The Community Death Care Project is site specific, particularly for communities made vulnerable who are connected to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) and Chinatown areas. The drug-poisoning crisis and housing crisis have added much emotional and physical strain to
DTES and Chinatown communities, amplifying ongoing systemic issues from the lack of independent and community-based housing to the disappearance of Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people. Despite the increased frequency of deaths there is still little dignity, agency, and support available around preparing for death and processing loss. This project provides increased meaningful interactions and social connections, information sharing and capacity building around choice, dignity, and autonomy for end of life planning.
Image Description: A photo of the classic “East Van Cross” handmade out of white and black felt. (“EAST” is spelled out vertically and “VAN” spelled horizontally with the two words intersecting on the “A”). The cross is surrounded by various brightly coloured fabrics, paper flowers, hand painted plastic skull masks, purple tortilla chips, and a bright orange and red paper artwork of a Day of the Dead skull.
In 2022, the Carnegie Community Centre (with the Carnegie Branch Library of the Vancouver Public Library) created and organized the Community Death Care Project. The project provided education and support to the Downtown Eastside (DTES) communities as well as cultural events
related to death and dying.
Image Description: A close up photo of an altar covered in purple mesh-like sheets and decorated with red and blue paper flower decorations, multicoloured paper fans, several photographs of lost loved ones and a poster advertising the “Heart of the City Festival” featuring “Stanley Paul” who is pictured smiling brightly and wearing a striped shirt under a brown vest and holding a large drum in one hand and giving a thumbs up with the other.
Throughout 2023, the partnership between the Carnegie Centre and Vancouver Public Library continued with the offering of four quarterly Community Memorial Services, facilitated by Emily Bootle of DeathCareBC. In the lead up to the fourth service, BC Centre for Palliative Care and Kelowna Homelessness Research Centre finished interviews for a research project on the dual experiences of bereavement and homelessness in the DTES.
The Community Death Care Project starts up again from 2024-5 with more activities and programs that aim to inform the community about their options and information surrounding death, dying, and bereavement and death, from will and estate planning to palliative care, and facilitate spaces for sharing and listening to stories about loss and grief.
The conversation around death, and dying, and bereavement takes on a whole new significance when we ask what it also takes to live where we ensure everyone is cared for with compassion.