Group offers hope to inner-city enterprise

from Business Edge

Vancouver program backs micro-business at street level

By Monte Stewart - Business Edge

Sylvain Delorme used to inject himself with needles.

Now, he removes them from the back alleys of Canada's poorest neighbourhood.

A former drug addict and alcoholic, Delorme is part of a growing group of entrepreneurs who are trying to help themselves and revitalize Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside at the same time.

He owns and operates Damage Rubbish Removal and Cleanup Inc., which disposes of dirty needles and unwanted furniture, removes debris from construction sites and other premises, and spray-washes the neighbourhood before crews come in to shoot movies and TV shows.

"At the start, (areas) smell like urine and then smell like lemon," he says.

Delorme, 40, is one of about 75 entrepreneurs helped annually by the non-profit Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society (EMBERS).

The group aims to help poor residents of Vancouver's inner city - many of whom, like Delorme, have been homeless at times - turn their talents into micro-businesses.

"My business plan was no-barrier employment for people on the Downtown Eastside," says Delorme, who hires street kids and young at-risk adults to help him when he has enough business. "I'm giving opportunity to people that don't have any and people that normally would not be hired on the spot because of their hygiene or their presentation."

EMBERS provides low-cost business training and support to individuals. It recently received $190,000 in federal funding through the Department of Western Economic Diversification to assist entrepreneurs such as Delorme.

Services and programs include courses on how to start a company; business coaching, which includes advice on how to prepare business plans, apply for loans and launch, market and operate firms; financial literacy; mentorships that last up to three years; and business support services that include access to phones, computers, bookkeeping and mail.

In conjunction with Vancity Credit Union, EMBERS also offers a plan that matches a participant's savings three-to-one. Participants save up to $600 and receive a maximum of $1,800. The money essentially serves as a grant and does not have to be repaid. Vancity has provided $85,000 to the program.

"EMBERS is about building assets," says Delorme. "It's very difficult for me to put together $10,000-$15,000. For most of us in North America, it's the same. We're a payday away from living on the street."

He started his firm in 2005 after experiencing burnout as a street worker with the Downtown Youth Action Centre. But he has struggled to keep his firm rolling - literally.

The business operated for about eight months until the engine in his "clunker of a truck" expired, he says. "I stopped the business for another seven months and I just started it back a few months ago."

He acquired two other clunkers, one from a friend and the other from a tow-truck operator.

He's now generating about $3,000-$6,000 per month in revenue. "(Business) is poor right now," he says. "I struggle."

Marcia Nozick, executive director of EMBERS, says her group is starting to make a difference for people who want to improve their lives. She says EMBERS has helped launch about 111 firms since she started the program in 2001.

"We're giving a hand up - not a handout," says Nozick. "We're helping people to, really, help themselves."

Nozick says EMBERS tries to fill in the gaps for many programs that don't offer support to entrepreneurs when they are getting ready to launch. Some participants do not start businesses because they find an entrepreneur's life is not for them, but others - like all business owners - seek to fulfil their dreams.

"It's not just having a job and working for somebody," said Nozick. "They're doing what they want to do."

Now, she dreams of expanding EMBERS to include a loan program to help micro-businesses grow larger. She would also like to see similar programs set up across the country.

The Western Economic Diversification contribution comes from the $5 million it contributed to the Vancouver Agreement, a federal-provincial-municipal pact that channels funds into economic diversification, health and housing programs designed to ensure long-term economic growth on the Downtown Eastside.

Ottawa and the province initially each contributed $5 million and Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal government added another $3.75 million.

The City of Vancouver provides in-kind goods and services, including space in city-owned buildings, zoning and development cost compensation, incentives for the preservation of heritage buildings and capital-cost assistance.

Through the deal, Western Economic Diversification is also funding the building opportunities program, which helps companies on the Downtown Eastside that have five employees or more.

Cathy Chalupa, manager of urban sustainable communities for Western Economic Diversification, says the two social agencies work together to help Downtown Eastside clients.

"Change happens slowly," she says. "We think (EMBERS) is a good driver."

Western Economic Diversification has helped a similar program known as SEED in Winnipeg, and, through the Western Canada Business Service Network, has helped fund "community futures" corporations that include women's enterprise and francophone development organizations, primarily in rural areas.

Michael Steeves, co-ordinator of the Toronto-based Homelessness Action Group, says Ottawa must develop many more programs such as EMBERS.

He suggests the programs should include a screening process to ensure participants have the wherewithal to develop companies, while established businesses must provide mentors that can guide them through the startup process.

"We're talking big picture here," he says. "You'd want them set up so that they're not just creating dependence or make-work stuff, but are actually getting people on their feet and can sustain them over the longer period."

An offshoot of the Out of the Cold program that provides food and shelter at Toronto-area churches, the Homelessness Action Group lobbies government to provide affordable housing and attempts to get charitable groups to develop non-profit housing.

It also tries to educate people about the importance of ending homelessness.

"We get out on the street, too, and do demonstrations around poverty and housing, but we're not going to hit people over the head with our posters and placards," he says. "But we will go and see the politicians and pressure them to do the right thing."

With the right coaching, Steeves says, impoverished young people would probably have some pretty good ideas on what they can do to make a living.

But he believes any entrepreneurial program is only a small part of the solution necessary to end homelessness.