Rotary Club of Vancouver
Community Service Projects

Co-Chairs: Rene Abi-Rached and Gerry Glazier - communityservice@rotaryvancouver.org

Serving the Homeless
  • Food on the Corner
  • The Door is Open
  • Quest Food Exchange
  • Eva’s House for Abused Women
  • Talitha Koum Society
  • L'Arche
 
 
Serving Disadvantaged Children   
  • CKNW Orphan’s Fund
  • Stay in School Program
  • Learning Assistance Program
  • Decoda Literacy Program
  • Elizabeth Fry Society
  • Jo Dickey Foundation
 
 
Serving Refugees and Asylum Seekers
  • Journey Home
 
 
Serving First Nations
  • Beneath the Surface (Suicide Prevention)
  • Imagination
 

Rotary Club of Vancouver Community Service Committee

Objective
 
To help the poor and underprivileged, disadvantaged and disabled children, minorities and new Canadian through financial and hands-on assistance in the greater Vancouver area with the emphasis on projects that assist people in improving their lives rather than simply dispensing assistance.
 
Key Strategies
 
  • Projects that help people change the course of their lives for the better. ,
  • Focus on choosing projects with a hands-on component
  • Build fellowship into project work
  • Develop projects with a family participation component
  • Be active in youth work
  • Provide members with new and meaningful opportunities to become more active in the club
  • Projects that held raise the profile of Rotary and our club
  • Undertake projects where our participation will have a significant impact on many people as opposed to just one or two.
  • Seek projects that have an ongoing impact as opposed to one time donations
 
CSC Projects Completed since July 2017
 
  • Decoda Literacy 10,000
    • Decoda Literacy Solutions is the only province-wide literacy organization providing resources, training, and funds for community-based literacy programs Decoda supports children and families, youth, adults, Aboriginal, and immigrant communities.
  • CKNW Orphans fund (Now CKNW Kid’s Fund) $10,000
    • The CKNW Orphans’ Fund is dedicated to enhancing the lives of children living with physical, mental, and social challenges living in B.C. communities. In addition to funding the club provides four volunteers to answer the phones and record donations for a two hour period during the annual telethon.
  • Elizabeth Fry Society Just Kids Program $2,500
    • Provided funding to send 5 underprivileged children to summer camp.
  • Talitha Koum Society $5,000
    • Provides programming and life skills training for women recovering from substance abuse. The focus is on marginalized women who are chronic or episodically homeless.
  • Domestic Abuse Services $5,000
    • Funds provided for maintenance of a\Eva’s House, a home for abused women and children.
  • Journey Home Community $10,000
    • Journey Home provides housing, counseling, and assistance in gaining refugee status for asylum seekers.  With the support of Rotary, they are now providing outreach services to other organizations providing assistance to refugees.
  • The Door is Open $11,000
    • The Door Is Open is a drop-in ministry that provides food, clothing, counseling, shelter services, and referrals, and a warm and safe environment in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside,
  • Food On the Corner $1,000
    • Provides hot soup, sandwiches, and coffee to the homeless every Saturday to the homeless in the Downtown Eastside.  Rotary has supported the purchase and outfitting of a replacement vehicle, the latest donation will fund a step on the rear of the vehicle for easier access.  
    • The Club provides an average of four volunteers once a month to serve soup, sandwiches, and coffee to the homeless in the Downtown Eastside.  There have been ten events since July 2017 with a total of 40 volunteers.  Each event lasts about 90 minutes.
  • Frog Hollow Community Organization $2,000
    • Funding provided towards the purchase and outfitting of a tricycle complete with a large container to visit stay at home seniors to provide refreshments and companionship. The Rotary decal will be displayed on the tricycle.
  • L’Arche $3,000
    • L’Arche is a charitable organization the provides homes and day programs for individuals with developmental disabilities. The Rotary funding will go towards an annual community-wide retreat
  • Literacy Programs in three Schools $9,900
    • Provide software and other materials for learning assistance and literacy programs in three public schools.  This is an ongoing activity for the Vancouver Rotary Club.
  • Britannia School Boys Basketball Team $2900
    • The team, from a DTES School, has been very successful and reached the provincial championships this year.  However, success comes at a price and the limited funds or the team are depleted.  The RCV funds will go towards new uniforms and equipment.  It is possible that we will make this an annual donation as a sponsor of the team
  • Rotary Hoop a Thon $1,000
    • Funds a DTES Hoop a Thon to raise funding for basketball programs. Additional funds are raised through pledges with this years take totaling $23,000.
 
Rene Georges Abi-Rached, Co-Chair CSC
Gerry Glazier, Co-Chair CSC
 

Gladstone Secondary School

For the past 9 years the Rotary Club of Vancouver has been making a significant contribution to the students at Gladstone Secondary School through our Stay in School Scholarship. Each year we have awarded two $7,000 scholarships to students that have the potential to pursue post-secondary education but may be at a financial risk of not realizing that potential. In addition there is a very active Interact club with which we have recently re-established contact and sponsorship with.

Kevin Land, principal of Gladstone invited our Club  to hold our regular Tuesday meeting at their teacher’s cafeteria on February 25th. The school invited all the past recipients of our scholarship to attend the meeting and meet us. Some of them spoke to us in a presentation.

The meeting was followed a tour of Gladstone and their world champion Robot class.





 

The Rotary Club of Vancouver supported the 36th annual CKNW Orphan's Fund Pledge Day on Friday Dec 6th. 

Emily Key being interviewed as a rep for The Rotary Club of Vancouver and pledging $10K to support the cause, which ended up breaking the record raising over $1.9 Million Dollars to support children in need in BC.





Claude and Mary are taking pledges for the cause as are Evan, Paul and John



 


We are pleased to report that we completed Phase 1 of The Drive Community Garden.  Members of the Rotary Clubs of Vancouver, Vancouver Quadra, and Vancouver Yaletown worked with Can You Dig It, Shifting Growth Garden SocietyposAbilities, community members, and several sponsors (including Vancity) to prep the entire site and complete 79 movable garden beds.

Here are a few photos of the project.