CEO, BC NOTARIES ASSOCIATION www.wildmanphotography.com
Jacqui Mendes
Potential and Opportunity for Women
I
’d like to tell you about an organization I have the honour of serving as a Board member. This is their story in their own words. Entre Nous Femmes Housing Society (ENF) was started in 1984 by three women who wanted to improve their own lives and the lives of other single mothers and their children. Realizing that safe, secure, and affordable housing was a necessary first step to stability and forward movement in life, they established ENF to develop housing especially geared to the needs of single-parent families. “ It came out of a group of single mothers’ need to effect change.” April English, founding member of ENF “ People were acting out of their own experience, having gone through tough times and recognizing a way out.” Leslie Stern, founding member of ENF “ We came to it with the idea that we could do it; we came from a positive place, moving to make life better for us and others like us.” Mia Stewart (nee Cross), founding member of ENF
The goals (or “ends”) of Entre Nous Femmes Housing Society are to ensure that economically disadvantaged persons in the greatest number possible within the Metro Vancouver Area have the opportunity for their lives to be enhanced by secure, safe, affordable, and appropriate homes to an extent that justifies the use of all available resources and that Volume 27 Number 4 Winter 2018
• tenants have a safe, secure, and respectful environment; • homes are affordable and provide an appropriate standard of living; • the community is clean and aesthetically pleasing; • there is a diverse community.
“Among Us Women” in its translation “Entre Nous Femmes” seemed to reflect both potential and opportunity… The Society was incorporated under the Society Act of British Columbia on February 25, 1985, and registered with Revenue Canada as a charitable organization. From 1986 to 1988, the Society opened its first three residential buildings in East Vancouver: Alma Blackwell, Beatrice Terrace, and Antkiw Court. Eight more buildings were added over the next 20 years, bringing ENF’s total portfolio to 409 housing units.
How ENF Got Its Name When the founding members of ENF submitted their first expression of interest to the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC), they realized they needed a name for their group. They wanted the name to reflect their nonhierarchal and inclusive philosophy. They also wanted it to say something about their belief that they could develop their own housing. One night, Mia and April sat down on the floor of April’s living room, a pot of tea on one side of them and The Scrivener | www.notaries.bc.ca/scrivener
The Alma Blackwell building
a bottle of wine on the other and, with the help of both an English and French dictionary and a name book, came up with the name. April takes responsibility for the name chosen because she had grown up in a francophone community and believed a French name would attempt to create something broader, representing the openness of the group. At the same time April remembers, “It needed to say something about women, not about any individual woman, but about us women together.” “Among Us Women” in its translation “Entre Nous Femmes” seemed to reflect both potential and opportunity while reflecting the group’s philosophy and intent. Over the years the name “Entre Nous Femmes” has generated many fascinating reactions, such as “Don’t you allow men?” or “Is it only for francophones?” April saw those sorts of reactions as “people’s limitations to seeing the name, rather than using a broader vision to experience the name.” And besides, it has provided the odd giggle, the value of which is immeasurable! Find out more about Entre Nous Femmes at www.enfhs.org. s TABLE OF CONTENTS
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