Beauty Night Society

Power & Groove

January 23, 2012 By Caroline Leave a Comment

Last Monday, I was enroute to Beauty Night when I received a call. DJ had borrowed Tricia’s phone to let me know the power had gone out. A hawk flew into the power line and died. It knocked out the power line. When I arrived to see if it was possible to open, there was a cluster of police men looking up at the power line. They said it would depend on BC Hydro when things were able to move forward. When I walked into the centre, an alarm was beeping. After speaking to staffers at Bridge Housing (which runs the building) and DEWC, we were advised to shut down for the night. Throughout this, many of the participants kept coming up and asking if we were going to open up. We waited until 6pm, put a sign on the door to let everyone know we would not be open. I am sorry for everyone that I was unable to reach before you arrived at DEWC. Hopefully this week, everything will be back to normal.

Tuesday night brought some new faces into the Beauty Night arena. When everyone arrived, Alice, the program coordinator from DEWC came up to speak to me about the power outage. There were several things that we had to adjust as the power had not been restored completely. Whether or not it was because they missed us on Monday or due to adjustments during the day at DEWC, we had a full house on Tuesday night. Thank you for everyone for pitching in and making the night flow as smoothly as possible.

One of my favourite parts of the evening was having the dance area. Debbie, one of our yoga instructors and Marlene, one of our pilates instructors and movement teachers encouraged the ladies to dance. Based on the ladies requests for dance classes, Marlene and Debbie (similar to Lauren & I a few weeks ago) asked the ladies to dance. I could hear tons of laughter as the women grooved and moved. At the end of the night, Debbie and Marlene suggested using gentle music for the last hour of the night to get the ladies to stretch and relax. I think this will be a great way to get some of the ladies to try pilates and yoga movement. Most of this will be done in chairs as some of the ladies can not get down to a mat on the floor. Marlene wrote a beautiful piece on our blog about the experience: Connecting Through Movement

If you are interested in writing a blog post for our site, please let me know. We are always looking for volunteers to share their experiences about Beauty Night.

Filed Under: Healthy Living Tagged With: BC Hydro, beauty night society, bridge housing, dance, DEWC, DTES, groove, pilates, Vancouver, volunteers, yoga

Connecting through Movement

January 20, 2012 By Caroline Leave a Comment

Connecting Through Movement by Marlene Amado

The experiences of the first few years of life set the stage for how capable our immune systems are, how we cope with stress and even our ability to find meaning-worth, in our lives. Research that has emerged in psychophysical therapy and within Laban Movement Analysis supports “the interrelationships of anatomical functioning, personal feeling …and also with the awareness that movement both initiates and changes emotional feelings and about how we think…”[1] When the experiences of everyday life continue to be a place of struggle as well as living in poverty, where do you turn and who can you trust in a world that has placed you in a category that has no formal affiliation, but is set firmly at the margins of social welfare and wellness?

I had a first hand opportunity to join Caroline’s team of volunteers this Tuesday. Amongst the various services provided such as a hot meal, massage and beauty there was an area at the far end of the room designated for dancing. Music wafted from the boom box that rested on a worn piano. My favorite CD was No Doubt and later, some garage rock. The energy in the room was decidedly enthusiastic. There were smiles as the women were pampered and especially once I introduced myself. I teach pilates in Vancouver to a diverse group of people who can afford to willingly pay to be lead through a series of movements designed to help re-align the spine and correct poor movement patterns. This was a far cry from the usual demographic that I cater to. There is no lush flooring to sprawl on or high-end equipment on which to prop ourselves. My role was simply to invite some of the women up to move and dance to the music. Our goal was to offer the opportunity to move-without judgment and without set standards or expectations. What I saw was a very open group, and an accepting cohort of women. While I was unable to get everyone in the room to join the dancers at the front of the room, I noticed from those that were dancing, pure delight. There were many who, for personal reasons, did not get up and dance. One woman expressed how absurd it would be to get up and dance after the day she had had. After further inquiry she revealed to just having quit drugs.

When I think of connection in the body as I teach I am considering an individual’s relationship within and to her or himself. “To connect is to link, to establish communication… to associate mentally or emotionally”[2]. Considering the daily struggles these women experience that I take for granted, and the necessity of dis- associating oneself from inner/outer in order to survive, it is painfully obvious why so few feel compelled to join our group. Beauty Night is about offering a safe place where even the most seemingly frivolous approach to wellness is imagined and available. Perhaps my friend may not find it absurd to dance once she has successfully gotten through the hours that lead to another day without drugs. If she is not successful, I will still be there next week offering a safe space in which to move.

[1] Hackney, Peggy. Making Connections. Total Body Integration Through Bartenieff Fundamentals (New York: Routledge, 2002) 33.

[2] ibid. 233

About the Author:

Marlene Amado has been a certified pilates teacher since 2004 and has extensive experience as a movement teacher for over 15 years. Marlene completed her BA in Political Science at UBC in 2008 and continues to explore ideas on the body through various research and written publications. She is curious about new and various ways of teaching re patterning in the body as well as finding the deeper nuances of the pilates method. Marlene is committed to facilitating students’ empowerment and positive experience of self through movement. Marlene is a Pilates Alliance Member and is fully certified in all pilates apparatus equipment.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: beauty night society, dance, DTES, laban movement, marginalized population, Marlene Amado, movement, physical fitness, pilates, poverty

2011 Year Round Up Part One

December 31, 2011 By Caroline Leave a Comment

Thank you for a fantastic year! As we look back on 2011, it is serves as an example of how community can work together to build evoke change. Thanks to your support, we have given over 16 000 makeovers in the past 11 years. In 2011 thanks to over 500 volunteers, we have given over 5000 makeovers.

Volunteer Management
Thanks to Julia Pon, Vickie Chow, Aayusha Koirala, Lucinda Yeung, Erin Samuda, Erin Brown, Elise Tan, and Christine Schultz for volunteer management and facilitating the events. Thanks to you we’ve been able to train more people.

Vancouver Foundation Invests in our Life-Makeover Program
One of our biggest goals this year was to find a way to lead and support our 500 plus volunteers to build self esteem and change lives through wellness, life skills development and makeovers. Thanks to the Vancouver Foundation, we were able to continue to have Caroline MacGillivray lead the program coordination of our life-makeover program. Since 2010, Vancouver Foundation has invested $45, 000 over 3 years to our Life-Makeover program. Working with our participants, volunteers and community partners we were able to see where we could strengthen the program.

YVR Twestival 2011
To have one staff member lead 500 volunteers can be a daunting task. When we spoke to our supporters, they rallied the community to get involved in raising the money so we could develop the leadership to offer our programming to more women. In March 2011, we were chosen of charity of choice for YVR Twestival. We were thrilled to have Vancouver’s twitter community come together in a huge tweetup. An evening of mingling and meeting people off line was held at Vancouver Lookout. Led by Miss 604 and Marc Smith from Amuse Consulting, YVR Twestival was a success. They raised over $8000 through ticket sales and silent auction to help us train 3 facilitators to expand our programming. Mayor Gregor Roberson made the opening remarks. Companies such as London Drugs, Lonsdale Rentals, Libre Tea, Dragon Truck and many more helped make this event happen.

A Website Makeover Thanks to Design Faire
Erika Harrison from the IABC/BC team of volunteers from the social media community grant we had received in 2010 spoke to Vanessa Chu from Design Faire to see if she could help us with our website. In less than 14 days, Vanessa had a new website up that reflected our new branding. * The branding was through our promotions committee and IABC/BC during our 10 year anniversary planning. We realized our branding did not reflect the work our society did. Thanks to founding board member, Pamela Lelong we revisited our bylaws and rebuilt our brand based on the cause that we build our society on and the work we continue to do.

With a new website and print materials (thank you Heather Vince) to tell people about our cause, we continued to let people know we were aiming to train 3 facilitators. Three groups of high schools students approached us to be their charity of choice for their YPI (Youth Philanthropy Initiative) project. Honoured to be chosen, we sat down with each group. The students had to create a video and do a presentation about their charity. The winning charity would receive $5000 for it’s cause. We were thrilled to be the recipient of Balmoral Secondary’s charity of choice for the YPI award.

Partnership with UBC Learning Exchange & Chapman Grant
Thanks to our partnership with UBC Trek/ Learning Exchange, we were told one of the students who volunteered for us through this program could apply for a Chapman grant to help us with a student driven program. We told them about our wish to train 3 facilitators and create training materials to continue to build leadership. Lucinda Yeung, one of our UBC Trek students applied for support for our cause. Her proposal was accepted. Through the Chapman Grant, we had an additional $4000 to train 3 UBC Trek students to facilitate our programming.

Canadian Medical Association Invests $2500 in Our Cause
Julia Pon applied for support from the Canadian Medical Association to train 3 medical students to facilitate Beauty Night programming and to educate volunteers in trauma awareness.Through the trauma awareness training, many of our health care volunteers say the training has helped improve bed side manner while working with patients and our participants.

Filed Under: Newletter Tagged With: beauty night society, Canadian Medical Association, CMA, UBC Chapman Grant, Vancouver Foundation, Volunteer Management, yvr twestival

Give the Gift of Giving

December 23, 2011 By Caroline Leave a Comment

When people ask how they can help, we encourage them to “spread the word, volunteer, or make a donation”. Our friend, Bradley Shende of Connected Life honoured us by including us in his segment about giving to communities on yesterday’s GlobalTV Morning News.

As Bradley suggests, if you are looking for gifts to give, please consider making a donation in someone’s name. We would be honoured if you wanted to invest in our cause.

Filed Under: In the Media Tagged With: beauty night society, Bradley Shende, Charitable giving, Connected Life, DTES, Global TV, Vancouver, xmas

DTES Women Treated to Makeovers

December 22, 2011 By Caroline Leave a Comment

On Monday, December 19th we held our 11 year anniversary celebration. Almost 40 volunteers helped spread the holiday spirit. CBC captured moments of the night which aired on the 11pm news. When I logged onto the CBC website, I was thrilled with the coverage.

After 11 years of providing programming in the DTES, I was glad that most of the comments were favourable. I wanted to thank the community for supporting our initiative and our partner organizations that work hard throughout the year to change this piece of the world 365 days each year. Many people left warm comments about the story. There were a few comments we were surprised to see.

CBC Reader Comment:

I wish someone would treat me to a makeover! I work 40-50 hours a week to support my family, no one has ever come up to me and said, “you work hard, you go to work every day in order to not be a burden on society, you pay taxes, we believe that you DESERVE a makeover”…no such luck !

CBC Reader Comment:

Don’t they realize they are just helping these women make more money than if they still looked bad. A 20 dollar proposition becomes 30 or 40. It does, however, help the local dollar pizza shops make more money too. And they buy groceries to make their pizza so that helps people be fed.
For those who many not understand our program, I invite you to contact us as we would be more than happy to share how Beauty Night builds community and how it impacts the lives of our participants, our volunteers, supporters, and community partners. Many of our volunteers and supporters have posted their comments directly on the site or on my facebook page. Here are some of the responses:

Marina S, Beauty Night Volunteer

I am a volunteer with Beauty Night. I’m speaking only for myself here (not commenting on behalf of Beauty Night).

For those who seem to misunderstand the organization’s purpose, I can tell you that the makeup applications, facials, manicures etc…are wonderful but they are really just a catalyst for the sense of camaraderie and joy that happens at Beauty Nights. As we volunteers give services, we all relax and chat with the women about men, kids, family and life in that comfortable way that women do together. That sense of belonging and the ability to relax together and let go of the ‘daily grind’ for a while in a safe place is something I know I need in my life. If my daily grind included extreme poverty and all the issues that go with that I would need this kind of thing even more.

There are many organizations and amazing individuals in the DTES fighting for affordable housing and human rights. Beauty Night takes care of a very specific part of the healing: Offering a place of respite and friendship (and pampering!) for women.

Stacey, supporter, past volunteer

I once lived in Vancouver and helped out with Beauty Night Society & it was something I’ll never forget….I want to thank you for that opportunity! I think you have an amazing heart for what you have started & am happy to hear it is going 11 years strong!!!

Kim, supporter and past volunteer

Its just shocking to read negative comments on such an amazingly wonderful program – just sad that some people cant see the beauty in giving to others.

Chris L, supporter

Great piece on CBC. Some silly comments tho. You’re giving dignity, that’s important. Merry Christmas.

It was the first time since 2002 that we have had negative comments about offering makeovers to women living in poverty. In 2002, here are some of the responses.

According to Dr. Karen Stancer, the physician coordinator of the Women¹s Initiative at the Downtown Community Health Center:

“Every Tuesday night is Women¹s Night. The purpose is to provide a safe environment where women in the community can access health care. As you know, many of the women are socially isolated and face multiple other life barriers such as addiction, homelessness, and poverty. In the waiting room, a (donated) minimal hot meal is served, after which an (donated) activity is offered such as raffles, games, yoga, meditation, health forum, movie, etc.
Several times, I have asked Caroline MacGillivray to put on a Beauty Night. On a routine Tuesday evening approximately thirty women come to the clinic, whereas on Beauty Night we have had one hundred and fifty women. The response would seem to show the women of the community want Beauty Night.
How do I interpret the numbers? As a physician, I have always been impressed by how much an individual¹s spirit affects their health. On Beauty Night, the women enjoy themselves without anything being asked in return.”

According to Mary Wreglesworth, President and Volunteer Co-ordinator of WISH (Women’s Information Safe House):

“Ms. MacGillivray and her volunteers offer their services in conjunction with those agencies in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that do, in fact, offer emotional support, hot meals, pre-employment training programs, health care, and shelter from the streets. The fact that not only WISH Drop-In Centre embraces Beauty Night but also agencies like the Downtown Eastside Community Health Clinic, DTES Women’s Centre, Carnegie Centre, Positive Women’s Network, Dr. Peter’s Centre, and Union Gospel Mission – to name just a few – speak volumes on the benefits offered by this wonderful organization.

It should also be noted that it was WISH who nominated Caroline MacGillivray for Flare Magazine’s Volunteer of the Year Award; we feel that Flare should be commended for its wise choice in presenting her with this honour.”

Thank you so much to all that support and work with us to build a healthy community. I will continue to share your thoughts and comments on our site. In closing of this post, here is one of the testimonies on the CBC site.

According to Annie B, one of our Beauty Night Volunteers:

I am a volunteer with Beauty Night I go twice a week every week to help out in whatever capacity I can, and I can tell you it is the most worthwhile thing I have ever done. These ladies are funny, great spirited and wonderful, they are not only my clients they are my friends and I look forward to seeing them each and every week.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to not only feel beautiful and respected but also to have a laugh a resource to make new friends and enjoy themselves as we are all entitled to do. I personally know that there is no better way I could spend my time and being with these ladies for two evenings a week is worth more to me than anything.

I don’t understand why anyone would begrudge these services however I would suggest that if you do perhaps you take a step outside your own box and do something worthwhile for someone else and see how quickly your own preconceived notions of who deserves to get what diminishes.