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Danny Sklazeski in front of Washington Community Foods
on East Hastings St. The Washington acted as a distribution
centre for locals who sold calendars and has provided
affordable goods since 1973. Until 2003 it operated
out of the nearby Downtown Community Health Clinic.
One of Pivot’s
most well-known empowerment and public education campaigns
has been the Downtown Eastside (DTES) photography contest
which resulted in the 2004 and 2005 calendars.
[more
about the Hope In Shadows project]
The 2005 calendar was sold at over 100
retail locations across the city. Project coordinator
Rita Fromholt says that this level of support was encouraging
and demonstrated the tremendous support Pivot received
from the larger Vancouver community.
“The concept of marketing a calendar
full of photographs by street-involved people may sound
strange to some, but many retailers embraced the idea
and were proud to be a part of such an innovative project.”
“Many of our retailers sold the
calendars on consignment, with some of them donating
100 percent of the sale price back to Pivot. These remarkable
retailers include three of our biggest sellers –
Mountain Equipment Co-op, Uprising Breads and Chapters
on Robson Street.”
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Images
for the calendars were collected after Pivot gave away
two hundred disposable black and white cameras to low-income
residents of the DTES. Participants were asked to document
images in their lives over three days, with a focus
on the themes of compassion, joy, struggle, courage,
faith and friendship.
Of the thousands of images produced, 40
winning photographs (16 of which were used in the calendar)
were chosen by a jury of professional photographers,
with cash prizes issued to winners.
According to John Richardson the profile
of Pivot’s work to help marginalized people in
the DTES has been raised considerably because of the
10,000 calendars printed and distributed in Vancouver
and throughout Canada, in both 2004 and 2005.
Locals sold over 1,400 Hope In Shadows
calendars, said Fromholt.
Pivot volunteers helped train local people and Pivot
authorized over 100 local residents as official calendar
sales representatives.
“Each trainee was given one calendar
for free to get them going. They could then purchase
additional calendars for $10 each from one of three
DTES distribution locations. While many trainees only
sold a handful of calendars, some become real entrepreneurs.
These ‘ambassadors’ of the DTES were very
creative in selling calendars on the street in front
of business, at Skytrain stations, from business-to-business,
and through family and friends.”
 This
article was originally printed in the Spring 2005 issue
of The Pivot Post.
Download this issue [PDF 636 KB]
[ more
Pivot Post feature
articles ]
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