The Centerm Community Fund was created as a part of the Centerm Expansion Project and South Shore Access Project to show appreciation to the community for their patience during construction of the terminal expansion and construction on the south shore.
It was part of a larger $2 million donation to community initiatives in East Vancouver from the port authority and the Centerm container terminal’s operator, DP World.
The $500,000 fund was distributed over three rounds of funding between 2019 and 2021. It supported 41 organizations that work to enrich the lives of the people who live and work in the area and support conservation efforts in their community.
Funding recipients and the community projects and initiatives they led can be found below:
| Organization | Neighbourhood | Project/Program | Impact |
| First round of funding (2019) | |||
| Community First Foundation | Grandview-Woodland | Backpack Buddies | Closes the hunger gap for vulnerable children facing poverty |
| Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House | Downtown Eastside | Fathers Wellness and Medicine Garden Project | Helps fathers (predominantly Indigenous men) facing health issues, homelessness, addictions and poverty to support one another and reconnect with their families |
| Family Services of Greater Vancouver | Grandview-Woodland | Common Cents Financial Literacy and Savings Guide | Offers financial coaching and literacy programs to single mothers, Indigenous women, and newcomers to Canada |
| Kiwassa Neighbourhood House | Hastings-Sunrise | Growing Connections | Improves food security through a community food market and nutrition workshops for children, youth, seniors, and newcomers to Canada |
| Mission Possible | Downtown Eastside | Employment Readiness Program | Helps recovering individuals, many with disabilities, through social enterprises |
| NEC Native Education College | Downtown Eastside | Renewing Connections in an Urban Setting | Provides a supportive learning environment for Indigenous learners |
| PHS Community Services Society | Downtown Eastside | From Cedar Tree to Salish Sea | Helps Indigenous community members isolated from their traditional lands and people to reconnect with traditional knowledge and teachings |
| Strathcona Business Improvement Association | Strathcona | Urban Tree Expansion and Outdoor Space Activation | Creates a welcoming outdoor space at the Powell Street Getaway, a resource centre that helps people with chronic illness, addictions, and/or mental health issues |
| Strathcona Community Policing Centre | Strathcona | Community Cleanups | Provides support for neighbourhood cleanup initiatives that help reduce crime and improve safety and community connection |
| Union Gospel Mission | Downtown Eastside | Sanctuary Program | Helps new mothers recovering from addiction |
| WISH Drop-In Centre Society | Downtown Eastside | WISH Drop-In Centre | Improves the health, safety and well-being of self-identified women in Vancouver’s street-based sex trade |
| Working Gear Clothing Society | Downtown Eastside | Working Gear Community Shop | Provides clothing to individuals in search of employment |
| Writers’ Exchange Society | Grandview-Woodland | Xpey’ After-School Program | Offers literacy programs to at-risk, inner-city kids at Vancouver’s only Indigenous-focus school to help them realize and reach their own potential |
| Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice | Downtown Eastside | Inter-generational Outreach Project | Helps low-income Chinese seniors to overcome language and cultural barriers to meet their housing, health and income needs |
| YMCA of Greater Vancouver | Downtown Eastside | Health Family Network | Provides safe, nurturing spaces for vulnerable, preschool-aged children and their families |
| YWCA Metro Vancouver | Downtown Eastside | YWCA Saturday Family Activity Program at Crabtree Corner | Provides low-income single mothers and their children with social, recreational and educational activities |
| Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre Association (DEWC) | Downtown Eastside | Culture as Healing: Indigenous Cultural Programming | Funding will provide culturally relevant services for Indigenous women, providing culturally safe space for urban Indigenous women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and assisting them in healing from historical, systemic, and day-to-day trauma common in this community. |
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Strathcona Residents Association
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Strathcona |
Community-based Air Quality
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Funding will help local community members better understand key issues related to air quality and develop approaches through citizen science for directly being involved in measuring air quality in the Strathcona community area. |
| Second round of funding (2020) | |||
| Vancouver Second Mile Society | Downtown Eastside | Downtown Eastside Seniors Centre (Seniors Drop-In Day Program) | Offers low-income seniors a place to hang out, get low-cost meals, obtain information on health, housing and benefits, obtain referrals for other assistance, and participate in social and recreational activities |
| Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen Society | Downtown Eastside | DTES Dedicated location meal services | Provides warm meals to-go 24 hours a day, seven days a week |
| BC Sustainable Energy Association | Hastings-Sunrise | Cool It! In Port Vancouver | Delivers 10 Climate Challenges and 10 workshops in the Port of Vancouver area across all Centerm target regions |
| Learning Disabilities Society of Greater Vancouver | Hastings-Sunrise | Centerm East Vancouver Bursary Fund | Provides bursaries for 20 high-risk, learning disabled children from public schools |
| Some Assembly Arts Society | Hastings-Sunrise | Ripple Effect of Self Talk | Engages, trains and employs diverse at-risk youth to work alongside professional artists and returning Indigenous youth mentors to create and present a theatre production to community members free of charge |
| Needs Of the Community (NOC) Society | Strathcona | What the L! workshop | Offers direct support to 60 individuals by improving their road safety education and helping them obtain Class 7 L license for the purpose of greater employment opportunities |
| Starlight Children’s Foundation | Downtown Eastside | Play From Home Packs | Provides distraction therapy in the form of kits “play packs” to immuno-compromised children |
| EYA Environmental Youth Alliance | Strathcona | Plants for Birds: Youth-led habitat restoration in Strathcona | Engages 150 diverse youth ages 14-18 to restore native bird habitat and enhance urban knowledge through 12 free, eight-session (35-hour) hands-on environmental education programs in Strathcona Community Gardens |
| Kinbrace Community Society | Grandview-Woodlands | Welcoming Refugee Claimants into Community | Strengthens community program to better help refugee claimants integrate into the community, including providing weekly community meals designed to welcome new residents |
| Paws for Hope Animal Foundation | Downtown Eastside | Downtown Eastside Emergency Aid | Helps vulnerable people with pets and support them through access to shelters, housing, and medical care, versus forgoing their own needs in order to feed their pet |
| Urban Native Youth Association | Grandview-Woodlands | Native Youth Learning Centre (NYLC) | Provides youth ages 15-30 access to 40 workshops and activities throughout the year, including traditional and cultural activities, job readiness training, certifications to increase their opportunities for employment, and support in maintaining their sobriety and wellness |
| Third round of funding (2021) | |||
| Quest Outreach Society | Downtown Eastside | Food Recovery & Redistribution Program in the DTES | Funding will go to Quest’s Food Recovery and Redistribution Program at the 611 East Hastings location, which provides access to healthy, affordable food to some of the most vulnerable members of this community. |
| A Better Life Foundation | Downtown Eastside | A Better Life Foundation’s Daily Meal Program | Funding will go towards the ongoing Daily Meal Program. This program currently feeds over 1,000 people living in the DTES every day. |
| Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Centre of BC | Downtown Eastside | Mindful Tools for Caregivers | This project will offer 100 free training spots to frontline caregivers working with vulnerable populations and help build community connections among caregivers in the Downtown Eastside and neighbouring communities. |
| YMCA Metro Vancouver | Downtown Eastside | YWCA Saturday Family Activity Program at Crabtree Corner | This program at Crabtree Corner provides low-income single mothers and their children with meaningful opportunities to engage and connect with each other and with other families in the community through social, recreational and educational activities at no charge to them. |
| Urban Native Youth Association | Grandview-Woodlands | Native Youth Learning Centre (NYLC) | This program is a safe and welcoming drop-in space for youth ages 15-30. The project continues to pro-actively engage Indigenous youth in a vast range of activities; exposing them to their culture, building protective factors and reducing risk factors for them. NYLC participants will have access to at least 40 workshops and activities throughout the year, including traditional and cultural activities, job readiness training, certifications to increase their opportunities for employment, and support in maintaining their sobriety and wellness. |
| Whole Way House Society | Downtown Eastside | Seniors Supportive Housing Services | Project to support residents in grocery medication delivery, accessing telehealth appointments, and submitting forms for various government supports. |
| Red Fox Healthy Living Society | Strathcona | Red Fox Junior Leadership Program | This program will provide ongoing mentorship and training opportunities for youth ages 10 to 13, to prepare them to become youth leaders and then youth interns, as part of the Red Fox Youth Leadership Continuum. |
| Covenant House Vancouver | Downtown Eastside | Rights of Passage Program | Comprehensive housing program on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that supports youth who have experienced housing instability and/or homelessness, and wish to transition to more stable living |
| S.U.C.C.E.S.S. (also known as United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society) | Downtown Eastside | Chinatown Senior Services Council | Funding will support Chinese-speaking immigrant seniors who have low levels of English proficiency, cultural barriers to community participation, and are socially isolated. It is a seniors-led group with a program leadership committee of seniors who encourages their peers (i.e. other seniors) to lead and bring about positive changes they would like to see in the group and community. |
| Strathcona Community Garden | Strathcona | Strathcona Community Garden Wetland Restoration Project | This project proposes to create an enhanced wetland area in the Strathcona Community Garden, which encompasses one third of the 3.34 acre garden. Components include the creation of a lined pond, a marsh/ wetland zone, native aquatic and riparian plantings and garden plots. |
| Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre | Downtown Eastside | Cultural as Medicine: Holistic Healing & Rebuilding for Indigenous Women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) | This program will provide support to Indigenous women around multiple issues including street-based and domestic violence, residential school recovery, substance use, and cultural isolation. |
| Environmental Youth Alliance Society | Strathcona | Land Guardians: Environmental Stewardship Program for Urban Indigenous Youth | Land Guardians is a free land-based education program for urban Indigenous youth ages 14-18 living in Strathcona, the Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, Hastings-Sunrise, and Grandview Woodlands. The program is a partnership between EYA and Urban Native Youth Association to provide barrier-free, culturally-safe programming that braids Indigenous cultural teachings with hands-on training in urban land stewardship and restoration. |