Welcome to our Blog/ News Page!
Keep checking back on exciting news happening within the council and your community!
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
There is a common misconception that a large portion of the individuals experiencing homelessness in Greater Victoria have moved to the community recently. The Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Survey has time and time again demonstrated that people experiencing homelessness are not moving to the region to be homeless. Instead, high rents, low vacancy rates, low wages and … Read more
The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria has embarked upon 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. The project, Financial Inclusion for the Green Economy, is hosted by the Community Social Planning Council, working collaboratively … Read more
Victoria mourns the loss of Justin Martin, a strong believer in community and a supporter of the Community Social Planning Council. Our condolences go to his family. The family has identified The Council has set up a small family directed fund in Justin Martin’s name. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timescolonist/obituary.aspx?n=justin-m-e-martin&pid=195715329
The 2020 Greater Victoria Point-in-Time Homeless Count took place on the night of March 11th and throughout the day on March 12th. You can read more about it here: Greater Victoria Homeless Count only sees ‘tip of the iceberg’’ Victoria homeless survey attempts to identify needs of people living on street Point-in-Time Homeless Count