WARMED BY SUCCESS

'We've Had Quite A Few People Who Have Gone Into Recovery And They Don't
Return,' Says The Woman Who Runs The Life Skills Drop-In For High-Risk Drug
Users

People are lining up to get coffee inside the Life Skills Drop-in Centre at
412 East Cordova on a recent Tuesday morning. Others are using the laundry,
having showers and watching a movie in the TV lounge.

In one meeting room, a group of women are holding hands in a prayer circle,
trying to help each other heal from past violence.

"I'm still trying to find you shelter," Coco Culbertson, the centre's
coordinator, tells a long-haired, bearded homeless man as she passes him in
a hallway outside the centre's kitchen, where volunteers are preparing to
serving a hot lunch of chicken burgers and soup.

She finds an empty classroom, where the walls display cut-out hands pasted
on a fabric background -- evidence of the dozens of people who have
graduated from a drug harm-reduction program.

"This is basically a community centre for high-risk drug users," she says
of the facility located across the street from Oppenheimer Park in the
Downtown Eastside.

"Up to 550 people a day come in here. Some just come in to use the bathroom
or have a shower or do their laundry. Some come in to socialize or
volunteer. The centre is predominantly run by peers -- members of the
community who live in SROs [single-room occupancy rooms in hotels, which
typically have shared bathrooms]."

The centre's mandate, Culbertson explains, is to create a place where
high-risk people can get involved and stabilize their lives.

"It's part of the four-pillars approach to help people on drugs. We have a
lot of mental-health clients in recovery."

Culbertson is the only paid staff member at the centre, which is run by the
Portland Hotel Society and funded by the Vancouver Coastal Health authority.

"It allows them to have a place in the community to get involved," she
explains.

"There are many people who detox themselves. It's sort of a family. People
help each other with housing, clothing. It's quite inspirational."

The lunch program, for example, not only provides nutrition but gives
volunteers skills in cooking, serving and planning meals. There are also
donations of massage therapy, yoga classes and a gardening program.

"The volunteers maintain all the flower baskets on Hastings -- they create
them, grow them and water them. It's about pride in the community."

Eventually, some people seek help getting out of the cycle of drug
addiction. "People say, 'I'm ready. I've hit rock bottom. I'm sick and
homeless,' " she explains.

Sometimes Culbertson can't find detox or treatment beds. Other times, she
has trouble finding emergency shelter for people.

"There's not nearly enough beds," she says, but there are success stories.

"We've had quite a few people who have gone into recovery and they don't
return to the Downtown Eastside," Culbertson says.

"There are wonderful stories of success down here."

Sometimes a centre volunteer manages to maintain the same housing for
months, which can be an important step toward recovery, she adds.

"So much of what we deal with here is despair, poverty and addiction,"
Culbertson says.

"I get upset," she says, "that we live in a society that doesn't take care
of its disadvantaged.

"I'm increasingly more political and driven to change policy -- these are
some of the most vulnerable members of society."

Culbertson, 36, treats everyone in a non-judgmental way, which probably
stems from her upbringing.

She grew up in Toronto with alcoholic parents -- her father was a
blacksmith, her mother an executive secretary at the Bank of Montreal. Both
parents died of cancer at a young age. Her older brother, who gave
Culbertson the name Coco -- her real name is Corrine -- was killed in a
boating accident.

Culbertson went to live with her best friend, whose mother ran a brothel.
"I grew up sending girls out on calls. It was a very wonderful upbringing
but not very conventional."

Her first career was as a musician. While in a band, she met a married man
and ran off with him to Vancouver. They separated but are still friends.
They have a 10-year-old son. Four years ago, she was a full-time musician,
playing bass and touring with Bif Naked. She also played on Vancouver
alt-rocker Holly McNarland's last album.

Culbertson still has a band, the Gay, and recently toured in the U.S. with
Carl Newman, best known for his work with the New Pornographers band.

"I've played music my whole life and it's a balance, for sure," she says.

But she craved more meaning in her life. She started doing mental-health
work for the Portland Hotel Society, which operates 391 housing units in
the Downtown Eastside.

That led to her coordinating what was called the "bathroom project" _
providing a toilet at Main and Hastings after the outdoor public washrooms
were closed.

She spent about 10 months on the corner -- ground zero of Vancouver's
street drug scene -- from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.

"I met hundreds of people who live a very high-risk lifestyle," Culbertson
explains. "I learned a lot about street culture. I think it changed me
profoundly."

She was never afraid working on the corner. "We were there as a support
system for them, so we made great friends."

Today, Culbertson lives a few blocks from where she works. She loves the
neighbourhood, especially the fact that Chinatown is a few blocks away.

"There's an amazing sense of community here."