Voices from the front lines of BC’s community living crisis
Last Friday, MOMS was part of the BC Community Living Action Group delegation that finally got an audience with the minister responsible for community living (after six months of repeated requests!). We had the opportunity to share our concerns about the community living crisis and decided to let the voices of families and caregivers speak for themselves, by reading out a sampling from the hundreds of deeply disturbing emails that MOMS has received in the past 18 months.
- Read our Voices from the front lines:
MOMS urged the Minister to adopt the recommendations of the BC Community Living Action Group, including CLAG’s calls for the BC government to:
- Immediately inject $70 million to address the unfunded backlog of service needs from the past two years.
- Order a moratorium on CLBC’s service redesign process, group home closures and service cuts.
- Order an external review of CLBC to investigate the very serious and systemic concerns.
- Establish an independent advocate to provide independent monitoring, oversight, advocacy and public reporting on behalf of adults with developmental disabilities in BC.
- Restore the commitment to supporting choice in service options and the meaningful inclusion of families and self advocates in planning and deciding how they will live their own lives.
To learn more about the community living crisis and the BC CLAG campaign, visit the BC CLAG website.
We ask families, caregivers and concerned citizens to continue to urge Premier Christy Clark to start taking this crisis seriously by immediately agreeing to the BC CLAG recommendations. The new CLBC minister – the fourth minister in the past year!! – was unable to make any commitment.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS