Social capital has been studied and defined in recent decades by academics and community development professionals striving to create greater community resilience. The importance of being able to bounce back after a local crisis is equally appreciated in both city and country settings. As threats of floods and fires become more real, it’s nice to know that rural communities may have advantages and hidden knowledge that can help protect us—and that others can learn from. This is a pleasant change from the stereotypes of rural people and places being backwards and needing a hand up. However experts acknowledge that attempting to measure a complex web of relationships is difficult because there is no such thing as a standardized unit of social capital.
BC Healthy Communities’ planning team, together with Urban Matters, have netted a nomination for the Planning Institute of BC’s New Directions Award for their work on the Strathcona Regional District Housing Needs Assessment. The project, which wrapped last year, was deemed as innovative for its approaches to gathering qualitative data. These included community engagement techniques designed to reach members of the community from across the housing spectrum, particularly from those regularly accessing housing services, those experiencing homelessness, and those with mental health challenges and diverse abilities. This allowed for a report that highlighted not only necessary information on housing stock and tenure, but also systemic issues impacting accessibility and affordability across the region, including systemic racism, lack of food access and challenging transportation scenarios.
In an exciting new move, the City of Campbell River is taking action to provide safe and supportive housing for community members, collaborating with BC Housing to establish 50 units of supportive housing in the community within the next two years. The move comes after a 2018 Regional Housing Needs Assessment, conducted by BC Healthy Communities and Urban Matters, identified a number of trends affecting housing in Campbell River, including low rental vacancy rates and rising rental costs that put pressure on the region’s most vulnerable citizens. Additionally, a 2018 homeless count identified at least 81 people experiencing homelessness in Campbell River.
In a pivotal effort to address housing challenges in Strathcona Regional District, the City of Campbell River has announced that they will support the hiring of a coordinator for the Campbell River Coalition to End Homelessness. The City is providing one-time funding...
Social well-being is a significant component of overall health and well-being. The homes we live in play a substantial role in shaping our mental and social well-being, and the way we design homes can promote—or impede—social connectedness, inclusion and trust between...
Over a dozen Indigenous communities across BC are undertaking projects to support health and well-being planning after being receiving funding and in-kind supports by PlanH, a partnership of BC Healthy Communities Society and the Ministry of Health. The Health and...
Across BC this year, 37 communities are receiving grant funding to support age-friendly planning and projects. The grant awards, announced this month by the Ministry of Health, will assist communities in supporting older adults so they can live active, socially...
Youth leadership evolves leaps and bounds in the City of Victoria. In the spring of 2004, then-youth coordinator Chelsea Peddle had an idea. She saw a gap between city politics and young peoples’ needs in the City of Victoria, and wanted to close it. She proposed the idea of a Youth Council, where youth could comment and provide feedback to the city on the civic issues that mattered to them. The City responded to her proposal by granting support in principle to begin developing a coalition of youth and stakeholders. Through this process, The City of Victoria Youth Council (CVYC), a youth-driven, grassroots program that offered opportunities for civic engagement to youth who live, work, hang out or go to school in the City of Victoria, was born.
Evaluation matters. Our team at BC Healthy Communities integrates evaluation into all aspects of our work– from start to finish. Evaluation is the process of critically examining what we do and how we do it, so we can understand the outcomes of our activities, our program strengths and areas for improvement. We use our findings to inform tools, resources, planning and program decisions, and to increase accountability between our funders and community partners. It’s not always easy, but the results are invaluable.
Looking for resources to support evaluation? Two members of the BC Healthy Communities evaluation team attended the Canadian Evaluation Society BC Chapter’s 2018 Provincial Conference. With the theme What’s in Your Evaluation Toolbox?, the conference offered attendees...
