The tremendous amount of growth achieved by Share:  going from 1 shelter to 4, adding the ASPIRE, Outreach, BackPack, and Summer Lunch programs since 1996, the purchase of the Andresen Road Property as well as having the budget grow to nearly $4 million – has been made possible by the supportive donors, dedicated board directors, faithful volunteers AND the compassionate, passionate professional staff who daily work with people to assist them achieve self-sufficiency and a better life.

Share’s Achieving Self-Sufficiency Personal Improvement and Resource Education (ASPIRE) transitional and permanent housing program serves clients such as Deanna (left) and her daughter.

 

Vancouver-based Share was founded in 1979, and started out with Share House, a shelter for 28 single men, and a hot meal program that served five meals each week.

 

 

Since 1996, it has grown consistently, adding programs and facilities, and operates on the mission to lead the hungry and homeless to self-sufficiency by providing food, shelter, housing and education.

 

 

In 2008 - after five years of work - the organization secured $1.4 million to buy the former Timber Lanes building, which after renovations, will allow Share to consolidate facilities, expand capacity to meeting growing program needs and generate income through the leasing of space.

 

 

On a program level, Share increased its BackPack, summer lunch, Achieving Self-sufficiency Personal Improvement and Resource Education, and financial assistance programs.

 

 

The BackPack program was started in 2005 to provide food to low-income children on weekends, when free breakfast and lunch is not available through schools. It has grown from serving 75 children a week at three schools to more than 500 a week to 23 schools.

 

 

The summer lunch program served an extra 100 children, and ASPIRE - a transitional and permanent housing program - grew to serve an extra 25 households a month.

 

 

The financial assistance program was started in 2007 as a savings program that matches a client's savings in an Individual Development Account one-to-one or two-to-one. In 2008, Share started a secured credit card program to assist clients through financial education and improved credit.

 

 

In 2008, the organization also grew its budget 44 percent, thanks to successful grant writing and increased private funding for many programs, said Executive Director Diane Christie.

 

 

With the economy, Share has seen an increased need for its services, she added.

 

 

"Especially at the holidays," Christie said. "We consistently have to turn people away from our programs due to capacity."

 

 

The holiday cheer program distributed 1,500 more gifts in 2008, and there was an increase in the number of families who had never accessed Share's help before.