We are care providers that share our homes and lives with the people we support. As home share providers we have a unique and valuable perspective as we are doing the home sharing with the folks we serve, our voice is the voice of the front-line person doing the actual work and putting the commitment forward to care for our clients. We now need to step forward and add our collective voices and shared experience to the decision-making process.
We have not had representation as a group and we need to support and mentor each other, especially as this residential option continues to grow rapidly. Home Share is the fastest growing residential option for adults with developmental disabilities within the province and CLBC recently told us that there are 4,000 Home Share Providers who are providing 68% of residential services. Home sharing occurs in virtually every community either through CLBC or a quali?ed service-provision agency.

The majority of home share providers today are contracted through community living agencies. These agencies belong to an association who represents them when negotiating with CLBC. We have not had any collective forum to come together to discuss our concerns and to represent us as a whole. One of our goals is that the BC Home Share Association will represent Home Share Providers in negotiations around contracts, business practices/polices with the Community Living Agencies and CLBC.
Through shared information and support the BC Home Share Association will become a resource for both current and prospective home share providers. Some long-term goals are to offer a comprehensive medical/dental plan and possibly life insurance and to have courses and mentorship programs in place for home share providers. We want to act as a support for home share providers in con?ict and/or crisis with agency or government.

We would also like to be part of publishing a Best Practices Guide for Home Share Providers.
We hope that as we come together and support one another that we can build good relationships with stakeholders in the Community Living ?eld. We believe that this will help bring an awareness to what home share providers do and nurture a positive attitude towards home sharing. We want to be recognized as professionals in our chosen ?eld, not just caregivers, but caregivers with extraordinary responsibilities to the people they support.
Our main focus at this time is gathering members and getting contracts increased to today's standards according to the rest of the Community Living home care providers who are not individually contracted but are employees. We are reaching out to other home share providers and asking them to be part of the discussion. Please contact us with your ideas or concerns.