Takes A Dollar is an annual fundraiser founded on the idea that if every person in Nanaimo gave just one dollar, almost $100,000 could be raised for local charities. These funds could have a tremendous impact in the local community. The organizers aim to spread awareness about the issues in the city that often may be getting overlooked.

Wes Richardson, Andrew de Groot, and Christian Wigmore visited Vancouver Island Mental Health Society to create an awareness video about our work. They’ve also selected VIMHS as one of their supported charities this year! Thanks, guys!

A report to the Sunshine Coast Regional District cites a 2007 survey that identified 240 homeless people, most of them with substance-abuse and mental health problems

At the end of each sultry summer evening on the Sunshine Coast, cars and vans pull quietly into side streets, seaside parks and informal campgrounds for the night. Dozens more pitch tents in the woods near Sechelt, Gibsons and throughout Roberts Creek. They are not adventure-hungry tourists, but the area’s homeless.  Read the rest of this article at The Vancouver Sun… Image by Randy Shore/PNG

“This humiliating procedure is repeated monthly, not just for Brown but for all the other people with disabilities, for whom government’s default position seems to be that they must be scammers”

Comment by Stephen Hume — A. J. Brown, the artist challenged by deafness and cerebral palsy yet forced to live in poverty because the provincial government claws back her Canada Pension Plan disability benefits, sends me the official monthly financial disclosure form she must submit. It compels her to declare three-cents interest income earned by a bank deposit or face losing provincial benefits.  Read the rest of this article at The Vancouver Sun…