Community Living BC Mandate 2018

In February, the BC government outlined Community Living BC\’s Mandate. When the NDP government was appointed in 2017, they made three key commitments to British Columbians that all ministries and Crown agencies are expected to work together to help the government achieve.

Since Community Living BC (CLBC) is a provincial crown agency, they will work to assist the BC government in achieving the following three commitments –

1. Making life more affordable, to help manage the daily cost of living
   for British Columbians.
2. Delivering services that people count on, building on programs that are working well, and making improvements where needed, to ensure British Columbians get quality and timely customer service from public sector organizations across the province.
3. Building a strong, sustainable, innovative economy that works for everyone.

Honourable Shane Simpson, the Minister of Social Development & Poverty Reduction highlighted the following priorities for CLBC to help in achieving the three commitments above –

1. Meet regularly with families, advocates, service providers and their representatives to continuously improve collaboration, understand service delivery issues and identify solutions that support a responsive, sustainable network of disability-related services that supplement other supports to assist adults with developmental disabilities to live quality lives and be full participants in their communities.
2. Engage home share providers and their representative groups to identify support
   needs and return to the Minister with recommendations for improvement by
   June 29, 2018.
3. Improve supports to CLBC eligible youth who are experiencing transitions by:
   • implementing a more effective CLBC planning approach to improve the experiences of youth and their families transitioning to CLBC services; and
   • participating in the Services to Adults with Developmental Disabilities (STADD) initiative.
4. Improve supports to older adults who are experiencing transitions by:
   • implementing a more effective planning approach to improve the experiences of older adults; and
   • working with the Ministry of Health to complete the remaining activities flowing from the three-year, joint CLBC-Ministry of Health Plan on Aging.
5. Increase the participation rate of CLBC eligible individuals in employment by:
   • developing a new service that supports individuals with all abilities to find employment that fits with an individual’s goals as well as meeting their other support needs;
   • utilizing performance measures and business case results to increase the effectiveness of CLBC employment service delivery model; and
   • engaging with the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (SDPR) to leverage Employment Program of British Columbia programming and maximize efficiency and effectiveness of employment programming for CLBC clients.
6. Work with the Ministry of Health and Health Authorities to identify interests, issues and an action plan to address added care funding which will lead to:
   • a consistent, standardized and joint approach to high intensity care needs and goals for care for CLBC clients with complex functional and medical issues,
   • providing appropriate services and supports for CLBC clients with complex functional and medical issues, and 3) consistent alignment with Ministry of Health policies.

Community Ventures Society supports this Mandate and will work with CLBC to deliver on the priorities outlined above.