Aboriginal Life In Vancouver Enhansment Society is dedicated to connecting Vancouver’s Aboriginal residents to their neighbourhood programs and systems, to fostering their inclusion in all aspects of urban culture, and to promoting their full engagement in the life of this, their city. ALIVE is not a service organization. Rather, it seeks to build on and work in partnership with existing community infrastructure and organizations. ALIVE members are citizens, not clients.

ALIVE seeks to build on capacities of Vancouver’s urban Indigenous residents through involving them more fully in their neighbourhoods. Employing a ‘place based’ approached, the society has begun this process by working with local community centres to assist them to better reflect and involve local Indigenous residents in their programs, to foster leadership skills in Indigenous youth, and open up employment opportunities to quality Indigenous applicants. At the same time, ALIVE reaches out to urban Indigenous peoples to support their involvement and acceptance in their communities. 

ALIVE believes Indigenous people should be reflected, able to influence, and participate fully as members of the urban community. Working as the grass roots neighbourhoods’ level, the organization creates opportunities for shared experience between cultures – fostering mutual understanding and acceptance. It is a core belief of the society that Indigenous peoples have full rights to be fully involved, engaged, and included in their communities. 

• 39 youth leaders have been trained with ALIVE’s Rise program.
• In BC, 78 percent of Indigenous peoples are now living in urban and off-reserve areas.
• 30.8 percent of the Indigenous population in BC is between the ages of 15 and 34.
• Section 91.24 discriminates against urban Indigenous.
• Decolonization means changing how Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples view each other and themselves.