So please take a moment and vote now to help the little children of my neighbourhood.

A group of dedicated parents are garnering community support at supportourplayground.org. As I write, they need about 600 more votes in the next eight days. Below is more info about it, from the website created by the Laura Secord Parent Advisory Committee.

Background on the school

Laura Secord students are working in portables in the school field while their buildings are seismically upgraded, in case of earthquakes

Laura Secord Elementary is a large inner city school running at full capacity with 640 students from Kindergarten up to Grade 7. We currently have a very small play structure that is full when a single class of 25 students is outside; when all 27 classes are outside our playground is grossly inadequate. The school is home to a number of community outreach programs, including Strong Start, Neighbourhoods of Learning and afterschool care.

Vancouver has very few wheelchair-accessible play areas and Laura Secord would like to be the first school in our area to offer an inclusive play area for kids with disabilities, including physical handicaps and autism. Our goal is to create an inclusive play environment made from safe and sustainable materials that will greatly contribute to the quality of life in our community; a play environment that will attract families outside of school hours and be safeguarded by our neighbours.

Our French Immersion catchment area includes approximately 9,000 kids who would be served by the new playground, including an estimated 350 children with disabilities.

This sign surprised me today on Commercial Drive.

Kokopelli Hair & Body Lounge on Commercial Drive is one of them. The salon started doing this a month ago after stylist Katrina Molson learned about Matter of Trust – a nonprofit ecological charity established in 1998.

The hair is shipped to a warehouse, stuffed into old nylons and shrimp bags, and made into booms that collect oil near the shores. They are not being used by BP because BP is using their own synthetic booms for absorbing oil.

“As of June 11, 2010 in the 19 warehouses at the Gulf and the one warehouse in San Francisco CA, we have over 10 miles of boom stuffed,” reads the Matter of Trust website. “We have enough boxes, bags and pallets of fiber and donated nylons to make another 15 miles to total 25 miles of boom made from donations by volunteers in just over 1 month!”

Hair does not decompose naturally. It’s usually put into the waste stream, which is where the donated hair will also end up – but at least it will have soaked up some of the oil. The oil spill waste is incinerated or put in a hazardous waste landfill.

Matter of Trust has more than enough hair at the moment, so no more donations are needed.

Pretty bizarre eh?

Orange Day Volunteers at UGM, Photo by Leah Gregg on Flickr

Yesterday I received an invitation from Derek Weiss, senior public relations specialist for Union Gospel Mission. UGM is a Christian charity well-known in Vancouver for providing community meals, clothing, emergency shelter, faith-based services, and drug and alcohol recovery programs.

Here’s Derek’s invite: Join Vancouver bloggers and UGM staff and volunteers as we chill together and get the word out online about the Orange Day campaign. Then, weather permitting, we’ll walk over to Crab Park to have some fun Orange Day activities and create bright, fresh “analog tweets” to spread the love and encourage homeless in our city and guests at the UGM meal.

When: Monday, March 29, 6:00pm (Chill Winston meetup); 7:00pm (Orange fun at Crab Park)

Where: Meet at Chill Winston, at the intersection of Carrall, Powell, and Water Streets.

What to bring: Outdoor-wear; camera or cellphone with camera to take pictures of you with your posters.

Who: Everyone is welcome

The Orange Day campaign is a week-long fundraising program to raise money for UGM’s annual Easter meal. “For the week leading up to April 2, you can transform Vancouver’s streets by having fun, helping the homeless community, and sharing your adventures online.”

You can read more about the Orange Day Campaign here.

Kudos to UGM for their efforts to make a difference!

Rob Cottingham at Vancouver Twestival March 25, 2010

Rob Cottingham is one funny guy. He took the stage and joked about not being at South by Southwest in Austin Texas last week, and how reading everyone’s tweets from there made you feel left out from the cool kids’ party. He joked about Twestival protesters (reminiscent of the Olympic protests), about the annoyance of this year’s allergy season, and more.

Rob is, according to his Twitter profile, a “social media enabler” and he’s also a cartoonist for Noise to Signal and co-founder of the company Social Signal. He blogged about his experience: “If you were there, thanks so much for laughing. You made my night and I hope you had fun.”

You are welcome to my laughter, Rob – and yes I had fun.

Lots of people worked hard to make this event happen, so thanks to everyone. Rebecca gives all the due credit over on her blog, so just go over there and check it out for details. Jonathan Hanley also covered the event for The Vancouver Observer in his article “Socializing with more than 140 characters at Vancouver Twestival“. Love that headline!

Earlier today, Twestival organizers tweeted the total was up to $310,000 so far, with a final tally to come from the hundreds of citites participating. Yay!

Image credit: imelda on Flickr

“On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness,” says the About page for Twestival.

The charity to benefit is Concern Worldwide. Based out of Ireland, this is: “an international humanitarian organisation dedicated to reducing suffering and ending extreme poverty.” One-hundred percent of funds raised will go towards Concern’s projects that focus on providing education for some of the 72 million children in the world who don’t have the opportunity to go to school.

The Vancouver goal was to raise $4000 and we’ve already exceeded this in ticket sales. At the moment I hit Send on this here blog, Vancouver Twitter folks have raised $6402. I’ll update with a final total for Vancouver and the rest of the world.

Aside from the fund-raising aspect, Twestival is also a great opportunity to meet people in real life, after reading their tweets online for so long. Come on down if you have time and $20!

Selling a good book for a good cause

All too often, especially during the Olympics, we hear stories from media outsiders who visit the neighbourhood for a short tour and then report all the bad things they see. While many journalists come looking for sensational stories of crime and addiction, some have good intentions. Of course, it’s important to shed light on problems to raise awareness in society at large, but too often reporters miss the stories of spirit and community in this neighbourhood. That’s why Hope in Shadows is such an important project.

It all started in 2003 with a photography contest for locals that published winning images in an annual calendar. Today the project also includes cards and this new book that has sold more than 5,000 copies. Hope in Shadows is a registered charity that works in partnership with Pivot Legal Society, and 50 percent of street sales go to the vendors.

“Pivot makes this product so people can earn some extra money from it,” said Vincent, who I spoke with today on Commercial Drive. “I believe in Pivot. I like the work they do and not only am I making a few extra dollars, but I’m also contributing to the cause.”

Vincent said he has been without a home in the past, but today he has a place to live and is working with The Open Door Group to find a new career. Years ago, he studied English and History and came within two courses of completing a degree, but severe depression and the pressures of life threw him off track. Now he’s planning to forge a new career in counselling, helping homeless folks find housing and a better quality of life.

Hope in Shadows book editors Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome were nominated in 2009 for the B.C. Book Prize: Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. This prize is “awarded to the author(s) of the book which contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia. The book may deal with any aspect of the province (people, history, geography, oceanography, etc.) and must be original,” says the B.C. Book Prizes website.

Emily Carr design student Jesi Carson had a school project to create a poster commenting on an issue facing Vancouver. She emailed me last week to ask if I had any more photos of Steve, who I wrote about in 2007 in a post: What’s it like to squeegee cars? Just ask Steve…

Jesi said she wanted “to create something about ‘the person behind the homeless guy’ that we see every day.” She said she was inspired by the story of Steve, when she stumbled upon my blog a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn’t have any more pictures to offer – but Jesi found the story of Jeff to help convey her idea.

Jesi’s idea

Jesi writes about the poster on her blog, which I will quote from directly:

“I didn’t just want to state the obvious, which is that we have a homelessness problem in this city, but to go a bit deeper and remind us to consider the person behind the squeegee or the shopping cart or whatever it may be. Everyone has a right to exist, homeless or not, and everyone has a right to an identity. I think it’s wrong to lump all homeless people into the ‘hopeless homeless’ category and forget about it.”

Jesi’s post continues…

“The thing is, its only one small step to be aware of this issue. What good, really is this poster going to do for Steve? Or Jeff? Or any of the many homeless people in Vancouver or anywhere else in the world? Hope for Homes, the fake org which I invented so I could design the logo, well, it doesn’t exist. I’m feeling a bit torn about this right now. It’s not as if this poster will be getting any real exposure. It’s not as if it’s going to make a difference. So what’s the point?”

Look out for a series of individual portraits – and stories – and collaboration…

Commercial Drive at East 3rd Ave.

Hopefully he keeps going and people share a gasp of relief and maybe a laugh. But what if he singles you out? What should you do?

Verbal de-escalation tactics?

In 2007, I spoke to a security officer with lots of experience dealing with angry people. Rob Hamilton had worked as a counsellor in group homes, jails, and at parole and probation meetings.

“You try to turn the conversation and de-escalate quickly — lower your voice
and don’t try to speak over them,” says Hamilton. “Try not to push any buttons.
You just continually talk them down. They’re red in the face and throwing
things. They’ve got their fists clenched and they say they’re going to kill you or
punch you in the face. That may go on for 10 or 15 minutes. It’s a very high stress level.”

I talked with Rob when I was writing a story about staff at the Gathering Place Community Centre for the July, 2007 issue of WorkSafe Magazine. This unique community centre offers low-cost meals; a health centre with shower and laundry programs; education centre; and reading room. Many of its 4,000 members live in shelters or single rooms in hotels. Some are coping with mental illness and addictions. Staff told me that most are polite and grateful, but occasionally people do lose their temper, so staff are prepared with the right reactions.

Store owner threatened on Commercial Drive

I’m thinking about this story because one of my Facebook friends, who owns a shop on Commercial Drive, reported a very rude and hostile comment from someone in his store.

Working in a shop is one of the situations that can make you vulnerable, according to ARETE Safety and Protection Inc, where the folks at Gathering Place took courses in 2007 (and maybe later, though I haven’t checked).

This is from the ARETE website:

“The following is a list of things that can increase potential for conflict and violence: customer delays, negative decisions, payments, fines, enforcement of rules, regulations and laws, returned goods, line ups, service issues, discontinued service, handling cash, approaching shoplifters, stalking, mental health issues, and home visits.”

“Arete’s curriculum is designed to create a shift in how participants view and respond to conflict and violence.”

Keeping safe when you’re around angry people

So, obviously some responses are better than others when it comes to dealing with threats from an angry person coping with mental illness and / or addictions. And it’s great there are courses that can help workers be more prepared for threats in their workplaces.

But what about the rest of us people walking down the street when someone angry comes our way? Is it time for a course on this for the general public: “How to deal with angry people on the street”?

Any suggestions? Share your experiences?

“A lot of newcomers have never had to look for work in the same way you look for a job here,” says Astarte, who researched, developed, and launched this new program in September, 2008. “Sometimes you would be looking at making a whole different career choice. If you’re a doctor, the chances of you working as a doctor are very, very slim and very costly and time-consuming… There’s a lot of barriers in terms of what Canadian employers want. The people have arrived, they’ve got skills, and they’re led to believe they will find work – but Canadian employers are reluctant to hire anybody without Canadian experience.”

At first my intention was to write a post about Astarte and her work for my Super Citizen Showcase blog. Yet the more I heard about the program, the more curious I was about the newcomers and mentors. I spoke with some of these folks and then decided to write a story for MOSAIC to use as they wished. Instead of volunteering as a mentor, I volunteered my writing services – and now the full story about Workplace Connections is published in HRVoice.com.

If you want to be a mentor – or you are a newcomer – call MOSAIC at 604-254-9626 or leave a comment below.

Their blog Guerrilla Giving reads: “How much/what should you give? That’s entirely up to you. Give what you can/what you’d like… We give money, time, things. You may decide to start with a one time gift of a dollar or a hundred dollars/an hour volunteering/a box of donuts for a group of construction workers etc. The gift’s actual value is less important than your intention to share… We don’t need to be rich to be philanthropists. Giving is something to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of income, class, or status.”

What do you think of this idea? (I think it’s great – and I’m glad they mention that people from all income levels can give. It’s not just about money. It can even be a bit of conversation with someone lonely…)