Welcome to our Blog/ News Page!
Keep checking back on exciting news happening within the council and your community!
Pilot project helping renters extends for one year Media Release Rent Bank One Pager
The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria and BC Rent Bank are launching a Rent Bank which will provide short term financial help for low-to-moderate income households at risk of losing their housing due to a temporary financial crisis. In conjunction with this the Community Council is also launching the Greater Victoria Housing Relief … Read more
Gender Balance in Entrepreneurship – What does that mean? Gender balance in entrepreneurship means moving from ‘hero-preneurship’ to collaboration and away from hierarchy to scaling through adaptation or replication by others. As we start to re-build into a green, diverse, and inclusive economy, limiting the barriers women and newcomer entrepreneurs face will be essential. Did … Read more
The Community Social Planning Council welcomes the new report from BC’s Representative for Children and Youth that puts a spotlight on youth transitioning out of care. In the 2020 Point in Time Homeless Count for the Capital Region, 1 in 3 of the people experiencing homelessness had been in foster care or government care. This … Read more
The CSPC is giving a big SHOUT-OUT and THANK-YOU to BC Transit for donating reusable masks for the Community Council’s Low-Income Transit Assistance program. On Thursday, November 19th, the BC government announced further restrictions as COVID-19 cases continue to surge and the concern of community spread grows. Masks are now mandatory for public indoor places … Read more
The Community Social Planning Council is excited to announce that we are a finalist in this year’s City of Victoria’s Participatory Budgeting! This year’s Participatory Budgeting initiative is to support community projects benefiting new immigrants and refugees in Victoria. Our Project Active Inclusion in the Green Recovery does just that! For more on this project … Read more
In the early summer, the Times Colonist sat down with Mikaila Montgomery, research coordinator at the council and discussed our Financial Inclusion in the Green Economy project- a project that sets its sights on addressing inequalities between genders by identifying current and future barriers to financial inclusion for women in the green economy. For more … Read more
April Lawrence from Chek News sat down with our senior researcher Margaret Forbes to discuss the findings from our recent published report Under Pressure: The rental housing experience of seniors living in James Bay, Victoria. In the interview, April and Margaret highlight that Victoria’s James Bay neighbourhood has some of the highest rents in the … Read more
James Bay New Horizons for Seniors Society, a neighbourhood community hub for seniors, approached CSPC prompted by increasing concerns they were hearing from seniors who were: struggling to pay high rents, had lost or were at risk of losing their housing due to renovation evictions, and struggling to find affordable housing. The neighbourhood of James Bay in the City of Victoria has … Read more
As published in the Times Colonist, The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria’s Executive Director Diana Gibson and Executive Director of Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Kelly Roth commented on the regions Homelessness concerns. Read more