50 Years of Community Service

 The following month in the April 30, 1975 Gulf Islands Driftwood, details were covered of its inaugural meeting, its origins and its plans.    

Starting in 1976 there were steady projects to renovate and upgrade the 268 Fulford-Ganges site to accommodate its new and evolving purpose. The last major renovation was started  in 2003 with exterior painting in 2006. The property had formerly been the original Lady Minto Hospital which moved to its present…Read More

The GIPSY (Gulf Islands Program Serving Youth) alternate education program began as a partnership between the provincial government, School District 64 and Island Community Services.

McGoldrick Residence began as a group home for adults with support needs. This was part of a province-wide strategy to establish community residences after the closure of the Woodlands facility. ICS added Harbour Lodge for a similar purpose in 1999. These group home programs continued until 2004 and were phased…Read More

A community housing needs assessment was completed by ICS with the specific recommendation of developing 24 units of family housing. This lived on as an action plan which would eventually be realized as Salt Spring Commons 30 years later.

Though the efforts of Rick Laing and CRD staff, the Recycle Depot permanent location was established on Rainbow Road as a successful collaboration with the CRD that has lived on through the years.

The indoor climbing gym, or the “house that Jack (Rosen) built” opened in 1995 and provided a unique recreational experience for children, youth and adults until closing in 2022 due to insurance impracticalities.

Our House youth residence opened in collaboration with the Anglican Church and Ministry for Child and Family Development to provide emergency housing for youth 14-18 in the building now serving as Family Place on Park Drive. The service was discontinued by MCFD in 2008.

Prompted by the increase in staff positions and complexity of labour relations in staffed residential programs, ICS employees voted to unionize. The first certification with the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) included the 60 ICS employees performing front-line work.

To adjust to the changing times, ICS undertook a comprehensive planning process called “Charting a New Course for the 21st Century”. The plan reinforced the need to retain the original mission and purpose while navigating changing times. It also recognized the need to align with new and shifting partners and…Read More

ICS was joined in community food security planning by initiating a research paper with Island Natural Growers, completed by Pat Reichert, entitled “SSI Food Security – A Discussion and Planning Paper”. This prompted many of the food programs developed by ICS and others.

In the early 2000s the BC Government required organizations receiving significant funding from MCFD and CLBC to be accredited by a recognized third party. The first ICS accreditation received the highest rating – a 3 year standing by CARF International Accreditation. That has been followed in successive surveys in 2011,…Read More

In 2005, ICS decided to take a more active role in housing development and moved without delay on two opportunities. The 27-unit Murakami Gardens apartment on Rainbow Road was completed in 2008 on land donated by Richard and Rose Murakami. Lautman Drive rooming house was established in 2008, on a…Read More

The United Church initiated the first emergency shelter on SSI to operate on cold winter nights in the church basement in 2005. A partnership was formed with the ICS Adult Mental Health Team to ensure the service was effective and safe. The complexity and challenges of providing shelter service prompted…Read More

Salt Spring Literacy and ICS joined forces to create a new program to assist individuals with employment barriers become better prepared for the job market. The New Beginnings program funded by the United Way of the  Lower Mainland provided vocational and personal development in a group format. Core funding has…Read More

The market coupon program has been one of the most popular, successful and innovative activities taken on by ICS. The community impact is multi-faceted because it benefits individuals and families struggling to afford healthy food by enabling them to purchase directly from local growers that make a living through small…Read More

With the federal government now active in homelessness funding and homelessness numbers on the rise on SSI, ICS combined funding from the federal Homeless Partnering Strategy (now Reaching Home), BC Housing Homelessness Prevention and other project funding to create the SSI Housing First service that would grow into a robust…Read More

ICS was pleased to join forces with Barney Bentall and the Caribou Express for their entertaining Grand Old Opry style revue each winter at the Fulford Hall. The Food Bank fundraisers were a community hit until the Bentalls retired the concept in 2023.

ICS became qualified to provide Home Share services for CLBC and established its first Home Share, resulting in an adult with complex support needs being able to remain in the community in a healthy and stable home environment.

ICS solidified and improved its staffed residential services with the purchase of a property in Vesuvius that accommodated the individuals formerly in Murakami Gardens and others. The five-bed program is a comfortable home environment with added capacity to address complex health and aging challenges.

The Covid-19 pandemic threw our community into a period of stress and chaos. ICS rallied quickly and managed to keep virtually all programs and services running effectively and safely. Extra food programs were added on a temporary basis to provides meals and food distribution in safe and reliable ways.

Funding was finally secured to shift the temporary shelter to a 24/7 year-round shelter operation. ICS acquired a property adjacent to the main site to renovate and use for this purpose. ICS continues to provide extra shelter services in winter through the provincial extreme Weather Response program.

ICS produced the video “In From the Cold”  – a documentary on rural homelessness which made the rounds at conferences and film festivals, premiering at the Salt Spring Island Film Festival in the spring of 2023. ICS coordinates the annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count which saw local homeless numbers swell from…Read More

ICS agreed to manage an annual bursary in support of a generous benefactor initiating a training and development bursary to be awarded each year to a worthy Gulf Island resident in financial need.