At first glance, 449 East Hastings is just one of the many older buildings in the Downtown Eastside. But it gets pretty lively every other Thursday when the DUDES Club—short for Downtown Urban Knights Defending Equality and Solidarity—holds its regular meetings. Fifty or 60 men, mostly aboriginal, have been going there regularly for the past five years to hang out, play a few rounds of bingo, enjoy a good meal, maybe get a free haircut—and talk about almost any health issue under the sun.
The club is a community outreach project of the Vancouver Native Health Society, in collaboration with the Movember-funded Men’s Depression and Suicide Network at UBC. According to its medical director and UBC clinical assistant professor Paul Gross, the appeal of the club is that it creates a safe, supportive place for men to talk about health, both physical and mental.