CHF BC is excited to announce ARC—Active Resilient Communities—a new program to assist our members.

Housing co-ops do a great job of providing safe, secure, affordable homes and giving members a voice in the big decisions affecting their communities. Co-ops look after the day-to-day collection of housing charges, are responsible for maintenance and bill payments, and ensure that all the other activities needed to keep their businesses running are completed. But there are other challenges that may not get so much attention—longer-term issues, or those that, while important, may not make it to the top of your next agenda but are still crucial to your success.

ARC Opportunities

Have you recently had a chance to consider:

• Figuring out how to maintain or increase support for low-income households (especially as government supports may not be available in the future)?
• Broadening membership (seeing the larger community better reflected within your co-op)?
• Preparing for climate change or doing more to improve sustainability?
• Working with other organizations that can provide services that the co-op can’t provide alone?
• Renewing your co-op buildings and property (fixing what you have already)?
• Adding more homes to the co-op (through infill or redevelopment)?
• Adjusting operations to promote options for aging-in-place?
• Reviewing your core mission and vision?
• Determining how best to manage your co-op (what model would work best)?
• Working on reconciliation with First Nations communities?

ARC is designed to help you have conversations on these kinds of subjects in a structured way. We hope it will help you come to some answers but recognize that the conversations themselves are important.

Background

CHF BC has been thinking about offering this kind of support for several years. We received a Sector Transformation Fund grant through the Community Housing Transformation Centre to make the development of ARC possible. The program is flexible to meet each client’s unique needs, with a mix of real-time and at-your-leisure opportunities. These opportunities are engaging and suitable for anyone interested in exploring your co-op’s future.

Our first two pilots launched in November 2021 to help us test ARC and provide feedback. This pilot phase will continue over the coming months. We hope to make this service broadly available at the end of the development and testing phase. CHF BC is grateful for the support from the Centre and all the staff at CHF BC.

We’ve also launched a landing page for ARC for participants and those who are just curious to learn more. Visit us at talkcommunity.ca. And check our enews and social media feeds regularly for updates on ARC. #activeresilientcommunities #chfbcARC #talkcommunity 

Posting updated February 2022