Please join Atira and friends for the Enterprising Women Making Art (EWMA) Open House at The Rice Block on the afternoon of Friday, May 22nd.

The Rice Block was the first of the provincially acquired SRAs that was renovated and occupied; late last year. It's operated by Atira Women's Resource Society and houses 43 women. The women will be giving tours of the upstairs over the course of the event. We are also opening a storefront on Hastings, which was a commitment we made to the community and to the City of Vancouver to maintain retail space on Hastings. This was a difficult process as the community was initially opposed to the acquisition then to our request to the Board of Variance to install a communal kitchen and other amenity space on the ground floor. We agreed to maintain a small retail space on Hastings to house a store for our Enterprising Women Making Art program. A handful of Strathcona residents have continued to express doubt this would happen based on their experience with other NPOs along Hastings.

Enterprising Women Making Art is a non-traditional employment program for women living in/connected to the Downtown Eastside. A group of women with different interests and goals come together to produce artisan objects they then sell for income. For some it's about earning just $500/month to supplement their disability income, which allows them to find better accommodation or add more meat and dairy to their diets or see a movie once in a while. Others are hoping to earn a living making art. Up until now all of their sales have been at craft fairs. Most of the women artisans will be attending Friday night. One of the most important pieces of the program is the sense of purpose it provides women who show up at the program space daily, like a job. Emily Carr has been a valuable partner.

Hope to see you there!