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VICTORIA – The Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance is renewing its Community Assistance Program (CAP) to focus solely on life-skills and advocacy services for the most vulnerable income assistance clients and will launch the new program on Oct. 2, 2006.
In its first year, the enhanced program will provide approximately 5,000 multi-barriered clients with services to improve their quality of life and connections to services within their communities. Services will be flexible and tailored to the needs of each individual client.
By maintaining the full $7.5-million CAP budget and focusing solely on the needs of clients with the most severe barriers, government is investing more on each individual within the CAP program.
Services will focus on personal planning, life-skills training and counselling. Service providers will also provide advocacy support, helping clients to fill out applications for income supports and working on their behalf to connect them with other services they need in the community, such as mental health, housing, drug or alcohol treatment, legal aid, and child care and family services. Pre-employment and employment components of the past CAP program have been moved to the recently launched BC Employment Program.
Following the conclusion of the current CAP program at the end of August, ministry staff have put into action a comprehensive transition plan, contacting clients to discuss their needs in order to refer them to the most appropriate program. Depending on a client’s advancement in the CAP program and their current capabilities, they may be referred to the revised Community Assistance Program or new BC Employment Program, Employment Programs for Persons with Disabilities, and/or federal programming.
The ministry, following full consultations with service providers, clients and ministry staff, completed an open Request for Proposals competition in July 2006. The ministry will announce the successful proponents for the new CAP program during the week of Sept. 18, 2006.
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Communications Director 250 387-6489 |
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