Mission, Vision and Mandate

Comox Bay Care Society Care-a-van is a non profit, community funded mobile outreach health unit providing no fee health care and social development service directly to clients on the streets of Comox Valley.

Our Mission is to provide innovative, ethical, low barrier health and social development service to a diverse population of people who are homeless or precariously housed in Comox Valley.

Our Vision - is to promote positive change in the community by providing interventions that decrease stigma, address barriers impacting people’s ability to access housing, and stabilize their health and improve consistency and continuity of care

We are dedicated to building trusting relationships with people to improve social connection and increase access to the determinants of health through primary care, health promotion and public education.

Our action-oriented non-profit society continues to offer small, cost effective interventions that bring significant effect to the well-being of our homeless population.

Our mandate is to:

1. Address barriers that prevent our clients from accessing health care services.

2. Engage our clients where they are.

3. Provide a supportive environment to engage our clients.

4. Provide public education and professional development to our practitioners.

What makes us unique:

1. Our innovative project was the first of its kind west of Calgary.

2. For the first 13 years Care-A-Van was solely funded supported by individuals, and businesses in Comox Valley community Community Organizations Partners from West Coast Region. The majority of our programs continue to operate based on these donations and we can now announce that Health Canada will fund our organizations Substance Use and Addictions Program Services.

3. We aim to reduce duplication of services. by working in collaborative partnerships with fellow agencies.