Impact of the Challenge

In British Columbia’s Capital Region, people take great pride in their quality of life: the generous gardens, the warm winters, and, always only moments away, the ocean.

When the CHALLENGE started:

• 18% of children, about 9000 children, lived below the poverty line
• Over half of people aged 25 to 54 years who live below the poverty line worked in the paid labour force.
• One out of four renters, had to spend one-half of their gross income on rent
• One out of four youth lived on low income
• The local Need Crisis and Information Line took over 16,000 phone calls from people in stress reaching out for help in 2002

Over the years, governments and others have put much effort and money into projects and programs to address these issues. But things weren’t getting better. It was time to change the way we were going about fixing the problems.The Quality of Life CHALLENGE looked further upstream to better understand the root of these problems and build effective and long lasting solutions. The CHALLENGE assumed that quality of life is the responsibility of everyone in a community. Working together is the key to making and keeping this community a caring and vibrant place to live and work.

The Quality of Life CHALLENGE is a community driven collaboration. It’s led by a diverse group of organizations and engaged citizens. The CHALLENGE is also part of Vibrant Communities, a nation-wide network of 15 communities working to reduce poverty in Canada by creating partnerships that make use of our most valuable resources – people, organizations, businesses and governments. Vibrant Communities is supported by the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy and Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement.

Phase One Outcomes:

Since the Quality of Life CHALLENGE was launched in 2003 it has had some remarkable achievements within BC’s Capital Region. From the outset, the Quality of Life CHALLENGE tracked change in three priority areas: sustainable incomes, housing, and community connections. The CHALLENGE made a significant contribution to the following outcomes.

The CHALLENGE has helped more than 1000 people on the pathway out of poverty. It has made lasting and significant changes by helping to increase wages, introduce better workplace supports, and create new housing by-laws and increased funding. The CHALLENGE provided reliable information to government relating to increased earnings exemptions and dental care for people with disabilities across the Province. Since then, policies and programs changed in these areas. In this region, more than 5,700 plus people can increase their income and enjoy a better quality of life.

Sustainable Incomes:

• More than 6,600 people can earn more
• 559 local employers used the information from the CHALLENGE to inform their human resource decisions
• almost 900 low-wage workers have better workplace supports
• nearly 800 workers now earn $1 to $2.50 more per hour
• >$1,000,000 of new earnings were brought into the local economy.

Housing:

• More than 700 low income households now have safe, decent, affordable housing. Awareness of housing issues increased as a result of Quality of Life CHALLENGE communications. This shift in attitudes, strengthened by the collaborative efforts of the Housing Affordability Partnership and the CRD, influenced the decisions of local governments to:
• create the Regional Housing Trust Fund. Since 2005, 9 of 13 local governments have contributed almost $1,400,000. Much of this money has leveraged 14 times more investment from other sources.
• approve the Regional Housing Affordability Strategy
• approve secondary-suite by-laws and other innovative housing affordability measures.

Community Connections:

A community is healthy when there is a network of connections between businesses, social services, government and citizens. The CHALLENGE broke down some of the silos between sectors and between people with different levels of income. People and organizations worked together in new ways, learned from those with different perspectives, and took action to improve quality of life in this region.

• 2,255 individuals were engaged in Phase One of the CHALLENGE:
• $1.8 million in cash and in-kind was invested in the CHALLENGE since the beginning: 43% from the private sector, 31% from community organizations, 25% from governments, and the rest from individuals.
• 2087 individuals and organizations from every part of this region received CHALLENGE decals for making changes to improve the quality of life.

The first phase of the CHALLENGE created many successes to celebrate. CHALLENGE participants and the community learned a great deal about building effective and long lasting solutions that get at the root of complex problems:

• Working together is not always easy. Sharing leadership challenges established ways of working. When groups share a commitment to a vision and respect each others’ needs and expectations, the achievements are far greater than was ever originally imagined. This is the extraordinary type of leadership that has marked the CHALLENGE.
• The CHALLENGE included people living on low incomes in decision making and in other meaningful ways. Through conversation on how best to do this, the CHALLENGE made some unusual and yet common-sense choices. Meetings included a meal and an honorarium for participants. Transportation and child care costs were reimbursed.
• When people are informed, they act. People needed to hear about housing that is safe, decent and affordable. They needed to hear about sustainable incomes. They got involved.
• Money from various sources was invested over several years to allow for a slow but durable shift in the way our society solves its problems.
• It is important to recognize what is working well. Nobody is perfect; there are always improvements to be made. The way to make change happen is to take a first step. When that change is recognized, people are inspired to take another step. And that is the way people are part of the solution.
• The community documented and celebrated its achievements.

The CHALLENGE is proud of its role, turning a spotlight on important issues like sustainable incomes and housing that is safe, decent and affordable.