Building Social Equity and Fighting Unemployment
through a Program of Community Recycling and
Urban Sustainability: Lessons from Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside
Mitra Thompson
How does a local NGO work with community partners to bring jobs, social
inclusion and self-confidence to a highly marginalized inner-city population
with multiple barriers to employment?
Environmental Health and Equity:
Global Strategies and Innovation
April 30, 2011
McGill University
The Downtown Eastside
• 67% of private households are
low-income, vs. 27% citywide.
• 22% unemployment, vs. 8% citywide.
• 54% of population live alone, vs. 17%
citywide.
• 75% of homeless do not receive welfare.
• 47 drug overdose deaths in 2005, down from
191 deaths in 1998.
• Deinstitutionalization of BC psychiatric
patients in 1990s = large mental health
population in DTES.
• High proportion of women turn to sex work
to supplement income.
• Social/health services are biggest industry in
DTES, but most do not hire local residents.
Sources: 2005/06 Downtown Eastside Community Monitoring Report,
Riches and Graves , “Let Them Eat Starch.” The Tyee, 28 August 2007.
United We Can
Mission Statement: “Through self-sustaining
urban enterprises, United We Can creates
community, income and job training for people
in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.”
• Founded in 1995
• Largest employer in DTES
• 7 social enterprise projects
• Employs 150 people
• Low-barrier work
• Jobs promote recycling, urban
sustainability
•Wages paid daily in cash
•$20 mil. in annual income to
local residents
Data Collection
Methodology
• 43 semi-structured, open-ended
interviews
• Observational evidence of UWC
programs and daily life in the DTES
• Review of academic and institutional
literature
Location
• The Downtown Eastside
neighbourhood of Vancouver, BC.
United We Can has operated here
since 1995, population 16,500.
A new employee sorts beverage
containers brought in by the more than
700 binners who pass through United
We Can’s bottle depot every day.
Image: Building Opportunities with Business
Bottle Depot
• Payment: Full refund value of beverage
containers brought to the depot--a steady
source of income.
• Staff: Sort and pack containers for delivery
to a recycling plant.
• Tasks: Match abilities--something for
everyone.
• Recycling: ≈ 20 million containers saved
from the landfill each year.
• Jobs: ≈ 50 local residents.
Lanes Cleaning Project
• Fee-for-service enterprise.
• Staff work in crews of 4 to
“micro-clean” streets and alleyways
within a 40-block radius of
UWC.
• Removes used syringes, condoms and other
hazardous waste on DTES streets.
• Complements cleaning services provided by
the City, which do not include microcleaning.
• Outdoor, independent work is suited to
people with mental health, anger
management issues.
• Provides jobs for ≈ 75 people.
Image: United We Can
Urban Binning Unit
• Employees collect bulk orders of beverage
containers from local customers
(restaurants, schools, offices) in carts
specially designed for United We Can.
• Containers are then processed for
recycling at the bottle depot.
• UBU carts are quieter than shopping
carts, promote idea of professionalism
instead of poverty.
• Builds trust and contact between DTES
residents and local business owners.
• Challenge: UBU carts are expensive to buy
and maintain. Project remains small,
subsidized by grants and income from
bottle depot.
• Jobs for 3-4 people.
SOLEfood Urban Farm
• Sells organic herbs and vegetables to
farmers’ markets, restaurants and
local residents.
• Built on disused SRO hotel parking lot:
greening the inner city.
• First United We Can project to use
specialized training: transferable skills
for staff.
• Plans for more SOLEfood sites around
the DTES, creating more jobs.
• Long-term plan to address urgent
DTES food security issues.
• Hired 12 local people in 2010 (first
year of operation).
Economic Impact
• Jobs are suited to the abilities of people
hired, many of whom cannot find work
elsewhere.
• Division of labour provides tasks to suit
different employee strengths, abilities,
temperaments.
• Managerial commitment to flexibility,
tolerance of regular absences.
• Low-barrier approach to job-creation
provides informal but legal way for
residents to supplement their income.
• Income stability reduces effects of
poverty, not poverty itself.
“This is the first time in 15 years that I’ve been employed, that I’ve had a regular
paycheck, and that I’ve been more than hand-to-mouth. I went out the other day
and spent $90 on a pair of shoes. And it’s been maybe 20 years since
I had the money to do that.”
-Bottle depot employee, United We Can
Sustainable Urban Development
• Green job-creation mandate lets United We Can develop social enterprises
dedicated to improving the local environment.
• As new jobs have been created, the scope of each social enterprise has
grown, as has its capacity for cleaning up the DTES environment.
• Sustainability manager
and coordinator roles ensure
management incorporates
new ways to make project
as environmentally friendly as
possible within their allocated
budget.
Image: United We Can
Financial Independence
•
•
•
Most of United We Can’s social enterprise projects are not financially sustainable as
independent businesses.
As a non-profit, extra income from more successful projects (the Bottle Depot) is
diverted to smaller ones, to keep them running as sources of employment.
SOLEfood: Big start-up costs are 100% grant-funded. High-risk, but big long-term
potential.
“[The founder of United We Can] has been able to appeal to the intelligence and the interests
of people beyond his organization to help them bring funds, time, energy to support United
We Can. He’s done so in a very polite and respectful way, and I think that is in some cases
different from other leaders of the social agencies who come from more of a social activist
background. They’re there because they want to help, but they’re almost strident and vigilant
in the way that they go about things, which can rub a lot of people the wrong way.”
-Director of Development, Vancity Credit Union
Social Impact
• Many employees say their self-confidence has grown from working at United We
Can.
• Working alongside other people with similar barriers and health issues helps
reinforce their own sense self-confidence and capability.
• Employees take pride in earning a wage, not receiving charity.
• Interaction at work reduces social exclusion for people who have not worked for
several years and often live alone.
• Good relations with community stakeholders builds trust and provides
opportunities for UWC employees, e.g. participating in 2010 Olympics clean-up.
• Providing work and cleaning the streets helps make DTES more attractive to
business investment.
Voices from United We Can
“I’d been a heroin junkie for about 15 years. I ripped off a
hell of a lot of people, did a hell of a lot of bad things. And
it kind of makes me feel like I’m giving back, a little bit,
“I’d say I talk more now. I through the job.” –Bottle depot employee, United We Can
used to be very quiet, I
never used to speak up. But
“This is perfect for me. ‘Cause it allows me to feel like
since I’ve been here I’ve
I’m doing my little bit to keep the world green, right.
been more assertive.
And in a very small way, I am.”
‘Cause before it was just
-Lanes Cleaning Project employee, United We Can
that people would step all
over me. Totally, just step
“When you’re living the way I did for the majority of my
on me, so I wouldn’t say a
life, most employers [will] empathize or have some
word. Now I speak up. I’ve
compassion for your plight, but they need people who
learned how to do that
are gonna be there and regular and that sort of thing.
here, thanks to the people,
And that was always a constant pressure. And here, if
you know. They’re very
things go south a little bit or a lot, the job’s here, they’re
supportive. I like that part.”
really supportive, it’s part of what they do. And that
-Bottle depot employee,
takes a lot of pressure off me, which is good.” United We Can
SOLEfood Urban Farm employee, United We Can