What is ARC?
CHF BC’s Active Resilient Communities program (ARC) is ending. It was originally created to help housing co-ops consider and plan for current and future challenges and opportunities. Members would come together to develop a vision, identify their core values, engage in focused conversations and build a comprehensive action plan to help realize their goals.
Member Thoughts
“Overall, our experience through the course of ARC brought the voices of our community together and contributed information from experts in the field.”
“I was thrilled with the process. It was thorough, engaging and objective.”
“Thank you for a wonderful session. It gave me personally a lot to think about.”
“Our co-op was on the verge of a big decision: to move forward with redevelopment or renovation. The input we received from invited speakers helped us clarify the consequences to finally vote for renovation.”
“It is always valuable coming together as a community and hearing all member’s priorities.”
How it worked
You can learn about ARC through this website. The first stage of an ARC engagement, the Community Check-In, includes a survey element to assess member concerns, interests and readiness for ARC. With that complete, the Board and ARC team briefly discuss results before committing to move to the second stage, the Core ARC Programming.
The boxes below give a sense of the elements of the Core ARC Programming.
Connect
We bring co-op community members together and find your vision for the future. What do members want? What do they need?Start Off Right!
The first stage of ARC involves figuring out how your co-op sees itself and what it wants for the future. Conversations, exercises and voting are all part of the process, with a mix of online and in-person activities possible.
Discuss
A vision without details is hard to pursue. We offer focused conversations on topics to help inform your choices and make them real.Talk and Learn
In the second stage of ARC, we build on the vision that members develop. Usually there are areas of exploration — topics that benefit from more detailed information and conversations. We help co-ops connect with professionals with relevant experience to have richer discussions.
Plan
Bringing together your vision and the strands of our conversations, we'll develop a plan. What are the small and large goals you hope to achieve? How can the co-op meet them?Setting manageable goals
In this phase of the program, members generate ideas on how to realize their vision, based on the focused conversations and experiences. We’ll consider together what’s most easily achievable and what will make the biggest impact. We’ll break down larger goals into more manageable chunks and then prioritize what to do next.
Go!
With your plan in hand, your co-op can get to work. Take on the priorities you've embraced in your report. Plan internal actions, allocate resources and implement the steps. Check in with the ARC team.Take Action
At the end of the Core ARC Programming Stage, the ARC team will summarize and organize what members have said, generating an easy-to-read report. Members can take action on the tasks highlighted. The ARC team can check in and offer further assistance where that’s helpful and wanted.