Comox Valley Transition Society’s Connect shelter and service hub expanded its Honoraria program for participants to take part in cleaning initiatives on property and in the surrounding community.  Residents and staff take accountability in our space while showing leadership and commitment to supportive housing existing in all communities.  By improving the quality of life of the residents in our program the results we have seen are an increase of integration into the local community and less dependence on social services.  Promoting health and wellness and providing relational skills results in a reduction on the dependency on health services.  Connect was tasked with supporting multiple projects that impacted operations significantly. During this quarter, the City of Courtenay completed construction upgrades to Connect that provided participants with additional bathroom facilities, a covered outdoor storage, outside seating and shade structures, and a fence to support privacy for participants.  These upgrades were completed to provide better service to participants, with the hopes of alleviating concerns being addressed by surrounding businesses and community members.

The construction also provided staff washrooms, and a staff trailer to allow frontline teams privacy and breaks from the challenging work they are undertaking every day.  With the upgrades Connect has created a Health Room to allow community providers a clean and confidential space to meet with participants who are need of education, medications, or interventions such as wound care.  Connect also moved away from onsite security, which allowed us to add an additional overnight frontline staffing position.  While Comox Valley Transition Society (CVTS) appreciated the support provided by JTF Security, the move provides more opportunities for CVTS staff to meaningfully engage with participants in goal setting, relationship building, and de-escalation.  To support staff through this major change, CVTS leadership engaged staff through risk assessments, Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) engagement, and an increased coaching focus on de-escalation.