Home/What We Do
What we do
What we are building, and what we will not do.
Three streams of work, drawn straight from the purposes we filed when we incorporated. Each programme is marked honestly, and each one that carries a legal limit says so on the same page rather than in a footnote.
Stream one
Faith and learning
Sikh teaching, kept alive and passed on. Open to people inside the tradition and to anyone curious about it.
Kirtan and katha
Regular gatherings for kirtan, katha and spiritual discourse drawn from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Held in borrowed and rented halls until we have a home of our own.
Gurmat and Gurbani study
Study circles for adults and older youth. Plain, patient teaching for people who have grown up around the tradition without ever being taught it directly.
Punjabi language classes
Weekend classes for children, so that a grandparent and a grandchild can still speak to each other in the same language.
Before any programme involving children begins
Every adult volunteer working with children will hold a current criminal record check with vulnerable sector screening, will have a written role description with clear limits, and will never be alone and unobserved with a child. No class for children will open until that screening is complete for every adult in the room. We will also confirm with our health authority whether any programme we run crosses a licensing threshold.
Stream two
Community and culture
The gatherings that turn a set of households into a neighbourhood, and that keep heritage from thinning out with each generation.
Gatherings and celebrations
Community events and observances through the year. Free to attend, open to everyone, and never ticketed in a way that quietly excludes people.
Heritage and culture
Music, language, history and the stories of how our families came to be here. Programs built with elders rather than about them.
Youth mentorship
Tutoring, mentorship and a place to be useful, for young people who are looking for both. Subject to the same screening rules as every other programme with children.
Stream three
Seva and support
Practical help for neighbours going through a hard stretch. This is the largest stream and the one with the most legal boundaries, so we set them out programme by programme.
Community meals and langar
Langar is a free meal, cooked and served by volunteers, eaten by everyone sitting together as equals. It is one of the oldest practices in Sikh life and one of the most direct.
The rule that shapes this programme: in British Columbia, food served at a public event must come from a commercial kitchen holding a health operating permit. Home prepared food is not permitted. So our langar will be cooked in a permitted kitchen, by volunteers holding FOODSAFE certification, under a temporary food premises permit from the health authority. We will not shortcut this, which is why the programme is planned rather than running.
Grocery hampers and basic needs
Hampers of unopened, in date groceries and household basics for families having a difficult month, delivered quietly and without a queue.
What we can accept: new, sealed, commercially packaged, in date food and goods. What we cannot accept: home canned or home cooked food, unpasteurised dairy, uninspected meat, opened packages, or anything past its date. Those are not preferences, they are food safety rules.
Blood donation drives
We recruit donors, book appointment blocks and get people through the door. Canadian Blood Services performs all collection. We never collect, screen donors or handle blood, and we never will.
If you want to give blood before our team is running, you can book directly with Canadian Blood Services at blood.ca or on 1 888 236 6283.
Organ and tissue donor registration
Registration drives to help people join the British Columbia Organ Donor Registry, including help for people who read more comfortably in Punjabi.
You can register yourself right now at register.transplant.bc.ca. You will need your BC Personal Health Number, your name, your date of birth and a British Columbia address. Registration by a person 19 or older is legally binding. For help registering, BC Transplant can be reached on 604 877 2240 or 1 800 663 6189.
Seniors support
Rides to appointments, home visits, help with paperwork, and social programs so that an elder living alone is not spending the week alone. Every volunteer working one to one with a senior will hold a vulnerable sector check.
Newcomer support
Orientation, help understanding a form, interpretation between Punjabi and English, and a friendly face at an appointment.
The boundary: immigration advice in Canada is a regulated profession. We do not give immigration advice, we do not fill in immigration applications on anyone's behalf, and we do not charge for anything. We help people understand what is in front of them and we refer them to licensed help.
Menstrual products and hygiene
New, sealed, in date menstrual and hygiene supplies, distributed through schools, shelters and partner organisations rather than handed out in the street. No registration, no names taken, no photographs.
Emergency and disaster relief
When a fire, a flood or a sudden loss hits a household in our area, a fast round of practical help: bedding, groceries, clothing and transport. Coordinated with the agencies already responding, never in front of them.
Mental health
We raise awareness. We do not provide treatment.
Mental health work is where well meaning community organisations do the most accidental harm. We would rather be clear about the line than blur it.
What we will do
- Awareness events and talks that reduce stigma
- Plain language education in Punjabi and English
- Warm referral: staying with someone until they are connected to real help
- Practical support such as a ride to an appointment, childcare during one, or groceries during a hard month
- Hosting registered professionals who work under their own registration and insurance
What we will never do
- Counselling or therapy under any name
- Diagnosing or labelling any condition
- Any advice about medication
- Running a crisis line
- Managing a person in crisis ourselves instead of connecting them to emergency help
If you need help right now
These are the numbers to use. They are staffed by trained people, they are free, and they are not us.
- Immediate danger to life
- 9‑1‑1
- Suicide Crisis Helpline, call or text, 24 hours a day, every day
- 9‑8‑8
- BC Mental Health and Crisis Response, no area code needed
- 310‑6789
- HealthLink BC, nurses 24 hours a day, translation in over 130 languages
- 8‑1‑1
- VictimLinkBC, call or text, 24 hours a day, up to 150 languages
- 1 800 563 0808
Safety of women and children
The highest risk work, held to the tightest limits.
We intend to support people living with harm at home. That support is real, and it stops well short of things that require licensing, training and professional registration we do not have.
What we will do
- Know your rights sessions in Punjabi and English
- Going with someone to an appointment, a police detachment or a legal aid office when they ask
- Practical help: groceries, clothing, a phone, a bus pass
- Referral to VictimLinkBC, transition houses, police and legal services
What we will never do
- Operate a transition house, safe home or shelter
- Provide counselling or therapy
- Take custody of a child, or place a child anywhere
- Handle a disclosure of abuse internally instead of reporting it
The duty to report is not optional, and it is not only ours
In British Columbia, under the Child, Family and Community Service Act, everyone has a legal duty to report if they believe a child or youth under 19 may need protection. You do not need to be certain. You do not need to be a professional. Call the Ministry of Children and Family Development on 1 800 663 9122, staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Children and youth can call the Helpline for Children themselves on 1 877 631 8282. If a child is in immediate danger, call 9‑1‑1.
Every volunteer of this foundation is trained on this duty and is instructed to report. We do not investigate, we do not mediate, and we do not keep it in the community.
The long road
A permanent home for worship and gathering.
Written into our purposes at incorporation: the eventual establishment of a physical place of worship and community gathering. It is years of work and it will only happen if the community builds it. Everything above is the groundwork for it.