PEOPLE Employment Services

Creating employment opportunities is widely recognized as a critical building block in helping to support those who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness and further reduce the incidents of homelessness. In 2019, Urban Matters invested $40,000 to the newly formed PEOPLE Employment Services.

PEOPLE is a Kelowna-based social enterprise that provides training, mentorship and partnerships that lead to paid employment opportunities for people with lived or living experience of homelessness and substance use. Since 2018, we had been supporting the incubation of PEOPLE as a social enterprise – assisting with launching the initiative, designing a sustainable business and incorporation model, developing partnerships with local employers.

Our contribution was used to help hire an Executive Director to support the enterprise, which is now its own non profit entity. As of 2022, PEOPLE employs more than 30 individuals with lived and living experience in a variety of meaningful roles in the community.

AAWEAR

Alberta Alliance Who Educate and Advocate Responsibility (AAWEAR) is an Alberta-based organization run almost entirely by people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) of substance use. Their core activities include conducting peer outreach and support as well as community-based peer research, education and collaboration in the communities they serve. Recognizing the value they play in Alberta to elevate and empower PWLLE, and their strategic potential to deepen the local and community based responses to reduce both stigma and overdose deaths, Urban Matters provided AAWEAR with a $100,000 contribution and in-kind mentorship support.

So far, the contribution funding has helped AAWEAR to double peer outreach capacity, secure space for programming and meetings, purchase tools for financial management, and increase administration and leadership support overall. It has also allowed them to grow the skills of three peer members to become provincial leaders for the organization, resulting in two full-time and one part-time position.

Community Action Initiative

The Community Action Initiative (CAI) is a granting organization that, prior to 2021, primarily received funds from B.C. provincial government. Then in 2021, Urban Matters CCC contributed $100,000 with matching funds from CAI to deliver a micro-grant program that is designed to help members of the Provincial Peer Network undertake projects that reduce the structural stigma that people with lived and living experience face daily within their local communities. The micro-grant helps to undertake action-oriented projects that have not been able to be funded through traditional avenues. Projects funded through this micro-grant program range from first-aid and Naloxone training, to Indigenous harm reduction education, to public awareness campaigns and events. With the program gaining momentum, Urban Matters has returned with further investments of $100,000 in both 2022 and 2023.

Reframe Housing Competition

As a collaboration between Urban Matters and the BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA), the Reframe Housing Competition was created to identify and highlight models and ideas that had the potential to improve community housing across Western Canada and the Territories. The intent was to encourage innovation in Canada’s housing sector and provide resources to help the winning submission take their innovation to the next level.

Contestants were given just over three months to develop and pitch their housing ideas to the judging committee. Winners received a prize of $8,000 cash and $2,000 of assistance for promotional efforts. The committee received applications from across Western Canada, including early-stage innovations and pitches for projects already underway. Winners were chosen for their ability to demonstrate innovation, viability, scalability and a willingness to foster meaningful social outcomes.

Grand Forks Housing Authority

In 2018, the community of Grand Forks, B.C. experienced catastrophic flooding and a significant amount of people were displaced. The non-profit organizations that provided support for housing within the community became overwhelmed by a lack of resources and two organizations unfortunately had to close in the aftermath of the disaster. Urban Matters provided resources and $40,000 to create a backbone community housing organization that would help to increase collaboration and coordination between the various non-profit organizations within the community to better meet their immediate and long-term needs.

Urban Systems Foundation

Instead of searching beyond the Urban family for an opportunity to distribute our impact dollars, we delivered our annual contribution to the well established Urban Systems Foundation. The Foundation shares our vision for creating healthy, thriving communities for all and has been a vehicle for Urbanites to give back to their communities for more than 20 years. In 2020, a $100,000 contribution was distributed to the Foundation to grow collective efforts and reach even more members of the communities in which we live, work and play.

Green Violin

We are excited to form a partnership with Green Violin, a community development company in Edmonton, Alberta.

Together, we will explore the potential of “unconventional actors” in becoming more central players in Edmonton’s affordable housing space. We believe there are many organizations out there that have something to offer (assets like land, funding, or expertise) that are simply not recognized or utilized enough by the mainstream housing system. Through a Community Innovation Lab, we want to test whether this is true, and if so, to what extent is it an issue and why?

This project is a bold leap forward for Urban Matters and Green Violin who seek to discover new opportunities and innovative solutions.