An old theatre on the Hastings Corridor has been brought back to life after over a decade of deteriorating dormancy. The Rickshaw Theatre at 254 East Hastings re-opened this past summer under the direction of entrepreneur David Duprey and in partnership with the City of Vancouver and Building Opportunities with Business (BOB).

The theatre’s website states the Rickshaw’s aim is “to be a community place, with the goal of promoting independent local theatre and performance. The venue will be available to emerging artists at low rates and will regularly host all ages shows”. In the few months it has been open it has already hosted a long list of acts including Pink Mountaintops, Quadruple Dare and Skinny Puppy.

The Rickshaw is involved in the Hastings Street Renaissance Program, a pilot project developed by the City of Vancouver in partnership with BOB with the aim of addressing vacant storefronts and deteriorating buildings in the inner-city by improving the streetscape, daylighting existing businesses, helping establish new businesses and revitalizing existing spaces to foster community-based economic development. Phase 1 of the project initiated six revitalization projects with grants up to $50,000 each along the Hastings Corridor, and City Council approved an additional $700,000 in funds in November for Phase 2 to activate an additional six storefronts on Hastings and another six in Chinatown.

Duprey leases a number of other inner-city building projects involved in the Hastings Street Renaissance Program including 108 East Hastings and the Phoenix Block at 45 West Hastings. “BOB introduced me to the owners at each of [these] buildings,” Duprey says. “I am grateful for those leads and for the support that BOB has showed me and my tenants over the past couple of years. BOB’s employment division connected some inner-city residents and helped pay for the tenant improvements that were necessary to open 108 E Hastings to local artists for workshop spaces and street-front galleries.”

“The façade program is helping to ensure that affordable arts and culture spaces are retained and improving the streetscapes of one of the most notorious corridors in Canada,” he says. “Kira Gerwing, the City’s Downtown Eastside Planner, and Brian Smith, BOB’s Business Developer, have been particularly supportive of my work in the inner-city- offering advice, funding support and connections that the artist community in the inner-city and the rest of Vancouver have benefitted from greatly.

Together with BOB, the City and the other arts-based organizations and advocates in the inner-city, I am excited about the future of the creative industries in Vancouver. As a community we are leading the way with innovative projects that are changing the face of the Downtown Eastside.”

Building Opportunities with Business (BOB) is thrilled to announce that a Cultural Olympiad display will be coming to our office space (163 E Pender) for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Sheng High, an ingenious sound sculpture created by the artist Trimpin, harnesses the force of water and an intricate arrangement of pipes, tripods, scanners, and infrared sensors to create a stunning wall of sound.

The installment will be open to the public from January 29 –
February 28, 2010. Admission is free.

For more information please click here.

Building Opportunities with Business is excited to offer our main floor at 163 E Pender St for partners, individuals, and businesses to use as shared workspace for $200 pm + GST. We believe that this open shared work space will contribute to the revitalization of the inner-city by providing a space for creative professionals to flourish, for ideas to percolate, and for businesses to grow.

Come and install yourself in a work space: a desk, a table, a chair, a couch, or the bay window, wherever you’re most comfortable. The space has wireless high speed internet and is equipped with an electronic white board and a projector to facilitate discussion and creative thinking. There is also a fridge, microwave, filtered water cooler, and secure storage for your bike.

We’re looking for creative professionals, progressive thinkers, the socially responsible and ecologically conscious who want to be surrounded by others of like mind. If you are interested or you’d like more information, please contact Andrew McKay at 778–328–7672 or write coworking@bobics.org.

Five empty lots on Hastings Street are undergoing a major makeover as a diverse group of community-oriented organizations and hundreds of volunteers have been working throughout the fall to transform the lots into a fully functioning urban farm in time for spring.

United We Can, the acclaimed Downtown Eastside non-profit that specializes in creating economic opportunities for residents on the Downtown Eastside, is coordinating the SOLEfood effort. The Farm has been dubbed SOLEfood, after United We Can’s Save Our Living Environment initiative.

“SOLEfood will be run as a business,” says Seann Dory, Sustainability Manager at United We Can. “We hope to provide part-time jobs for 12 Downtown East Side residents, most of whom will have some kind of employment barrier that makes it hard for them to hold a full-time job.”

Building Opportunities with Business (BOB) was instrumental in bringing Projects In Place, United We Can and many other like-minded groups together, with the hope that green collar job opportunities like SOLEfood will bring a range of social, environmental and economic improvements to the Downtown Eastside. The development of the farm came out of BOB’s Green Inner-city Cluster which brings together business, community and public stakeholders to collaborate in the development of the local green economy.

This effort would not have been possible without the combined efforts of additional key supporters including:

• Vancouver Eastside Educational Enrichment Society (VEEES)
• The Sahota Family — owners of the property
• Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architects Inc
• The Recycling Alternative
• Potluck Cafe
• Green Inner-City Cluster members
• The Home Depot
• Houston Landscapes

Dory sees the farm as a way to provide “inner city residents with employment; and community kitchens, local residents, restaurants and caterers with access to a valuable source of local and organic food. Once complete, the hope is that SOLEfood will become not just a farm, but a social hub and information source.”

For more information about SOLEfood please contact Seann Dory at 604-681-0001 or seann@unitedwecan.ca.

For more information about the Green Inner-city Cluster please contact Andrew McKay at 778-328-7672 or Andrew.mckay@bobics.org.

Do you wonder what kind of a difference BOB is making in the inner-city community? Read on to find out!

As of December 2009 Building Opportunities with Business has:

• Facilitated over $46.5 million in business for the inner-city
• Helped 450 businesses through social purchasing
• Supported 5 industry clusters, including the new Green Inner-City cluster that was launched in 2009
• Helped 163 businesses directly
• Facilitated the renewal of 7 building facades on Hastings and Keefer Street and filled more than 10
  vacant storefronts
• Leveraged more than $750,000 of private investment (with our grants and loans to businesses)
• Directly supported 377 inner city residents through finding employment opportunities and/or providing
  on-job support through our Supported Employment Program

Maggie was referred to Building Opportunities with Business through PACT Employment Services, a Coast Mental Health employment agency. She participated in BOB’s Customer Service BusinessLinks, a customized program designed to connect job seekers with employers, where she met an employer from RONA.

“I was doing some schooling and volunteering,” Maggie recalls, “but I wanted to find work so I went to BOB’s Customer Service training and RONA was there. So, I gave it a shot and I got hired.”

This October she will have been at RONA for 2 years. “My job with RONA is the longest I’ve had so far — so the training is really great,” she says. “It’s a good job and they are a great employer.”

“Just recently a new trainee started,” she describes. “It was her first day and I asked her if she was nervous. She said, ‘Yes I am’, and I told her I knew exactly how she felt because I was like that too. So I helped her out and showed her some of the routines… It’s great showing people how to do the job”

“I’ve had a lot of obstacles to overcome,” she says, “but my confidence is definitely getting better.”

Brian Smith manages the Business Development Services of Building Opportunities with Business (BOB). In this role, he oversees BOB’s Loan Program, the Hastings Renaissance Program, Consultant Grant Program, Social Purchasing, Business Consulting Services and Industry Clusters. Brian has been contributing to community economic development in the Downtown Eastside since 2000, when he helped start-up a social enterprise printing business at Carrall and Hastings.

Previously, Brian worked as the Managing Director of the Belonging Initiative, a national strategy advancing collaboration across Canada’s disability movement. Brian has also recently served as the Director of Social Enterprise for the Plan Institute and Executive Director of the Youth Excellence Society. Over the past 10 years, Brian has operated a consultancy serving non-profit organizations in the development of social enterprise and business development.

Brian’s background also includes experience in business start-up, social enterprise development, fundraising and venture financing, operations, staff management and leadership of small to medium sized social enterprises. His educational background includes a BA (Economics), PBD (Community Economic Development) and MA (Planning).

Brian is keenly interested and committed to community-based solutions to sustainability. He has served on several non-profit boards and regularly volunteers in his community.

Building Opportunities needs your help to attain our vision for a healthy, vibrant inner-cty that is inclusive of existing businesses and residents. Core funding from Western Economic Diversification Canada and Bell through the Vancouver Agreement ends March 31, 2010. We need new sources of funding to continue to make a difference.

Are you:

• A business looking for business development support, to locate or connect to other inner-city businesses?
  E-mail Brian at brian.smith@bobics.org or call 778-328-7668
• An employer interested in hiring from the inner-city with support from BOB?
  E-mail Will at will.oakley@bobics.org or call 778-328-7665
• A corporation, foundation or individual that wants to support BOB's work?
  E-mail Shirley at shirley.chan@bobics.org or call 778-328-7670; or
• An inner-city resident looking for employment opportunities?
  Email Lani at lani.johnson@bobics.org or call 788-328-7674.

BOB-hosted events

Shine

Have you or are you currently participating in a Supported Employment Program through BOB, Potluck Café and the Cleaning Solution? You are invited to a tasty and free dinner where you can meet and share your workplace and life experiences with others. Join us at the BOB office, 163 E Pender Street on the following date and time.

The next SHINE event will be Monday, December 21st from 4pm–6pm.

Please contact Ada to RSVP 778–328–7662.

Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad: Sheng High | January 29–February 28, 2010

Sheng High, an ingenious sound sculpture created by the artist Trimpin, harnesses the force of water and an intricate arrangement of pipes, tripods, scanners, and infrared sensors to create a stunning wall of sound.
The installment will be hosted at BOB’s office at 163 E Pender St.

It will be open for viewing from January 29–February 28, 2010. Admission is free.

For more information please click here.

Eastside Events

Winter Solstice Lantern Festival | December 21, 2009; 6pm-10pm

(Processional from Strathcona Community Centre at 6pm)

Take part in one of the world’s oldest holiday traditions, celebrating the return of the light after the longest night of the year. The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Chinese Garden (578 Carrall St) is pleased to host the Secret Lantern Society’s 16th Annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival.

See enchanting displays of handmade lanterns by some of Vancouver’s best lantern artists, explore the Children’s Lantern Courtyard featuring whimsical lanterns made by local students, enjoy fresh, baked buns by Bon Chaz and take in performances by The Treble Makers and Zeellia. Suggested donation of $5/person.

For more the event schedule and for more information please visit www.secretlantern.org/events_sc.html

Blackbird Theatre Society presents Edward Albee’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ | December 27, 2009–January 16, 2010

Vancouver’s finest actors perform in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a three act drama that charts the sad and sometime hilarious course of marital engagement. Gabrielle Rose, Kevin McNulty, Meg Roe and Craig Erickson star. John Wright directs. Not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

To purchase tickets call The Cultch Box Office at 604-251-1363.

For ticketing queries contact boxoffice@thecultch.com

Debt: The Musical | January 13–30, 2010

Firehall Arts Centre presents a new musical about money and life, Debt-the Musical written by Leslie Mildiner and directed by Donna Spencer. This 90 minute musical revue explores the chaos, confusion and comedy of dealing with debt — a satire that dares to go where no musical has gone before — Bankruptcy Court.

For more information and for tickets please call (604) 689–0926 or visit www.firehallartscentre.ca.

Music on Main presents Corey Hamm | February 9, 2010

Pianist Corey Hamm creates emotionally, technically superb interpretations of contemporary music. For his Music on Main performance, he performs Frederic Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" Written as a companion piece for Beethoven's "Diabelli Variations," Rzewski's 36 variations are one of the masterworks of the 20th Century. Tickets are $20.

The Main Series takes place in the heart of Vancouver’s vibrant Main Street neighbourhood, at Main and East 15th Avenue.

For more information and to purchase tickets please visit www.musiconmain.ca