Thompson Nicola Cariboo United Way

A steering committee of the Changing the Face of Poverty group, funded by the United Way and coordinated by the Kamloops and District Elizabeth Fry Society, has been working on a process to develop a plan to end homelessness in Kamloops since November 2008. The committee has compiled existing information relating to existing affordable housing, support services and “bridging to financial independence” (employment, income assistance, disability pension etc.) services. The goal of this project is to develop a 5-year plan to end homelessness in Kamloops.

The next step is to have these subcommittees with representation from different sectors review the information and, by drawing on their knowledge of these areas, bring forward recommendations for specific action to eliminate homelessness in the areas of housing, support services and bridging to financial independence.

These recommendations will form the basis of a draft plan that will be presented at a community meeting.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

• Each subcommittee will be comprised of approximately 10 members.
• The subcommittees will meet a maximum of 4 times between 8 September and 7 October for 90 minutes.
• The meetings will be held in the United Way Boardroom at 203 – 239 Victoria Street between 7:45 am and 9:30 am.
• The purpose of the meetings will be to:
  • identify the circumstances and the characteristics of the populations and the issues faced by this group that leads to homelessness (reflect on existing data, review what’s currently happening, develop goals);
  • develop 3 – 5 recommendations with annual benchmarks and/or indicators to include in the 5 year plan that will contribute to ending homelessness in Kamloops for the population identified.

• The recommendations will form the basis of the 5 year plan to end homelessness in Kamloops.
• The plan will be presented at a community forum in November 2009 for dialogue and civic engagement with a call to action.

These subcommittees have started to meet and some great work has been done already. For more information or to get an update on how the process is coming along, please e-mail danalee@unitedwaytnc.ca