Here to Help Since 1975
The Salt Spring Island Community Society is incorporated under the BC Societies Act.
The following month in the April 30, 1975 Gulf Islands Driftwood, details were covered of its inaugural meeting, its origins and its plans.
A Community School Worker was part of the core Community Centre services and staffed by Nick Gilbert until 1981. This was the beginning of a long relationship with School District 64 on many innovative programs.
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
Ministry of Human Resources closes its Ganges office.
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.
Barbara Jordan-Knox was the first Executive Director and served from 1984 until 1993, followed by Jane Parlee until 1998, Lynne Brown until 2004 and Rob Grant from 2005 till present.
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
Alcohol and Drug Counselling Services began for both adults and youth, signalling the beginning of a long history of ICS providing professional and clinical services. In 1990 adult mental health counselling, in the form of USTAT (Urgent Short Term Assessment and Treatment) services began at ICS.
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.
Canada Revenue Agency charitable status was achieved by the organization. Charitable donations have increased steadily with the growth of the organization, continuing to make up 4-5% of total revenue each year.
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.
Emergency After Hours Mental Health Response and a Peer / Consumer Support program began. The popular “Yellow Sub” program exists to this day providing recreation, social support, vocational development and expressive arts activities.
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.
The Family Place family resource program began. This early childhood service revived and built on past ICS activities in this area, and is a popular and vibrant mainstay in the community today for families with children 0-6. Along with this new program came ICS assuming the coordinator/administrator role for the…Read More
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.
Child and Youth Mental Health Counselling services had a modest beginning with a two day per week position.
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.
ICS began hosting the initial Police-Based Victim Services, which continues to this day, based out of the RCMP detachment building on Salt Spring Island.
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
A new Food Bank building was built with the fundraising and construction support of the Masons Lodge. This service was now accessed by 40+ individuals and families per week and had outgrown the cupboard in the ICS staffroom. By the 2020s this number grew to well over 200 people served…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.
Mental Health Services for children and youth expanded to be a fulsome clinical counselling and support program. On-island psychiatric services were established with Royal Alexandra Hospital and Dr. Peggy Firstbrook. This program would go on to be recognized with an Innovative Practices award by the Health Authority. In 2008 a…Read More
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
The Core Inn Youth Project Society, which had been operating since 1994, dissolved and merged with ICS to sustain the Core Youth Centre on McPhillips Avenue. ICS has operated the after school youth drop in program and added other services to the accessible and busy site. It promptly became the…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
To address the housing and care needs for a number of adults with support needs, ICS moved quickly to allocate one three-bedroom suite at the new Murakami Gardens complex for use as a staffed residential program. This important step established ICS as a housing provider that enables adults with moderate…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
The closing of the “Our House” youth shelter at the Anglican Church provided the opportunity to shuffle program sites to great advantage for accessibility. Family Place moved to the larger, more accessible, and welcoming house at the Anglican Church in Ganges. This left the former “nurses residence” building at the…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
ICS was selected to deliver the new province-wide Better At Home program on Salt Spring Island. This aligned ICS and the community with an emerging provincial strategy to strengthen community-based services to enable seniors to more successfully age in place. This program expansion pushed ICS to the brink in terms…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
ICS Victim Services initiated the establishment of the SSI ICAT Committee, which is a process common to other communities that brings together law enforcement, health and social services to work together in serious family violence situations.
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 took a big step in 2014 to review and reconsider its role in food security. ICS set about exploring the options and possibilities for growing, purchasing, storing, processing and distributing healthy food to those in need. This culminated in 2014 with a partnership with SSI Farmland Trust to establish…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 has served as the charitable partner with the Salt Spring Island Foundation on the popular small granting program for grass roots community projects. The success of the program has resulted in its expansion and move from a pilot to an ongoing SSI Foundation offering.
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 continues to serve many individuals with mental health and substance use challenges in various service areas. To add to the community supports available and accessible to these individuals, ICS added in-house counselling supports including the Community Counsellor and a Peer Support Worker. The Yellow Sub Mental Health Drop In…Read More
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.
After a long evolution, the Salt Spring Commons 24-unit affordable housing development opened. The “Diocese Lands” had progressed to the “Salt Spring Commons” neighborhood of two and three-bedroom townhouses with the first residents consisting of 32 adults, 44 children, 5 dogs and 15 cats.
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.
In response to a sharp increase in the need for more affordable food by many community members, ICS ramped up its meal capacity through a lease agreement with Fulford Hall for its under-used lower level commercial kitchen. The Hall is just down the road from the Harvest Farm, and is…Read More
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.
Added work and resources through the COVID-19 years prompted the Housing First program to expand. The ICS Hereford Avenue property was repurposed to become to the Housing First home base.
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
Services for seniors grew once again through deeper connections and increased funding from the provincial Active Aging initiative. The Community Connector, Peer Navigator roles, and the community coordination and program development functions were added to the ICS Active Aging roster of services.
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.
This summary in no way captures all of the history, events, people and accomplishments in the life of this organization as it grew from Salt Spring Island Community Society (“The Community Centre”) to Salt Spring Community Services Society to Salt Spring and Southern Gulf Islands Community Service Society (“Island Community…Read More