A non-profit society in Nanaimo will be using a local bakery to help clients rise above adversity.
Island Crisis Care Society has announced that effective July 30, its newly formed, for-profit wing, Rising Hope Services Inc., will take ownership and manage Nanaimo Bakery and Confectionery Ltd. The bakery will continue to offer baked goods, but will also support clients, said Corrie Corfield, the society’s assistant executive director and interim director of development.
“So really it’s two-fold,” said Corfield. “One of it being the revenue generation that will come from the bakery that will be directed into ICCS programming as a whole and then also the employment program [which] will be something that we will be opening to all of our clients, but also to the community in general. So we’ll be developing this program to help people who have faced traditional barriers to employment in the past, typically who have experienced homelessness and other … challenges.”
The society’s venture, Project Rise, will teach pre-employment skills and there will also be a “work placement portion,” Corfield said.
“Once they’ve gone through that training, we’re hoping that we’ll be able to place them for short-term work placement just to build their resumé up and for some on-the-job training, so that’s, of course, where the bakery will come in,” said Corfield.
We're excited to announce our newest project! Watch the video for a little teaser and visit https://t.co/wgof7dROmZ to learn more information.https://t.co/T0fqvHR9Y5
— Island Crisis Care Society (@ICCS_Nanaimo) June 21, 2021
B.C. Housing purchased the society’s Samaritan House property on Nicol Street late in 2020, which Corfield said provided part of the money to purchase the entire building on Bowen Road. The society is also planning to relocate its head office to the site.
“Rising Hope, being that for-profit subsidiary, will operate the building and business and then the structure allows for a percentage of profits to be returned back to ICCS in the form of donations, so there’s a connection…” Corfield said.
She said Canada Revenue Agency guidelines will allow for 75 per cent of the operation’s net profit to be returned back to ICCS.
As for the Project Rise name, Corfield said “we see this as an opportunity for our community to ‘rise,’ for people who have struggled in the past, to rise above their circumstances and find something new for themselves. And of course, we’re baking bread.”
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