Change Can Happen. Profiles in community leadership: Olivia Jim

Central City Foundation is once again celebrating examples of extraordinary community leadership and innovation from the organizations we walk alongside and support. These individuals and their organizations have demonstrated that change can happen in our community. As part of this celebration, we asked each of our profiled leaders to share their thoughts on leadership, community and hope for a brighter future.

Olivia Jim, Executive Director, Helping Spirit Lodge Society

For almost 20 years, Olivia has worked tirelessly to end violence against Indigenous women and girls. With an approach rooted in building supportive relationships and multiple pathways for reconnection with their community, Olivia and Helping Spirit Lodge Society have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to holistic, Indigenous-led programs and services that are working to alleviate family violence. Olivia’s leadership has helped positively change the lives of many, many women and their children.

Q:  How does your organization help address the conditions faced by people in the inner city?

The philosophy of Helping Spirit Lodge addresses the issues of Indigenous family violence from a holistic perspective. The Society has a broad mandate to implement strategies for intervention and prevention of domestic violence that will stop the cycle of violence from generation to generation. HSLS helps women and children in our 1st stage transition house (30 Day Stay – 10 Domestic Violence Beds and 7 homeless beds).

The second capital project was a partnership with BC Housing. SPIRIT WAY was designed as a residential program offering holistic healing with long-term accommodation for women with children who have suffered domestic violence and abuse and have already experienced the initial stage of intervention. Spirit Way is a 14-unit complex located in Vancouver. The $3m 31-bed facility officially opened on June 21, 2000 (National Aboriginal Day). The building itself is only 16 years old, it is in great condition minus the wear and tear.

In February of 2007, ten years ago. the City of Vancouver invested $6.6 million for the purchase of a 36 unit rental apartment building at Kingsway and Dumfries. The City leased the building to Helping Spirit Lodge Society for 40 years at a nominal rent. Helping Spirit Lodge Society manages Kingsway Sierra, partially operated as social housing for Indigenous women at risk of homelessness. This purchase helps to support the recommendations made by the City’s Homelessness Action Plan. In April of 2016, the Journey Home Housing First program was created under the homelessness initiative. The program provides a range of support services for male and female individuals and families to access and maintain permanent housing options, with a special focus on urban Indigenous peoples who are chronically or episodically homeless. The Journey Home program is actively helping tenants at the Spirit Way Second Stage Housing as it is only an 18-month stay.

The Helping Spirit Lodge Society, Healing Bear Outreach Team(OT) serves chronically and episodically homeless individuals in the Greater Vancouver area. The program connects clients to affordable housing and provides wrap-around services to ensure clients stay housed. The program complements the continuum of services provided by HSLS. Since the beginning of the program in October 2021, around 20 homeless individuals have been housed. The outreach team has built a network of 24 organizations that have access to affordable housing.

Helping Spirit Lodge Society has a staff of 29. Helping Spirit Lodge Society is bold, innovative and unique to BC, drawing clients primarily from the province, but also from other jurisdictions across Canada. Although the majority of clients are Indigenous, the Society’s doors are open to all victims of violence.

Q:  How would you describe some of the common lived experiences, systemic inequalities/inequities and other challenges faced by the people you work with?

Helping Spirit Lodge Society serves a population in inner Vancouver that is very challenging at times. Our brothers and sisters who work the front lines face a number of issues stemming from the opioid crisis, mental health, grief and loss and homelessness. Due to the legacy of Indian Residential Schools, we are facing a high percentage of our little ones left in the system due to a lack of housing.

Q:  How would you describe the importance of community connections and a sense of acceptance and belonging for the people you work with?

On Fridays in the Journey Home Space, another partner of Helping Spirit Lodge Society – a community volunteer provides to all program participants from all the agency’s departments. HSLS will strive to establish both new funding partners and social enterprise development which will increase the possibility of source funding to provide a continuous stream of programming which will address the source of Barriers to Women Fleeing violence. By partnering with other agencies, such as NVIT, we will be able to offer options and solutions to educational barriers. With social enterprise, HSLS will be able to offer transferable training skills through its pre-employment training and practicums within our own society prior to successfully transitioning women into the workforce.

Q:  Looking ahead, can you share with us some of your thoughts about where you see that change can happen?

Looking ahead, I feel that HSLS will expand! Most importantly, when HSLS takes on another building, we can house more of our members from inner Vancouver, including Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseil-Waututh First Nations. 

Q:  What are some examples that give you hope for a better future for the people with who you work?

Some examples may be traditional parenting skills, reconnecting our brothers and sisters to ceremonies, whether it will be teachings from the West Coast to the East Coast. HSLS is open, and it will be dependent on the relatives’ needs and feedback.

Q:  How would you describe the value of developing relationships and collaboration in your work and organizations like Central City Foundation?

We can see the value of developing relationships and collaboration in our work with organizations like Central City Foundation by focusing on the big picture: the betterment of our children, families, and individuals seeking help in finding affordable housing in the Lower Mainland.

What has support from Central City Foundation meant for your organization?

Recently, HSLS, Mikola Housing Society, and City Central Foundation have partnered to develop a new building in Vancouver that will add much-needed housing by and for Indigenous women and their families. HSLS is sincerely appreciative of this potential for this project and is confident that we can meet all eligibility criteria for success.

Q:  Do you have a call to action for our CCF community that you would like to share?

HSLS is very grateful for the opportunity to work with Central City Foundation as they have succeeded in everything they do for the community. Thank you to Central City Foundation for your tireless efforts in ensuring the success of the new development on the horizon. HSLS wholeheartedly supports your commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of Indigenous women and girls 2SLGBTQI+ and their families and I am confident that this new initiative will continue to thrive under your guidance.