'hope in shadows' is a portrait calendar project run
by pivot, a legal society in vancouver, canada.
for 3 years pivot have held a photography competition
and published the top entries as a calender.
as an innovative approach to empowerment through
art, the calendar was designed to give marginalised
people the power to define their own identity, and to
offer an opportunity to showcase their talent and
potential. 150 contestants, all low - income residents
of vancouver's downtown eastside, received a free
black and white disposable camera and were asked
to document their daily lives, with a focus on the
themes of community and relationships.

the selection process is hard and huge discussions
take place about the merit of what goes into the
calendar and why.
the selected top 40 images were then exhibited at
the interurban gallery, vancouver.

each year, once the photographs are published as the
calendars they are sold by the residents of downtown
eastside and the remaining sales are made in over
90 retail outlets around vancouver and on the internet.
the proceeds from which go towards pivot's ongoing
legal, educational and strategic efforts to advance
the interests and improve the lives of marginalised
persons.

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this is how it works
a few words from paul ryan from pivot legal society:

‘the photography competition was originally set up
to help people make a bit of money before christmas.
the benefit system here in british columbia is very
tough and many people fall through the cracks, and
so the extra cash is very welcome.

in order to be able to sell the calendars legally we
had to get a permit from the vancouver municipal
government (city hall) and so the sellers were legally
allowed to sell on the streets.
this involved getting permit cards with photographs
and telling the seller how to approach people in a
non-threatening way.
a local charity drop-in centre, ‘LifeSkills’ provides the
venue for us to do the sales training (this place opens
every day at 10am and people do different activities.
some bring clothes to wash – others come to use the
showers).
we held 25 sessions and trained 120 people between
september and december 2005.
suggestions are given about good lines, such as
'when was the last time you bought a christmas gift
for $20 and they ended up looking at it every day for
a whole year?
at the end of the session, we give them a laminated
permit card, with a string attached to go around
their neck and a free calendar that they can sell for
$20.

we had three depots in the area so that they
could buy the calendar for $10 if they showed their
permit. the street sales average about half of the
general sales, and generate about $20,000 towards
the cost of producing the calendar, framing the 40
exhibition prints and awarding over $3,000 in prize
money to the top 40 photographers.
the calendar is also sponsored by local businesses –
each month is sponsored by a different company
(and this year a second retrospective exhibition,
held uptown in the financial district, was sponsored
by a local university).'

see all the 40 images of the 2006 calendar
http://www.pivotlegal.org/pdfs/RetrospectiveCatalogue.pdf






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more on homeless, social awards ...
the ‘shelter in a cart’ competition
http://www.designboom.com/cart_shelter.html