Did you know that First United is as old as Vancouver itself? That it's been located at 320 E. Hastings since 1892? That its meal program was launched during the Great Depression, and today serves over 100,000 meals in the Downtown Eastside every year?
If you didn’t, we’ve got a book you should read. Seven, in fact.
Our history is a long one. For over 135 years, First United has sought to build better futures in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside by providing essential services, community connection and healing. This history is detailed in Hope Lives Here by Bob Burrows, and we’d love to give you a copy so that you can learn more about what we do.
This week, coinciding with Giving Tuesday, we’re hosting our annual Shelter Gala, a three-course meal for our shelter residents, paid for by donors like you and prepared by Season 9 Top Chef Canada finalist Kym Nguyen. This is just one of the many, many ways we offer community, connection and care to our Downtown Eastside neighbours.
Shoulder-to-shoulder with our community, we operate from a harm reduction perspective. Our direct, low-barrier services support low-income, underhoused and homeless members of the Downtown Eastside community regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, ability or faith. The anti-oppression approach we take in our work, and our deep commitment to social justice, is informed by the needs of those we serve.
Want to learn more about our history, our work and the Downtown Eastside; and about the views and voices that inform our approach to building a just and equitable society?
Enter to win this selection of books we've curated!
The seven books, six non-fiction and one fiction for a lucky winner, are:
Hope Lives Here: A History of Vancouver's First United Church
By Bob Burrows
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
By Gabor Máte
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex By Incite
Indian in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power
By Jody Wilson-Raybould
Son of a Trickster
By Eden Robinson
Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
By Robyn Maynard
Enter below to win.
About First United
First United seeks a just society by nurturing each person’s spirit through low-barrier community services, housing, advocacy and healing in the face of the often-intersecting challenges of extreme poverty, historical and personal trauma, mental and physical illness and oppression in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
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