Dive into the latest insights from the report on e-mobility policy tools and strategies for local governments! This comprehensive study explores how provinces and municipalities can boost e-mobility adoption while focusing on climate action and economic equity.
Discover policy options and considerations shaped by community engagement, paving the way for a greener, more inclusive future.
Empowering Communities: The TAP Regional Collaboration Study
The initiation of the Tenant Assistance Policy (TAP) Regional Collaboration Study marks a significant effort towards enhancing support for tenants amidst redevelopment challenges. This collaborative project, driven by insights from communities in Victoria, Saanich, Colwood, Langford, Esquimalt, and Oak Bay under the Regional Household Affordability and Prosperity Project (RHAP), aims to streamline and strengthen TAP while addressing critical service gaps.
In partnership with the Community Social Planning Council (CSPC), RHAP fosters cooperation among municipalities to exchange best practices in housing affordability. Through ongoing research on housing and homelessness, this initiative seeks to raise awareness and drive positive change in local communities.
Explore how the TAP Regional Collaboration Study is shaping the future of tenant support and housing policy.
As the BC Rent Bank program marks its fifth year since inception in 2019, it celebrates a remarkable evolution from a localized initiative to a seamlessly integrated provincial network of support. This past year has been pivotal, showcasing the program’s ability to expand its scope and offer diverse forms of assistance crucial for enhancing renters’ long-term resilience.
Discover the comprehensive insights and transformative outcomes achieved over the last 12 months in the BC Rent Bank 2023-24 Impact Report.
There is always a sense of accomplishment when significant projects are completed, and the BC Rent Bank program’s recent branding overhaul and website launch are perfect examples. The program is excited about its new look and hopes that the updated website offers a more user-friendly experience. Additionally, the introduction of a demographic survey and automated surveys represents a meaningful advancement in data collection.
Recent trends indicate a rising demand for rent bank services year over year. Over the past year, the approval rate among rent banks increased by 27%, marking a 3% rise from the previous year, while the dollar value of loans continues to grow. Impressively, the repayment rate has remained consistent over the past two years. With the promising indicators from Q1, the program is poised for an unprecedented year in supporting renters.
As part of the Regional Housing Affordability and Prosperity Project (RHAP), the Community
Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria, in collaboration with the Urban Development
Institute and RHAP municipalities (Victoria, Colwood, Langford, Esquimalt, and Saanich),
organized an event focused on informing and incentivizing the development of affordable, high-quality,
and inclusive childcare through the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund.
Invitation to Building Resilient Communities: Climate Adaptation in Victoria
The event is FREE!
Date: June 6th, 2024
Time: 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: Ambrosia Banquets & Events, 638 Fisgard Street, Victoria, BC
As part of the Happiness and Wellbeing Lab project, the United Way South Vancouver Island and Community Council release an annual family day fact sheet. The fact sheet brings awareness that even though we may all be in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. As we celebrate this BC Family Day, let's make sure that No Family Gets Left Behind.
Let's Talk Urban Living With Uytae Lee
Join us for an exciting evening as we host our Annual General Meeting and then dive into the world of urban living and civic storytelling with Uytae Lee of popular urbanist YouTube channel About Here. He'll kick off with some Victoria area trivia before exploring topics ranging from housing to transit and beyond, promising an engaging dialogue on the facets that shape our urban experience.
Timing
5:00-5:30pm: AGM, all welcome — if you'd like to sign up as a member to the CSPC, click here.
5:30-6:00pm: Mingling, food and beverages available for purchase — we're pleased to have Maiiz Nixtamal on-site selling fresh tamales, street corn, and chips and salsa!
6:00-7:00pm: Uytae Lee
Venue: Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad St, Victoria, BC V8W 2B2
Grab your friends and come join us for a fun-filled evening of captivating stories, great food, and exciting discussions.
About Uytae Lee
Uytae Lee is a columnist and filmmaker whose work covers the complex issues surrounding our cities. He’s the creator of the CBC series ‘Stories About Here’, where he explores topics such as underground streams, zoning reform, public washrooms, street-food, and much much more. In addition to his CBC series, Uytae also produces urban planning documentaries for his own YouTube channel About Here.
As the living wage rises once again to $25.40 per hour, families and individuals are grappling with the challenges of affording the escalating cost of living, surging food prices, and more. Our Family Day Factsheet 2023 showed that 21% of lone parent families are currently living in poverty.
There has never been a more crucial time for us to unite and extend support to one another, especially during the holiday season.
Donations made to the CSPC help support vital programs such as the Greater Victoria Rent Bank and Coordinated ID Services. You increase our capacity to engage in social policy research, analysis and advocacy for underserved and under represented populations.
If you'd like to support other meaningful initiatives in the community, please view the list below.
This location on View Street has been around for over 40 years and serve out over 30,000 meals each year.
They accept both donations as well as your volunteered time, if you’ve got some to spare!
In 2010, the Victoria Rainbow Kitchen Society was established as a registered Society & Charitable Organization and has since become a true hub for food security programming in the Capital Regional District!
They work hard to help those in need, including serving over 120,000 meals every year and over 10,000 pounds of food rescued from being pre-maturely thrown out each month.
They have multiple programs you can check out and they’re always accepting donations for items such as toiletries, canned goods, cooking oils, and so much more.
This warm and welcoming location is happily providing food to over 2000 low-income individuals in the area with access to fresh food, resources, and support.
Monetary donations is the quickest and best way to ensure the team have everything they need in order to continue supporting those who need it most.
But they also recommend hosting your own food drive, organizing a fundraiser or volunteering your time if you’re looking for ways to get back.
Everyone knows that Christmas is expensive, and for some, impossibly so. The expectations to make a child’s Christmas is even greater, and some parents or guardians don’t want the added financial weight.
In order to make life easier on families in need, toy drives pop up all over the city and it couldn’t be easier to get involved.
Just make sure the toys you bring in are new and unwrapped.
Here’s 4 toy drives to participate in this holiday season:
This year marks Virgin’s fifth Toy Mountain which seeks to amass as many gifts for all ages as humanly possible within the confines of the former Good Earth Uptown location.
They will be there until Friday, December 1st and are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and welcomes donors into the space to add their gifts to the already building mountain of toys.
Toy Mountain is especially in need of gifts for the 13 to 17-year-old range, as this is an age group they’re always short on. Even gift cards are great because it gives the receiver the power to shop for their own wants.
If you weren’t yet convinced to drop something off, on Friday, December 1st, anyone who drops off a gift, cash or a gift card, will receive a drink and a treat from Starbucks and Crust who will be set up in the roundabout in front of Best Buy.
Similar to Virgin’s Toy Mountain, The Zone will be setting up shop at the Mayfair Shopping Centre parking lot on December 8th from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. for a drive-thru-style toy drop-off.
Bring over what you can to support Victorians in need and make a huge difference for families on Christmas!
Leading up to their toy drive-thru event, they’re encouraging everyone to drop off toys to the following Peninsula Co-op locations up until December 6th:
In partnership with Mustard Seed Street Church & Food Bank, LIDA Construction is collecting toys for children aged 6 to 16 up until December 12th at 4 p.m.!
Bring toys such as Barbie Dolls, Trains’ n’ Trucks, Nerf, Transformers, Star Wars, LEGO, Action figure, Shopkins, Hatchables, Cool Socks, Gloves and Scarves, and Board Games.
If you wish to contribute gift cards or movie vouchers, those will also be accepted!
The Natural Hair Salon has partnered with Santas Anonymous for this holiday season and they’re hoping to get as many people involved as possible!
If you’re planning on visiting the salon anytime between now and December 22nd, bring a toy for kids in need.
Some gift ideas include Play-Doh, magnets, pencils, crayons, and coloring books!
One of the best things about Victoria is the amount of incredible local businesses and creators that are available to us for all of our possible needs.
Anything you purchase is going directly to your community by supporting the artisans that keep the city of Victoria vibrant and creative.
The list you will find in the link below has been split up into three sections: local stores, local authors, and local restaurants for you to check out!
Anything from gift card-musts to specific items are included, and at the very least, you’ll find somewhere to start looking!
Full article: Here’s a list of unique and local gifts you can get your loved ones in and around Victoria
Plenty of the soup kitchens in Victoria also accept nonperishable or other accepted items, but we wanted to quickly highlight a few more.
There’s a specific food drive for the holiday season happening during The Q!’s morning show at Mayfair, as well as a couple others that allow you to drop off anytime.
Here’s 4 places you can donate food and other accepted products to:
The Q will be setting up shop in the Mayfair Shopping Centre parking lot on Friday, December 1st collecting food donations, cash and cheques for the several food banks throughout Greater Victoria.
They will be broadcasting their morning show from that location!
Stop and say hello and bring what you can.
Mustard Seed is situated in Victoria’s downtown core and has become a well-known resource for those in need.
Their food bank provides 600,000 pounds of food, beverages and hygiene products to families and individuals—this is equivalent to an estimated 480,000 meals or over 1,300 meals per day.
Bring any nonperishable food items or other accepted items that you can spare to support your community this winter.
They will also be at the IEOA Truck Parade on Saturday, December 2nd accepting donations!
The Victoria Community Fridge operates on a “take what you need, leave what you can” basis and is entirely supported by the community.
The is open 24/7 and is accessible from the sidewalk.
They accept items such as fresh fruit and vegetables, unopened or bulk dry goods (pasta, rice, legumes, baking supplies), sealed hygiene items (diapers, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, tampons, pads, soaps), sealed pet food, snacks (granola bars, crackers, etc.).
They don’t accept open or used items, raw meat or seafood, opened or half eaten food (unless individually packaged), alcohol, mouldy or seriously damaged bread or produce, frozen food, or leftovers or premade meals (unless given exclusive permission to do so).
Sandy Merriman provides emergency shelter for 25 women who are homeless. They also welcome people who are transgender and non-binary.
Donations to this house are always greatly appreciated and go directly towards vulnerable people looking for hygiene products, nutritious meals, and clothing.
If you would like to donate, you can drop off your items on Sundays and Wednesdays. They will go back to accepting donations daily in the New Year.
They accept financial donations 24/7 and that can be done through Cool Aid’s website, here.
BC Transit is hosting a donation drive on Saturday December 2nd, at the Save-On-Foods in Tillicum Mall from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers will collect non-perishable food items, new toys, and clothing, benefiting the Mustard Seed Food Bank and the Salvation Army.
This year, due to operational challenges, BC Transit is unable to partake in some traditional holiday events like the Santa Bus, which would impact bus services. However, they aim to resume these festivities in 2024, understanding their significance in bringing joy to customers and employees.
This list was provided by Victoria Buzz, view the original article here.
*This event is for municipal councillors and planners. Please register with your municipal email (ie. planner@city.ca). Personal email addresses may be removed from our registration list to ensure privacy.*
Municipalities are at the forefront of the affordability challenges facing Canadian cities. Join us for a solutions-focused conversation with guest presenters and speakers from across the country.
The Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria is pleased to convene a dialogue with municipal leaders from across Canada on their new toolkit, Local Government Levers for Housing Affordability, which received funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Read the Toolkit
The launch of this toolkit marks a significant step towards a more optimistic future for housing availability and affordability in Canada. By recognizing the vital role of municipalities and providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge, we can collectively address our housing crisis.
This event will feature solutions and insights from municipal councillors and planners who are at the forefront of housing affordability innovation across the country, and will be moderated by the CSPC's Executive Director Diana Gibson. There will be time for an audience Q&A, as well as additional time from 1:00-1:30pm for continued dialogue after the facilitated programming has ended.
Join us on November 8th from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM for the official launch of the Living Wage across BC. This gathering is a convergence of impassioned stakeholders committed to advocating for a fair living wage. We invite employers and employees dedicated to this cause, policymakers including MLAs, MPPs, councillors, and their teams, as well as representatives from unions, businesses, and community organizations. The event will feature a panel response and living wage presentation.
Let's come together to delve into critical conversations, drive change, and collectively work towards fostering a society where a fair living wage is not just a vision but a reality. Your presence and insights are vital as we unite for a brighter, equitable future. Food and refreshments will be available. Mark your calendars for this significant event!
This event is part of the CSPC's Happiness and Wellbeing Lab in partnership with the United Way.