The BC Housing/CMHA Partnership: Creating Community Through Recreation

"Recreation's purpose is not to kill time, but to make life;
not to keep a person occupied, but to keep them refreshed;
not to offer an escape from life, but to provide a discovery of life."
- Author unknown

For a time, Vancouver’s Grandview Terrace, a public housing development run by BC Housing, was a hard place to live. Morale was low, and to many residents daily life could be unnerving. Neighbourhood drug deals occurred in plain sight. Sex trade workers brazenly approached residents. Some tenants were fearful, anxious at every knock on their door.

BC Housing’s tenants can be the most vulnerable among us. Their problems include poverty, infirmity and disability, often dealt without ideal social or family supports.
BC Housing, intent on addressing the sense of isolation observed in their tenants, set about to find a new approach to enhance living situations and promote a sense of community at Grandview. In 2005 CMHA Vancouver-Burnaby Branch was asked to develop a high-quality therapeutic recreation program at the site. The idea was to create a safe environment where tenants could interact, recreate and acquire new skills. And so the program was born.

Tenants (and visitors) now cook and share meals, exercise together and even learn computer skills. The recreation partnership has promoted fitness, friendship, and an atmosphere of hope and vitality. What’s more, many tenants take a role in shaping program design, so the recreation programs themselves are constantly transformed and invigorated as new residents arrive.

Recreation is more than just having fun. It’s also about embracing challenges, broadening horizons and finding balance. Since the Grandview Terrace program started five years ago, BC Housing and CMHA Vancouver-Burnaby have expanded their partnership to include six developments! Each program is unique. Each helps tenants achieve a higher quality of life.

And now, Grandview Terrace is a place where laughter can be heard in the halls.