Building community

The initial objective of the profiles was to highlight the intersection between the devel- opment of personal capacities and the growth of community capacity by asking people to tell their stories with reference to their current participation in the Project. [...] I was in and out of jail and in and out of foster homes and in and out of the gutter on the street. [...] The community’s been really supportive of the things that I’ve done in the community and I hope the community has received this as much from me as I have from the community.” When asked about his activism and leadership on the drug and health issue, Earl demurs, saying that the whole community should take credit for the positive changes in the Downtown Eastside. [...] He was elected as the group’s Vice-President and was “all of the sudden immersed in the community affairs of the Downtown Eastside.” He met with “some inter- esting media people and the movers and shakers of the Downtown Eastside,” as well as the City, the Health Board, and the Police Department. [...] Much of what Community Directions has accomplished has taken place because of the volunteers, who are organized in committees called “working groups.” The group’s second strength is that it is a coalition that is able to get its “strategies and plans submitted to all three levels of government.” Those strategies and plans “incorporate the thoughts and ideas of a collective of the grassroots … and