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About us
A small group of volunteers, doing the work directly.
No office and no warehouse. Seva Sangat Foundation exists to put help into people's hands as directly as possible, and to be honest about what we can and cannot do.
Why we started
The work was already happening. It needed a team.
Across the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver, seva happens every day without a name attached to it. Somebody drives an elder to a clinic. Somebody buys extra groceries for a family that has had a hard month. Somebody stops for a person sitting outside in the rain. None of it is organised, and almost none of it is counted.
Seva Sangat Foundation exists to give that instinct a team behind it. A group of people who can be called, a plan for what happens on the night, insurance behind the volunteers, and enough structure that the work can be repeated rather than improvised. Structure is not the point. It is what lets the work be trusted and grown.
Our values come from Sikh tradition. Seva means service given without expectation. Sangat means the community that gathers to do it. Those roots are the reason the door is open, not a condition for walking through it. We do not ask anyone their faith before we help them, and we do not ask it before we hand them a box and put them to work.
Mission and vision
What we are here to do.
Our mission
To serve our neighbours across the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver with dignity, so that nobody in our community has to manage a hard season completely alone.
Our vision
A standing body of volunteers who can be called on when a family, an elder, a newcomer or a person living outside needs help, and who show up without asking anyone to prove they deserve it.
Our values
- 1SevaService without expectation. Nobody here is doing anyone a favour.
- 2SangatThe community does the work together. No single person is the foundation.
- 3DignityWe serve neighbours, never cases. No photographs of people receiving help, no registration lines, no questions that are not needed.
- 4OpennessEvery person is welcome, of every faith, background and situation.
- 5AccountabilityEvery dollar and every hour is recorded and can be explained.
How we work
Four things that shape everything we do.
These are not slogans. Each one changes what we can take on, and each one is the honest answer to a question people ask us.
We work on the field
There is no office, no drop in centre and no counter to queue at. Our volunteers go to where people already are, hand over what is needed, and go home. If you want to reach us, it is the phone or email rather than an address.
We do not cook
We have no kitchen. Every meal we hand out is ordered from a licensed restaurant or commercial food business. That is deliberate: in British Columbia, food given to the public has to come from an approved commercial source. Before a meal run we also contact the environmental health officer at our local health authority and do whatever they ask, which may be a temporary approval or simply notifying them. It is free and we do not skip it. Home cooked food cannot be used for a public handout, however kindly it is offered.
Who does the work
Today every hour given to this foundation is volunteered, including by the people who run it. Out of pocket expenses can be reimbursed, which is not the same as a wage.
As our programs grow we intend to hire for specific roles, such as teaching and program coordination. Where we do, the wage will be set against real market rates for the job and recorded in our accounts. Everything else goes into meals, supplies, and the real costs of doing this safely: insurance, screening and transport.
We stay inside our limits
We are volunteers, not clinicians, lawyers or social workers. We do not counsel, diagnose, give immigration or legal advice, operate a shelter, or take custody of a child. Where someone needs professional help, our job is to get them to it and stay with them until they are connected. Those limits are written on our What We Do page in full.
Where we are today
New, small, and honest about it.
We are building our founding volunteer team and booking our first two seva days: a blood and plasma drive with Canadian Blood Services, and a pizza and pop night for people living outside. Nothing on this website is a service that is already running, and each programme is marked so you can see for yourself.