Serving our community for over 50 years The Bloom Group responds to the most urgent needs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We embrace transformative solutions for resolving pressing and complex challenges. We fill the gaps in areas that are critical to building a resilient community. Since 1961, The Bloom Group has led many of our community’s most progressive social services to reduce homelessness, provide end-of-life care for individuals with mental health challenges and addictions, ensure women-led families in crisis can stay together as they rebuild their lives, and much more. Our ‘low-barrier’ services are inclusive and available to all individuals in need, regardless of their circumstances, and without conditions. Our broad and positive impact is a reflection of our staff’s hard work and dedication. We must find solutions to end poverty and homelessness. Our services meet the immediate needs of individuals, while systematically building a foundation that strengthens community sustainability. We put ideas into practice, implementing innovative, yet practical and scalable initiatives that redefine possibilities and catalyze long-lasting change. We collaborate with a wide circle of partners to share expertise and resources and affect broad change that would not be possible in isolation. Our Vision A strong and resilient community where all persons have a stable home and the support to live healthy lives with self-determination. Our Mission We support the most vulnerable people in our community through the provision of housing, health and social services. An Enduring Legacy The Bloom Group was originally founded as St James Community Service Society in 1961, by May Gutteridge and volunteers of the St. James Anglican Church at Cordova and Gore in the Downtown Eastside. A feisty community leader, May had one mission: making life better for those who are most vulnerable During May’s 30 years of leadership, the organization developed mental health housing, emergency shelters for women and children, and Western Canada’s first free-standing hospice, opened specifically to serve the needs of community members in the Downtown Eastside. Among many honours, May received the prestigious YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in 1980 and 1990, and the Order of Canada in 1981.