2020 is a year that will long live as one that brought much loss and struggle but one in which we witnessed incredible transformations. This was no different for Phoenix.
April began with our exciting merger with the Positive Living Fraser Valley Society, expanding both our continuum of services and our reach beyond Surrey which had been our only service area for 30 years. Staff were rapidly responding to the COVID-19 pandemic that was changing our operating landscape daily.
The challenges of COVID were felt most acutely in our treatment programs where we faced significant restrictions in how we could deliver services. Everything we do at Phoenix is to foster community and connection, but physical distancing and self-isolation was the mantra. Thanks to our incredible staff, we adapted to deliver services in new ways to meet emerging needs.
Whilst many organizations were facing struggles to continue operating, Phoenix was growing. One of the needs that came our way in April was a request to operate a COVID Isolation Program in Abbotsford to add sheltering capacity and provide safe spaces for people to isolate when exhibiting COVID symptoms. We went on to open an Emergency Response Centre in Coquitlam, a community that significantly lacked services to support those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
We also expanded services at our Rising Sun site, launching an Aging Offender program with Correctional Services Canada, a first of its kind in the country. The following month we opened Phoenix House, a 10-bed stabilization program, funded by Fraser Health, supporting men who have completed a withdrawal management program and may be waiting to enter a treatment program.
Sadly, poverty and homelessness increased due to the pandemic, causing significant challenges for individuals such as the 38 residents of Peterson Place in Surrey. Phoenix has a commercial kitchen at our Phoenix Centre which was already producing over 400 meals a day. Upon hearing the need and of those struggling to access meal programs, Phoenix partnered with Fraserside Community Services Society (Peterson Place operators). From April 2020 until March 2021, Phoenix delivered nutritious meals twice a day and grew from 3 days a week to 7 as the year went on.
Seeing this incredible need for free meal programs, Phoenix also quickly moved forward with plans to create a new Mobile Community Kitchen.
The program operates out of a 16-foot food truck, dubbed the Phoenix Flame BBQ, providing free community meals to those who are underserved, homeless or at risk of homelessness. The operation has capacity serve over 100 meals per day (lunch or dinner) up to fives times per week.
Since beginning operations in January 2021 this service has already provided several thousand free meals and has been a remarkable success.
As proud as I am of all we achieved last year, perhaps obtaining our three-year accreditation through CARF International was the highlight. CARF is an independent non-profit accreditor of health and human services focused on advancing quality of care.
To achieve accreditation, service providers like Phoenix must meet more than 1,200 rigorous requirements.
CARF Accreditation is a globally recognized symbol of quality and excellence for the services provided by an organization, promoting trust, accountability and continuous improvement.
I want to end by thanking our incredible staff team at Phoenix Society who continued to show up to work every day, despite facing some of the most challenging conditions.
Your perseverance, kindness and hard work drove everything we did last year and helped keep all of our essential services open.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank our Phoenix Society board members, who offered incredible support by providing everything we needed to keep our staff and clients safe during these unprecedented times.