Identifying and nurturing emerging leaders.

Strengthening local organizations.

Building power for change.

Our Wins:

Mental Health & Addictions

Community Led Crisis Response

Our Mental Health and Addictions team organized community support for a community led crisis response team pilot. This developed into CRCL, AVI’s mobile crisis response team which provides a non-police response alternative for people experiencing crisis. Click here to find out more about how this was accomplished.

Education

Hosted first ever public teach in on opioid crisis attended by Minister of Mental Health and other decision makers.

Hosted an open space throughout the pandemic where members could come and feel less isolated on li ne.

Housing

Homes for All Municipal Commitments

In the days leading up to the B. C. municipal elections, GVAT invited the leading candidates for mayor in Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay and Esquimalt to our Assembly on Affordable Housing. Over 300 GVAT members attended this event in person at Christ Church Cathedral, with up to 77 watching live online. All the mayoral candidates pledged publicly to support GVAT’s housing policy platform and to meet with GVAT leaders within 100 days if elected. All four elected mayors (Dean Murdock, Marianne Alto, Kevin Murdoch, Barb Desjardins) kept their promise.

Funding for Former Youth in Foster Care

Almost half of former youth in foster care experienced homelessness within one year after losing government services at age 19. The Affordable Housing ART worked with Threshold Housing Society, to lobby for better support for former youth in foster care. In April 2021, we met with Ministers David Eby (Housing), Mitzi Dean (Children and Family Development) and Nicholas Simons (Social Development and Poverty Reduction) to discuss this issue. We raised the problem again in a meeting with Minister Murray Rankin (Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation) in August 2021.

The provincial budget presented in February 2022 contained an exciting announcement: $35 million to be spent over three years to help former youth in care.

Oak Bay allows secondary suites and boarders, without additional parking

Greater Victoria Acting Together members, as well as Camosun and UVic students, have been campaigning to get Oak Bay to improve their secondary suite and roomers / boarders policies for years. And now Oak Bay, after a vote on July 18, 2022, has directed staff to create a better policy than some other area municipalities!

Union of BC Municipalities supports Vacancy Control

We asked Victoria Councillor Susan Kim put forward a motion for the UBCM to support real rent control at the 2024 Convention. In spite of failing in past attempts, this time a majority of delegates voted to make real rent control the official lobbying position of the UBCM.

Climate Justice

Regional Foodlands Access Service

GVAT’s Climate Justice Team pushed for the creation of a brand new Capital Regional District service which sees public land set aside for agriculture and leased to farmers at affordable rates, starting with a 5 year pilot project on an underused portion of Bear Hill Regional Park. This also includes grant funding to support farmers who participate in the B.C. Land Matching Program, pairing private landowners with aspiring farmers for long-term land leases.  The service is intended to expand in the future to offer more programs that support agriculture in the region.  GVAT began work on this in 2022.  Approval was achieved in February 2025.

Transit

$95 million for Hwy 1 bus lanes and 24/7 bus lanes on Douglas completed before school starts!

Victoria & CRD Vote for Wheelchairs & Mobility Scooters on Bike and Roll Routes

GVAT’s efforts to have wheelchair and mobility scooter users welcomed on bike and roll routes is gaining momentum. Not only did we get the Capital Regional District (CRD) board and Victoria City Council to vote to write advocacy letters to the provincial government in favor of this, we also brought a considerable amount of media attention to the issue.

Old Growth Protection

GVAT leaders who met and networked through GVAT joined Bishop Anna Greenwood-Lee of the Anglican Diocese of Islands and Inlets to lobby the Minister of Forests around old-growth forest protections.

We made significant contributions to the old-growth protection protest movements, using our creative capacities to create flash mobs, costumes, and more to bring attention to the issue.

Saanich Sustainability Coordinator

GVAT leaders organized to bring the broad community to the Saanich council meeting to argue they should appoint a Sustainability Coordinator. This was the product of a months  long campaign and included Holy Cross, Sierra BC, SEA, high school students and business people. The Saanich sustainability coordinator has been responsible for so many programs that have rolled out across the province like e-bike subsidies.


Testimonials

“When we first started lots of people had never set foot in a church and were jittery about doing so. Church people were often very uncomfortable with the idea of hanging out with union folks.  We often packed 60-80 people into events for learning together. We clearly contributed significantly to community cohesion and a sense of belonging for hundreds of people.”


”Just wanted to let you know that I found the Foundations of Community Organizing really valuable. I really appreciated the way you guys modelled land acknowledgements and introductions to software like Zoom. I also found the training very accessible and well organized. The bit that I found most valuable was your emphasis on storytelling to communicate with folks of different perspectives. Thanks for the awesome weekend and I can't wait to see what else you have in store.”