RIVERVIEW VILLAGE PROJECT – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2016
B.C. Housing asked to explicitly commit to an “intentional community” for the Riverview Lands, for the benefit of those with a serious mental illness
B.C. Housing’s “Vision for Renewing Riverview,” in projecting an “inclusive” village for the Lands, opens the door to the creation of an “intentional community” for the seriously mentally ill, and is to be applauded for the move, but one further step is still needed: making an explicit commitment to such a community.
The request, by the Riverview Village Project, is part of a wide-ranging response to B.C. Housing’s document on the Lands, issued last month, which calls for a tertiary concurrent-disorders treatment facility at the north end and a “village centre precinct” in the centre of the Lands.
The Riverview Village Project response is attached here in full.
It describes B.C. Housing’s village initiative as having within it the “seed of a groundbreaking approach in helping the seriously mentally ill” and as “a major, and in certain respects a bold, step forward.” It goes on from there , however, to examine what’s missing: the explicit commitment to an intentional community and the articulation of what might be involved in order to ensure that the planning of the village community follows suit. It makes several specific recommendations to that end.
For background on the Riverview Village Project, please visit www.riverviewvillage.ca.
Contact: Herschel Hardin, coordinator, 694-922-7153, herschel@riverviewvillage.ca