The Friendship Centre movement continues to develop and grow within communities, provinces, and across Canada. There are 117 Friendship Centres across Canada and 24 of them are in British Columbia. Friendship Centres across this province have the opportunity to strengthen capacity, services, and continue to develop and deliver “best practice” because of the support and guidance from sister Centres and the British Columbia Association of British Columbia. Friendship Centres are the largest non-profit social service organization in this province and across Canada. In Lillooet, the Friendship Centre Society has grown to be a leading employer in the community, the largest social service organization, and generates approximately 1.8 million dollars in revenue to the community.
Lillooet was originally “cayoush flats”, called so by the native Indians who lived in the area as it was good grazing land for the Indian ponies called “cayuses”. The area was visited by explorer Simon Fraser around 1808 during his journey down the river that he gave his name to and by other traders during the following years.
In the early 1860’s the governor of the time James Douglas named the town Lillooet after the Indian people gave acceptance to the name and it soon became the second largest town north of San Francisco and to the west of Chicago due to the discovery of gold in the area. Gold prospectors poured in from all over the country seeking wealth in the soils of the Lillooet area. Newspapers of the time hailed the find of gold in Fraser river lower reaches but negotiating the Fraser upper reaches is no mean feat. Many people drowned trying to navigate the river upstream by boat.
Five hundred miners were contracted by the governor to build a road from the lower Fraser up the Harrison River and a chain of lakes to Lillooet. Lillooet was the terminus of the Douglas/Harrison trail but there was still another 300 miles of rough trail ahead for miners and merchants.
As Mile 0 of the Cariboo Road, Lillooet was a busy, sometimes brawling place with about 13 bars/saloons and a population of 16,000 people. The railway arrived in 1912 and with the discovery of gold at Bridge River, another boom was close at hand. The completion of the Great Cariboo Wagon Road from Lillooet and on to Williams Lake changed the daily life of people living in the Cariboo, especially mining where costs of freight dropped dramatically.
Rail passengers coming to Lillooet had to disembark at Lillooet Station which, unlike today, was located on bench land the other side of the river. This meant a dusty trip to the Royal Engineers Bridge to arrive in the town from the north. Until recently Lillooet was served by a daily passenger service from Vancouver. This would allow travelers to view some of the most beautiful scenery in the world on their way to Lillooet.
Lillooet has survived good and bad times and was almost destroyed by fire in the 1970’s.
Today, Lillooet still boasts that scenery along with many sites and activities for the traveler and maybe those who seek a place to stay for a while. It attracts people from all over the world with great weather and a short drive (by Canadian standards anyway) to other centers like Whistler and Kamloops.
Some of the activities include ice climbing, swimming, hiking, fishing, mountain biking and more too numerous to mention here. There are Motels, Hotels, Bed and Breakfast accommodations, numerous restaurants and tour companies waiting to help you enjoy your stay.
The Lillooet Museum at 790 Main St. serves as our Visitor Center. Open daily 9:00 am - 7:00 pm July and August, and Tues. to Sat. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm May, June, Sept. Oct. ph. (250)-256-4308, lillmuseum@cablelan.net . Please visit us on the web at Visitor Center.
Why not try your hand at gold panning ? Lillooet is a golden opportunity you don’t want to miss !!
The concept of a “Friendship Centre” originated in the mid-1950’s. A noticeable number of Aboriginal people were moving to the larger urban areas of Canada, primarily to seek an improved quality of life. In an effort to address issues, concerned individuals began to push for the establishment of specialized agencies. These agencies would provide referrals and offer counseling on matters of employment, housing, education, health, and liaison with other community organizations. In the late sixties, Friendship Centres began to organize into Provincial and Territorial Associations (PTA’s).
In 1969, a steering committee of Friendship Centres was struck to examine the feasibility of establishing a national body to represent the growing number of Centres. In 1972, the National Association of Friendship Centres was incorporated. Until 1972, Friendship Centres were dependent, to a large degree, on individual
volunteers and their ability to raise operating funds through various fundraising events, private donations and small grants from foundations and provincial and federal governments. Centres also began to evolve from the provision of referrals to the “front line” delivery of social services. In 1972, the Government of Canada formally recognized the viability of Friendship Centres and implemented the Migrating Native Peoples Programme (MNPP).
In 1976, the government conducted an evaluation of the MNPP which revealed the vital role that Friendship Centres played in the communities they served and the wide base of community support they had established. Centres were also able to utilize limited resources in a creative and flexible manner, while remaining accountable to their communities. In spite of many obstacles, the centres have continued to expand the programs and services offered to urban Aboriginal people. In 1983, the NAFC and the Department of the Secretary of State (DSOS) successfully negotiated the evolution of the MNPP to an enriched Native Friendship Centre Program (NFCP). This program, with a five year mandate formally recognized “Friendship
Centres as legitimate urban native institutions responding to the needs of Native people”.
In 1988, the NFCP became the Aboriginal Friendship Centre Program (AFCP), which secured the status of permanent funding from DSOS. Greater control of the funding base has been discussed within the Friendship Centre Movement at various times over the past sixteen years. On March 29, 1996, this discussion became a reality, as the administration transfer of the AFCP from the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) to the NAFC occurred during a celebratory signing ceremony. This transfer allowed the Friendship Centre Movement to fully demonstrate the effective and efficient capabilities evidenced over its history. The transfer also contributed to the further development of human resource capacity and provided greater opportunity to
urban Aboriginal people.
History of Friendship Centres Time Line:
