Community Vitality in Action

Homelessness

Story:

Homelessness is present across the country, and Community Foundations from coast to coast are finding innovative ways to take part in addressing this complex challenge.  The stories of Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver are current examples of community foundation leadership.

The Edmonton Community Foundation provides proactive grants to charities that have a solid history of providing timely and relevant programs and services in Edmonton, in addition to the grants made by donors and the responsive granting made through community funds. The proactive grants are known as Foundation Directed Initiatives (FDIs); the Foundation identified homelessness as one of the central priority needs requiring financial support and provided funding to key local charities that deal with homelessness issues directly (e.g. Bissell Centre) and indirectly (e.g. Edmonton Community Legal Centre, Edmonton Social Planning Council).

In the spring of 2007, the Vancouver Foundation identified poverty and homelessness as one of four strategic priority areas. To begin work in the area, the Foundation identified two populations of interest – youth, and people with mental illness and addictions. In order to begin work in the area of youth homelessness, the Foundation developed an advisory committee to guide their activities. A series of focus groups were held with young people who were currently or had previously experienced homelessness in Vancouver and a group of youth then presented a summary from the focus groups to the advisory committee. Two young people who had experienced homelessness became committee members. The committee then developed a call for proposals for Vancouver-based multi-year grants in the area of youth homelessness with a particular focus on expanding access to housing for youth and funding for external evaluation. In December 2008, four proposals were funded.

The Vancouver Foundation also became a founding member of the Streetohome Foundation and, with the City of Vancouver, and the Provincial Government, provided seed funding for the Streetohome Foundation. Streetohome Foundation is the first broad community-based initiative designed to address homelessness in Vancouver. The foundation brings together people from all sectors of the community: non-profits, community groups, business, governments and citizens to build bridges and leverage the time, resources, expertise and funds of the entire community to ensure that all people in Vancouver have access to safe, decent, affordable housing by 2015.

Victoria Foundation executive director Sandy Richardson heard about the success that a running group for homeless people was having in Philadelphia and that became the impetus for Every Step Counts. Richardson turned to local Frontrunners business owner and running enthusiast Rob Reid to help get something similar going in Victoria. The foundation, Frontrunners and a variety of other sponsors chipped in for funding and gear, and a part-time co-ordinator was hired in early February and Every Step Counts was launched. The group is now training for the Times Colonist 10K on April 26, with a few participants even pondering the Royal Victoria Marathon in the fall.

The Victoria Foundation has also provided a $100,000 grant to the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. The Coalition’s goals are to unite and coordinate the efforts of government agencies, funders, service agencies and housing providers to ensure permanent housing, the delivery of comprehensive supports to the region's most vulnerable homeless residents, and to prevent homelessness in the future. The grant will support the collective efforts of the Coalition and enable it to develop and pilot a client tracking program and coordinated database.