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Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is the poorest neighbourhood
in Canada.
Pivot co-founder John
Richardson writes about what Pivot is hoping to achieve.
Founded in late 2000,
Pivot Legal Society is a leading advocate for marginalized
people such as drug addicts, sex trade workers and the
homeless and has focused its efforts in the heart of
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), the poorest
neighbourhood in Canada.
The problem Pivot is attempting to solve
is that of marginalization, and its attendant harms,
both subtle and gross, upon the quality of life of everyone
in society.
The impacts of the marginalization are
felt most cruelly by those directly affected: illegal
drug addicts, sex workers, homeless people, First Nations’
people, and others. However, the negative impacts of
marginalization are not restricted to those directly
affected.
Everyone in society loses when a fellow
citizen is reduced to a survival existence, unable to
reach his or her full potential. Most obviously, there
is the loss of that person's potential social and economic
contribution.
There is the sickness and crime that follow
from extreme vulnerability and poverty.
More indirectly, the security and quality
of life of everyone is reduced by the possibility of
marginalization happening to themselves or someone they
care about, through accident, disease, or ill-fortune.
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Downtown
Eastside facts and figures
• 30% of homeless people are
aboriginal
• 33% of homeless people have
mental illnesses
• 66% of homeless people have
drug or alcohol addictions
• 5,000 injection drug users
reside within the 10 city blocks of the DTES core
• 21% of injection drug users
report childhood sexual abuse
• 30% of injection drug users
have a mental illness
• 30% of injection drug users
have HIV/AIDS
• 90% of injection drug users
have Hepatitis C.
Addicted sex workers represent the
outside fringe of marginalization. Backgrounds
that include childhood sexual abuse, abandonment,
poverty, addiction and mental illness are overlaid
with exploitation by pimps, traffickers and clients.
Disproportionately harmed, the incidence
of HIV/AIDS among women in the DTES is 40% higher
than that of men. |
Perhaps most importantly, a social curtain
is drawn between those who have and those who need.
This partition is felt in the hearts and minds of everyone,
creating patterns of fear, aversion, intolerance, and
contempt. These emotions do not simply prevent individuals
from opening their hearts: as a cultural phenomenon,
they prevent us from achieving a society that is truly
inclusive, supportive, and compassionate.
Continued...
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