We wanted to send a quick thank you out to Body Craft Essentials. This is a new business that just launched recently. They are focused on producing plant-based body and skin care products.

They are also focused on giving back to their community and have graciously decided to donate 10% of all profits back to Community Ventures Society. We are very grateful for that gesture and the support you are providing to our organization. Thank You!

Please check out Body Craft Essentials and know when you buy a product from this organization, you are also helping to support CVS and all that we do!

You can also follow Body Craft Essentials on Instagram at @bodycraftessentials.

We found this article by the CBC interesting and a spotlight on some of the challenges children & youth with disabilities are currently facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article focuses on the lack of supports and programs for children and youth with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

\”Families are just hanging on by a thread, they are absolutely spent,\” said Jennifer Charlesworth. \”Can you imagine providing 24 hour care to children … who have lost all supports?\”

The report, Left Out: Children and Youth with Special Needs in the Pandemic, calls for urgent government action and collaboration with families and community organizations to address a segment of the population that has been neglected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report includes a survey of over 500 families that paints a picture of the crisis many are facing.

The closure of community services and suspension of in-class learning has hit these families the hardest, leaving them without vital services for children with complex medical, physical, behavioural and cognitive needs.

Making matters worse, respite arrangements and community programs have also been cancelled or suspended because of the need for physical distancing.

Meanwhile, wait-times for assessments and diagnoses have grown longer.

Charlesworth said she is concerned that some families, pushed to their breaking point, will be left with no alternative other than to put their child or teen into foster care. The executive director of Inclusion B.C. said the pandemic has amplified frailties and fractures in the system that existed before COVID-19 hit.

The report makes the following recommendations:

• More and better communication between the Ministry of Children and Family Development and families, community providers, family networks and advocates.
• A one-year extension to fall 2021 of all pandemic-related benefits and processes for families with children and youth with special needs.
• Creation of a special working table bringing together families, community organizations, advocates and funding ministries for regular check-ins and problem solving.
• Funding support for community organizations to help families find alternative services.
• A review of virtual service provisions delivered in the first months of the pandemic.
• Streamlined processes for emergency benefits and approvals that minimize the paperwork and administrative burden for families.
• Exploration of the concept of support \”bubbles\” for in-home services to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 for both family members and service providers.

CVS is in support of this report. We recognize how challenging of a time this has been for the children and families in our Children\’s programs. We are working hard to help but we hope the report above is taken into consideration for the betterment of the children and families who are being directly effected by this right now.

Inclusion BC & Community Living BC (CLBC) has partnered up to create a new website called, Key to Home. The website is meant to bring awareness to the need for inclusive housing and to give you tools to promote inclusive housing in your community.

People with intellectual disabilities still face enormous barriers in the search for a home that is affordable, safe and inclusive. Housing is a priority for Inclusion BC, as it is for our members, the people we support, and our provincial and national counterparts across Canada.

The website includes:

• Research about the demand for inclusive housing in BC.
• A video about inclusive housing featuring Corus apartments in South Surrey.
• Materials to help you advance inclusive housing in your community.
• Inclusive Housing Stories.
• Information sheets to help you plan.

One aim of the Key to Home campaign is to help people understand what makes for inclusive housing: affordability, accessibility, diversity as well choice and control.

The Key to Home campaign follows through on the 2018 Inclusive Taskforce plan to increase access to inclusive housing.

Inclusion BC will continue to advocate for inclusive housing and for personalized, flexible supports to be available where and when people need them. CVS is glad to see this initiative launch. As an agency that offers Shared Living services, we recognize the challenge of finding inclusive housing amongst our community. We hope this resource assists those that we serve & the community as a whole.