VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA
Our diverse team lives and works in Vancouver's oldest neighborhood, the Downtown Eastside; a thriving multi-ethnic collection of small communities. Lying on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people, it continues to be an urban home to First Nations people (10%), new immigrants, Chinese seniors and other founding cultural groups, including Italian, Jewish, British, Scandinavian, Russian and Ukrainian. City policy created push factors that drew and held low-income residents in this neighbourhood and recently, gentrification has played a displacing role on the marginalized. As the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, our neighbourhood is in desperate need of leaders who are equipped to be bridge builders and reconcile cross-class tension. It is also imperative that the voices of those who are being displaced are empowered to be heard and policies created to protect and create more homes and job opportunities for our most vulnerable residents.
Our team is developing local leaders to address these challenges in 3 ways: building thriving multi-ethnic Jesus Communities, advocating for justice through grassroots organizing, and working to create economic opportunities for our neighbours. We have a vibrant church planting partnership with the Strathcona Vineyard Church. We are involved in multiple local and broad based organizing groups in the city. Our neighbourhood has a rich history of advocating for the poor in Canada and so we partner with many other organizations to encourage as many opportunities for community transformation as possible. We also lead an active Economic Empowerment Group comprised of neighbours and partner organizations, which runs the annual Strathcona Artisan Market, and aims to assist community members in starting small businesses out of existing skills and talent.
We also host interns who are looking for a place to be trained in long-term ministry among the urban poor. Our internship is 20 months long, full of intensive skills training, spiritual formation and discipleship through workshops, coaching, mentoring, volunteering and self-directed learning. If you are interested in joining our upcoming intern team you can contact Joel at joel.kimsey@servantpartners.org or find out more on the internship site page.
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