Spaces to Thrive: Vancouver Social Infrastructure Strategy

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  Strategy directions

  1. Partnerships and capacity support: Strengthen our role in partnerships and capacity support for the social sector
  2. Plan to meet priorities and goals: Plan a network of the right type and supply of social infrastructure that meet reconciliation, equity, and resilience goals
  3. Support what already exists: Enable renewal, renovation, replacement, and expansion of existing social-serving facilities
  4. Plan for the future: Enable new social infrastructure to meet growth and equity priority needs
  5. Innovate for efficiency: Support transformation, adaptation, and optimization of social infrastructure.
  6. Improve ecosystem health: Foster resilient, adaptable, and sustainable social infrastructure
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  Engagement summary

  In creating Spaces to Thrive, we engaged with community and government partners to better understand the space and facility challenges facing social-serving organizations in Vancouver, as well as their understanding of the strengths and opportunities to address these challenges.

  We engaged with internal and external stakeholders, including:

  • Social non-profit organizations
  • Equity-serving groups
  • Community-serving spaces
  • Social Purpose Real Estate (SPRE) Collaborative
  • City Advisory Committees
  • Community Centre Associations 
  • Urban Development Institute (UDI)

  We engaged with close to 300 non-profit organizations and community groups and approximately 500 representatives. Through both the listening and share-back phases from May 2017 through February 2021 a total of 51 engagement opportunities were provided to inform the process. 

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  Challenges to social infrastructure

  Combining data analysis with engagement findings, four key challenges facing Vancouver’s social infrastructure ecosystem were identified: 

  1. Increasing inequity: A lack of prioritization for the distinct community needs have limited the City’s ability to meet Indigenous and basic human needs obligations. 
  2. Insufficient social and community serving spaces: the City lacks a plan to determine how community facilities would meet population growth and the shifting demands  
  3. Insufficient and unsustainable operational and capital funding for non-profits: Without strategic alignment and investment in all parts of the social infrastructure – programs and spaces – access to basic human needs and meaningful places for people cannot be sustained. 
  4. Loss of community-serving spaces: Non-profit owners and tenants in privately owned spaces and in high development areas face affordability and displacement challenges.

Strategy scope

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  Included in the strategy

  The proposed strategy focuses on services and spaces within the city, and supports community building. Service providers may be eligible for City grant support and nominal leases for City-owned spaces.

  Spaces within the scope include:

  • Social service centres
  • Neighbourhood houses
  • Indigenous wellness and cultural centres
  • Social enterprise
  • Informal gathering spaces

  Examples include the three City-owned and operated social service centres in the downtown area.

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  Not included in the strategy

  Some important forms of civic supported social infrastructure are already addressed in other City or City-affiliated plans. Childcare will also soon be addressed in its own strategy currently under development. While these services and spaces are not addressed in this strategy, they share social impact objectives with shared goals. 

  Other social infrastructure that expand beyond the City’s jurisdiction and are the direct responsibility of other orders of government – such as formal health care and formal education – are recommended to be out of scope as senior government should have the capacity to support the space and program needs for their services. 

  Still broader social infrastructure may be found in the private realm, such as cafes and restaurants, fitness clubs, commercial theatres, and commercial galleries. These privately run spaces are beyond the scope as the City does not grant to commercial businesses.