The Gulf Islands Families Together Society (GIFTS) celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, with a warm, fun and musical gathering that saw Lions Hall filled with happy people on Oct. 5 as the society’s past was fêted and its eyes set on the future.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘This is just what we need in our community — these kinds of events that are all about belonging and caring,’” said new GIFTS board chair Linda Underwood. “We had community members come in who really didn’t know very much about GIFTS, but they left knowing quite a bit, and they left being a member, and they said they want to be involved. We were celebrating as a society, but it turned out to be more of a community celebration.”
GIFTS was formed in 1999 by a group of parents who wanted to improve opportunities and quality of life for their developmentally challenged children as they grew into adulthood.
Employed by the Gulf Islands School District (SD64) at the time, Underwood knew those youth when a few years later the district partnered with the provincial government to help create a transition program to serve them. The program helped the students explore their options for achieving personal growth and fulfilment.
“I did a Planning Alternative Futures With Hope process with parents, and it’s actually still up on the wall in the GIFTS building, which is kind of cool to see after so many years.”
Underwood had enjoyed her experience with the students and their families so much that she agreed to join the board after she retired from SD64.
“It’s just been such a privilege,” she said. “I’ve learned so much from everybody who is a part of that organization. It’s definitely a fabulous group of people, and they are all just working to make things better in the community.”
She said it’s also been “a lot of fun to watch these individuals grow into such amazing adults, and just the success that they’ve had in the community and how our community has embraced them and created so many great opportunities for them to be successful.”
Underwood said island businesses and other organizations have provided “fabulous support” in employing GIFTS adults. And of course the connections go much further in relationships made in recreational activities and the arts, through educational courses, volunteering and beyond.
Amanda Myers has been GIFTS’ executive director since July of 2023, coming to the position with a background in Indigenous leadership and most recently working at Western University in London.
One of the first things she observed is how individualized the services are for each person at GIFTS.
“That’s the really special part of GIFTS: the approach is to ask the individual, ‘What is it that you need from us?’ and put those things in place, instead of, ‘This is our formula as an organization.’”
Group programming for music and art activities, for example, does exist, but that’s because the participants have requested it.
Another thing she noticed was that everyone in GIFTS founding families is getting older and their needs are changing as a result.
“We have a group that’s moving into late middle age and seniorhood; becoming a senior, for some folks, depending on their diagnosis, can be 10 years prior to what the province considers a senior.”
That is expected to create a specific need for housing in future, as parents may pass or be unable to care for their mature children, so the society is looking to purchase an ideal property for that purpose.
Another area Myers is working on is finding a way to get on-island training for potential employees, which would benefit not only GIFTS but other agencies.
As well, GIFTS’ primary funding comes from Community Living B.C., but the society would like to stabilize its financial position with profit from a business of some kind.
How can the community better support GIFTS? Underwood would like to see a way to increase recreational opportunities or access to casual events like going to a movie or a cultural event that occurs in the late afternoon or evening.
“Those are harder to arrange support for,” she said.
For more information about GIFTS and how to support the organization, see gulfislandgifts.com.