Your final report for the ARC project has been published and you can find it under the “Important Documents” Section of your project page. The ARC team remains available to assist Sam Greer Place and would appreciate the opportunity to check in over the next few months. Thank you once again for being part of the ARC pilot program and please feel free to reach out to arc@chf.bc.ca with any questions or feedback. C0-operatively, The ARC team
Thanks very much to everyone who invested their time for attending the Implementation planning session. We appreciate your contribution and involvement. A lot of valuable and logical ideas were suggested by the members on important issues such as building community, member trainings, green sustainability policy, maintenance planning and funding criteria's. We are compiling your suggestions and preparing a comprehensive action plan for the co-op to start implementing things in the next year. Stay tuned for the final ARC report! Meanwhile, please fill the below survey link regarding the feedback for the implementation session. This will further help us to improve the content and delivery of upcoming sessions. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PQTKJKN Thanks again for being a part of the ARC pilot program and contributing with the best of your efforts. ARC Team
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry So here we are to convert goals into realities by creating a comprehensive action plan together, prepare mini-milestones, review resources and allocate timelines. Don’t miss your chance to attend the last ARC session on November 30 at 7 pm. See you soon! Co-operatively, The ARC Team
We had placed 2 display boards at the co-op for Sam Greer members, being a follow-up on the last session on "Goals & Action" held on September 13, 2022. The purpose of the first board was to invite additional ideas and issues apart from the ones discussed during the session, that the co-op wants to focus on in upcoming years. We further combined all the ideas and placed them in relevant quadrants on the second board, based on the effort and impact involved while implementing them. We asked the members to move them around the quadrants, depending upon the effort they want to input on those activities and finally, vote on them using colorful sticky dots, based on their importance and relevance. Check out the "What we Heard" document to get an idea of what happened at the virtual session and display boards activity. Does it capture your co-op well? Did we miss anything? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
On Tuesday, September 13, we set out to talk about goals. What are the next steps for Sam Greer Place members to take, as individuals or a collective, to help bring the co-op closer to its vision? We began the session briefly reviewing the vision statement, the recent decision of the co-op to pursue building renewal (over a potential redevelopment) and the other strands of the focused conversations. We touched on some of the recommendations from the co-op's asset management plan. With the co-op values (community, family, safety and sustainability) in mind, we brainstormed using Miro, a digital whiteboard. Not all co-op members were able to participate, so we will be following this session up with an in-person display and comment board soon. Be on the look for it! You'll be able to add to the list of suggestions we already have, and we can work together to prioritize these and considering how best to implement them. (There will be voting!) In the meantime, enjoy a look at the suggestions so far.
“Action is the foundational key to all success” ~ Pablo Picasso Don't miss your chance to participate in the next ARC session which will help draw together the strands of our past conversations and your co-op's vision. On Tuesday, September 13, we'll brainstorm a concrete action plan together, which will help you work towards your vision and commitment to providing and sustaining safe and affordable housing to a diverse, multi-generational community. We hope for a lively session, with your participation and commitment to make your co-op an even better place to live. See you soon! Co-operatively, The ARC Team
August 10th saw more than a dozen co-op members attend a workshop on redevelopment — the second "focused conversation" in the ARC process. Darren Kitchen led us through some general principles and terminology. Together, we reviewed factors that pull people towards redevelopment as an option, and those that push them away. Financial feasibility, cost, and complexity (including issues around temporary rehousing) are all challenges, but the potential benefits include homes that are much better suited to members and their needs. New homes should be more accessible and environmentally friendly. And redevelopment can aid in the creation of more homes for people needing them and wanting the kind of community that co-ops can offer. During the course of the presentation, we looked at a simplified pro forma — an exploration of what redevelopment might be feasible for a site like the one Sam Greer Place occupies. Based on experience with new developments, Darren was able to share some reasonable values for working assumptions around interest rates, allowable density, typical market-rate rents and other factors that would impact the total cost of the project. Looking at some specific numbers helped make the consequences of a redevelopment option more clear. The pro forma exploration also highlighted trade-offs — particularly the likely need for external grant support from government (and the rules that would be attached to that potential grant support). The exercise served as a complement to the work the co-op undertook connected with its asset management planning. The presentation slides can be downloaded from the document list on Sam Greer's project page. We also have available a slightly updated version of the spreadsheet that Darren shared during the session. This offers a simplified look at the financial considerations that go into a redevelopment decision. We've added a few notes and a property transfer tax calculator. Cells in green are the ones that you can manipulate, but remember that there are limits on what kinds of figures are reasonable. We hope you enjoy exploring.
Your co-op members voted both in person and online for your top choice of Vision Statement, which will help guide your decisions going forward, both throughout the ARC process and beyond. Your core values include community, sustainability, safety, and family. You've also highlighted a desire to be affordable and accessible so people of all ages, incomes and abilities can reside in your community in the future. Our next ARC workshop on Financial Sustainability is coming up tomorrow. We hope to see you there!
If you missed the Vision & Challenges session last month, you can read the What We Heard Report to get caught up. If you have any comments on the report please add them below. Based on the feedback generated from the workshop, we've created 4 Vision Statement Options for you to vote on. Please vote for your preferred option here before July 15. We will be announcing the top choice on July 18.
Thank you for agreeing to become a pilot co-op for the Active Resilient Communities (ARC) Program. We are excited to start the ARC journey with Sam Greer Place Housing Co-op! ARC has been under development since June 2021, and we are ready to see how it works for co-ops. The plan is for ARC to serve as a comprehensive program to help co-ops through decision making and planning processes by providing facilitated support and access to topic-matter experts (for more about ARC, see About ARC). Being a pilot co-op means you (and other members of your community) will be among the first people to experience the ARC Program, including both our live workshops, and platforms for you to engage with on your own time (this website and a phone line). We will be asking you along the way to fill out surveys to provide valuable feedback about the program (and process), which will be used to make improvements for future program offerings. Again, thank you for joining us and we look forward to meeting and working with you! ~ The ARC Project Team