RIVERVIEW VILLAGE INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY SOCIETY – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Riverview Village Project incorporates as the Riverview Village Intentional Community Society

The Riverview Village Project, which has proposed a mixed community for the benefit of the seriously mentally ill on the Riverview Lands, has incorporated as a non-profit society under the name Riverview Village Intentional Community Society (RVICS). The incorporation gives the group legal status as the planning process for the Lands, under the aegis of B.C. Housing, moves forward.

The name Riverview Village Intentional Community Society rather than just Riverview Village Society was chosen to underscore the intentionality of the Society’s proposed community – not just a generic village which will include some with a mental illness, but one whose leading purpose, and the planning that goes with it, is to benefit those who are seriously mentally ill, while at the same time including a mix of population as part of the therapeutic concept.

RVICS, in its previous informal incarnation as the Riverview Village Project, has been an active participant in B.C. Housing’s public consultation process for the Lands and in the wider discussion among stakeholders and others about Riverview’s future. It has also produced some key documents on its proposal, among them:

  • “Riverview Village: An innovative, ground-breaking community for the Riverview
    Lands,” July 2014, outlining the proposal;
  • “Questions and Answers, March 2015, a multi-part elaboration of different aspects
    of the proposed village; and
  • “Intentional communities with therapeutic or developmental objectives,” September 2016, exploring seven existing intentional communities and discussing different aspects in common such as innovation, intentionality, integration with others, importance of group dynamics, meaningful work, and the humanity at the core of such communities.

These documents are also accessible at the Society’s website, www.riverviewvillage.ca.

Contact: Herschel Hardin, coordinator, 604-922-7153 or herschel@riverviewvillage.ca.