Housing Support In the fall of 2009 PHC began working in partnership with the Gabriola Housing Task Force which born out of Sustainable Gabriola. The group is focusing its work on:
• Developing a Housing Organization or looking at going under the PHC banner
• Seniors Housing
• Supported Living for Special Needs
• Support for Homeless and at Risk of Homeless
• Shared Land/Housing

In February 2010, PHC launched The Gabriola Guardian Project: Everyone Deserves a Home in response to the high cost and low availability of appropriate and affordable housing on Gabriola Island, PHC has launched a three part program to help solve the problem.

1. Development of a comprehensive and confidential database linking landlords and potential tenants (particularly hard to house due to multiple barriers)

2. Survey the community to determine the specific housing needs including low cost family housing, an accurate homeless count, an at-risk count and information about how many people are living in sub standard housing.

3. Develop an emergency fund to help with utility payments, buying firewood, potable water and sometimes assisting with damage deposits. We pay directly to the supplier and hope to build a $2500 revolving fund for the use of many. An anonymous donor kick started the campaign with a generous gift of $500. If you’d like to donate please click here!

Please join us on January 14, 2012 for a Community Housing Forum where we will share initial survey results and hearyour ideas and concerns about affordable housing on Gabriola. Watch for more details of location and time.

PhotoVoice Project: Home has launched under the volunteer guidance of April Vannini. PhotoVoice is an action research technique where people are given cameras and asked to capture images events, problems, or concerns in their community in ways that can encourage dialogue, and promote social change. PHC is currently seeking people to participate in the project as well as donations of used camera's (digital and film) and any other donations to help prepare (dry mount, frame) selected prints for an art exhibition.
For donations of cameras please contact aprilvannini@yahoo.ca or drop cameras off at PHC.

Food Security

This is a core program area of PHC and includes our Food Bank, Soup Social, Coffee & Cards and Community Garden Projects. The newly released Hunger Report says there was an 18% increase in Food Bank use across the nation – our statistics would agree and of the 90+ people that access our services a full 30% are children! Click here for more details on Food Security

Community Gardens – at PHC we have four beautiful gardens.

• A Food Bank garden that supplements our Food Bank with 4 months of healthy, organic , fresh produce
• A Dragon Garden – a place for seniors to socialize, grow food and enjoy some exercise
• A Kids Garden – where children learn the benefits of growing healthy food for themselves and donating some to the Food Bank
• A Client Education Garden – a certificate program for up to 12 participants per year wherethey learn how to plan, build, plant, nurture and harvest their own organic food using The Square Foot Gardening technique.  Click Here For Community Gardens Project Information
 
Brave Girls On Gabriola - Is a camp program for girls aged 9 to 13; girls will be exposed to a range of creative and skill-building experience. The mission of Brave Girls is to provide opportunities for girls to reach out to each other, to learn from and connect with local mentors, to build resiliency and overcome vulnerabilities, and to invest in the future of the island community.

The goal of Brave Girls is to encourage girls to discover ~ click here for more

Rainbows Program: an International Program that fosters emotional healing among children grieving a loss from a life-altering crisis.   It’s cost effective because it is volunteer driven with no annual fee and there is no cost to youth participants or their families.  PHC is raising money for resources and coordination.   If you would like to support the Rainbows Program at PHC or confidentially register your child for the program, please call Kathryn @ 250.247.7311.

CITIZEN ADVOCATE CONSULTATIONS ~ An advocate from the Nanaimo Citizen Advocacy Association is at PHC the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month from 11am to 2pm. She will meet with people to discuss their issues related to residential tenancy issues, dispute resolution, income assistance and disability benefits, government agencies etc.

SUPPORTING EMPLOYMENT TRANSITIONS (SET) ~ People are welcome to come Tuesdays, 12:30 to 3:30 to meet an employment consultant. She will help with a job search, resume writing, interview skills and career counselling. Services provided by SET are funded by Service Canada. For more information contact us or visit the SET website at SET Nanaimo

In April 2010 we will be posting a job board at PHC. Please visit us at 675 North Road to post your job listings and/or your skills and contact info.