Spirit, who are integrating their peers into this network with enhanced mental health and trauma support.
Powell Street Festival Society is now part of the Downtown Eastside Community Kitchens (DECK), where a network of grassroots groups have gathered to enhance food security, work towards a long-term vision of food sovereignty, and nurture community resilience in our beloved Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood.
During the 2020 festival weekend, PSF volunteers and DTES community ambassadors will distribute 250 care packages to unhoused and precariously housed people living in the historic Paueru Gai/Powell Street neighborhood. The need for housing for all is at the core of basic needs for those we support through our Community Care programs. Much more/thousands of units of decent housing at the social assistance rental rate are required so that people can have the stability they need to address the many challenges they are facing. We thank the City of Vancouver for its financial support through a Homelessness Action Week grant.
フェスティバルの週末には、PSFのボランティアとDTESのコミュニティ・アンバサダーが、歴史的なパウエル街地区に住む、住居のない方や不安定な居住状態にある方に250個のケアパッケージを配布します。すべての人に住居を提供することは、私たちがコミュニティ・ケア・プログラムを通じて支援している人々の根本的なニーズの核をなすものです。人々が直面している多くの課題に対処するために必要な安定性を得るためには、社会扶助による賃貸料で質の良い住宅をさらに何千戸も提供する必要があります。ホームレス・アクション・ウィークの助成金を提供してくださったバンクーバー市の支援に感謝致します。
We thank our DTES Community Partners including: Aboriginal Front Door, Carnegie Community Centre, Carnegie Community Action Project, DTES Neighbourhood House, Health Through Spirit, Muslim Care Centre, Overdose Prevention Sites, Pace, Wish, Right to Remain, SRO Collaborative, VANDU, Watari, WePress Community Art Space, Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, Vancouver Buddhist Temple, Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall, Vancouver Womens Health Centre.