Equity and Social Action Fund
HSA's Equity and Social Action Fund was established in the spirit of solidarity to support grassroots organizations not affiliated with HSA who are focused on human rights, climate action, social and economic justice, workers’ rights, and universal health care. The fund continues to be an important part of our collective commitment to supporting labour and social justice movements both locally and internationally.
The Committee on Equity and Social Action receives funding requests and makes recommendations to the Board of Directors on how the fund should be allocated.
HSA was proud to fund the following organizations in 2025 through our Equity and Social Action Fund:
AccessBC is a grassroots campaign that advocates for free prescription contraception and reproductive justice in BC. Access BC is a group of over 80 volunteers from across BC and Canada that formed in 2017 to advocate for free prescription contraception in BC, which became the first province to adopt this policy in April 2023. Access BC is currently fighting to see this policy expanded in BC, and working to support the implemention of free prescription contraception across Canada by helping to build and coordinate a national network of campaigns advocating for this policy.
Afiya care collective is a collective organized and lead by 3 black women with healthcare backgrounds looking to utilize their knowledge and passions to develop a healthcare center that addresses the unique and diverse healthcare needs of the Black, African, and Caribbean (BAC) communities in Surrey BC.
Our mission is to explore and tackle the multifaceted barriers and issues that Black African and Caribbean (BAC) individuals face within BC's Healthcare system. We are committed and hope to achieve this by conducting community-based participatory action research that focuses on the various health disparities and inequities. With particular interest in issues of systemic racism, medical racism, lack of quality care, and disproportionate negative health outcomes.
https://www.afiyacarecollective.ca/
The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition seeks to improve the health and well-being of all British Columbians. They are comprised of over 80 organizations and community mobilizations that come together to advocate for public policy, solutions to end poverty, homelessness and inequity in BC.
BC Society of Transition Houses is member based, provincial umbrella organization that, through leadership support and collaboration, enhance the continuum of services and strategies to respond to, prevent, and end violence against women, children and youth.
Camp Jubilee is a camp for children from 8-18 years of age who are from low income families. The camp helps in the holistic development of children and teenagers, providing education, recreation, personal growth, and leadership opportunities.
The Centre for Family Equity is a membership-based organization of low-income parents and caregivers, the majority of whom are lone mothers, located in over 41 locations across the province. We carry out community-engaged research and legal action and propose evidence-based public policy solutions to address family poverty in BC.
The Chuan Society is a community arts and social network based on Salt Spring Island, and has been a registered non-profit society since 2017. Our society was founded by a diverse group of islanders who recognise the value of community in effecting change, improving our collective well-being, and creating new opportunities and ways of living on the island. The Chuan Society emphasizes moving social action through culture, with an operating principle based on empowerment and agency through collective collaboration.
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC) is an inclusive, feminist, membership-based organization. The CCCABC is made up of individuals and groups including parents, grandparents, early childhood educators, child care providers, community organizations, academics and unions. CCABC works collectively, using research, public education and mobilization, to achieve our vision of a high-quality, affordable, accessible, inclusive child care system that serves the public interest - the $10aDay Plan.
Founded in 1985 by a group of activists who wanted to go beyond simply sending financial aid to Latin American countries, we believe that partnerships between like-minded organizations in Canada and Latin America can be vehicles for learning, social change, and community empowerment. CoDev mobilizes Canadians to work with the people of Latin America for a fairer world. CoDev does this by fostering partnerships between trade unions and civil society groups in Canada and their counterparts in Latin America. These partnerships educate Canadians about Latin America and allow them to directly support the region. Such connections build solidarity and mutual understanding and ultimately improve prospects for a more just world.
The Compost Education Centre (CEC) is a non-profit organization with charitable status providing composting, waste diversion, and ecological gardening education to Capital Regional District (CRD) residents. The CEC proudly supports Victoria Seedy Sunday, a collaborative, community-focused event that brings people together around a vital aspect of our food system: seeds. Seedy Sunday is designed to educate, empower and foster food sovereignty and ecological stewardship in community members of all ages and with diverse levels of knowledge. Seedy Sunday serves the community as a seed exchange, a place to buy locally-grown and climate-adapted seeds and plants, and a venue for formal and informal learning about gardening, community food resilience, climate adaptive food growing and ecological stewardship.
The Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative Society (SRO‑C) is a non-profit organization working to improve habitability, affordability, safety, health and housing security for tenants living in privately owned Single Room Occupancy hotels (SROs) who are at risk of eviction and homelessness. The SRO-C was established to organize SRO tenants in Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Chinatown and Granville South. We exist to amplify SRO tenants’ voices and support their community organizing through tenant-based initiatives. Our long-term goal is to support tenants to eventually holistically manage, collectively own and redevelop their homes in ways that work for the SRO tenant community.
The Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic provides reproductive health care and abortions in a safe, confidential, and respectful atmosphere to women, trans and non-binary people. The clinic is based in Vancouver but does not limit access based on home address. The Elizabeth Bagshaw clinic provides culturally safe and trauma informed care, which includes access to translation services.
First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society works in partnership with a non-partisan, cross-sectoral network of over 100 provincial and regional organizations, individuals and local communities who share the belief that children and youth should have “first call” on our province’s resources. We mobilize affiliate organizations and communities around raising public awareness and policy change campaigns, special projects and emerging child, youth, and family issues.
The Greater Van GoGos is a network of 18 groups of the Stephen Lewis Foundation's “Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign.” The groups started forming in Greater Vancouver in 2006 when the SLF issued a call to Canadian grandmothers to stand with their African counterparts who are raising a generation of children and youth orphaned by HIV and AIDS. Through our fundraising, they raise awareness about the grandmothers' challenges and successes in coping not only with AIDS in their families and communities, but also now with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
H.E.R.S is a non-profit foundation that aims to provide life skills education, resources, and referrals to new refugees and immigrant women within the Victoria region. H.E.R.S Foundation continues to offer free life skills courses, to its clients and this year we have added wellness education as a preventive program to individuals with history of anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms. All of our services are delivered in the English language using trauma-informed practice while ensuring that all cultural traditions and beliefs are considered. All services can be translated in the member's first language of choice.
Jr. Black Achievement Awards (JrBAA) Society was restored in April 2022 to offer educational programs, recognition, awards, and provide financial assistance for post-secondary education to successful applicants of the Black Community in BC. The JrBAA Society empower Black Youth and their families through training, recognition, and access to education. We are working towards a community that celebrates the successes, culture, and heritage of the Black Community in BC.
Centering sex workers rights, Living in Community (LIC) convenes a diverse group of stakeholders in order to: understand a range of experiences and perspectives; inform sex work-related policies and practices of governments, service providers, and community organizations; and provide education toward these goals. We don’t provide frontline services; rather, we fill a gap by hearing from those frontline providers and sex workers themselves about the key issues and needs facing their communities, and then taking that information to government elected officials and other decision-makers to advocate for change.
The Living Wage for Families program encourages employers to pay a living wage as well as advocates for government policies that would help families make ends meet. A living wage is the gateway between surviving and thriving. It is a modest budget that allows workers to overcome severe financial stress, move beyond working poverty to participate in the social, civic, and cultural aspects of life. To achieve this vision, their mission is to create the conditions for workers to earn a Living Wage.
The Mayworks Festival of Working People & the Arts celebrates diverse artists and working people at the intersection of art, social justice, and labour. Mayworks festivals take place in
communities around the world and programming was relaunched in British Columbia in 2023. The festival brings together artists and workers from a diverse range of organizations in the
visual & media arts, community arts, cooperatives, and labour movement to celebrate the rich history of working people in BC. In 2024, Mayworks events were held across the lower
Mainland and for the first time ever in Kamloops. The festival provides flexible and living wage work and exhibition opportunities for working class freelance artists, gig workers, and cultural workers.
The Migrant Workers Centre BC is a non profit organization dedicated to justice for migrant workers in British Columbia. Our core activities include providing free direct legal services from information and summary legal advice to full representation, educating partner organizations to better serve migrant workers, and educating and empowering migrant workers themselves. We also advocate for policy changes to enhance the rights and protections for these vulnerable communities. We are part of the Migrant Rights Network and Corridors of Justice. We also partner with other organizations across Canada and British Columbia to campaign together for changes to legislation. We are currently embarking on a campaign with our partners at Sanctuary Health to end the three monthwait period to access MSP in BC. We are reaching out to many community organizations, grassroots groups, unions and others to support this campaign.
The Penticton and Area Access Society uses action, awareness, advocacy, and equitable practice to help people navigate social systems. Our vision is that all people in our communities have equal and just access to all available support services.
Richmond Women’s Resource Centre (RWRC) is a non-profit organization that has been operating in Richmond since 1976. RWRC’s goal is to provide community-based resource options to help women build connections and thrive in our community.
Rise Women’s Legal Centre is a community legal centre providing accessible legal services to economically disadvantaged women and gender diverse people in British Columbia, primarily in the area of family law. Central to our work is the knowledge that women, and all people of marginalized genders, are disproportionately impacted by systems of oppression, including gender-based violence. Approximately 80% of our clients have experienced family violence, and we are experts in the intersection between family violence and family law. We work from a client centred perspective that emphasizes the agency of our clients and treats them as the experts in their own lives.
Salt Spring Safely’s promotes safety and support amongst people who use substances and/or are affected by substance use. We aim to do this through increasing access to outreach, education and support around recovery and harm reduction, de-stigmatizing substance use, partnering with community groups, working towards drug testing on island, and providing harm reduction materials. We aim to do this all while prioritizing the safety and dignity of the individuals accessing Salt Spring Safely. This group was formed after we lost several community members to toxic drugs two years ago. At present, we have a social worker, mental health nurse, outreach worker, first responder and several people with lived experience who comprise the board of Salt Spring Safely.
Sher Vancouver was founded in 2008 to provide arts and cultural, and social service programs and services to queer South Asians and their friends, families, and allies in Metro Vancouver.
Story Money Impact pairs the power of documentary storytelling with a targeted audience and post-screening discussion with panelists and moderators. We actively engage courageous filmmakers to refine and amplify their messages for systemic change through impact strategy, education, and partnerships with constituents.
Together Against Poverty Society (TAPS) was established in 1989 and is one of the largest anti-poverty organizations on Vancouver Island. At TAPS, we believe that the causes of poverty are in the social, economic and political institutions of our society – not the failings of the individual. Through legal advocacy and public education, we have a positive impact on people’s lives in ways that honour and promote human rights, justice, and a healthy, sustainable community.
TAPS Specializes in providing rights-based information and legal advocacy services in the areas of income assistance, provincial disability benefits and residential tenancy as well as free year round income tax filing services.
The Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI) is a non-profit solidarity cooperative building an economy that works for all. The UCI supports the creation, incubation, and operation of unionized cooperatives that provide family sustaining and flexible jobs that are good for people and the planet. The UCI coordinates a worker organizer training program in partnership with the BC Federation of Labour and affiliated labour unions in addition to union cooperative development services through the support of the BC Cooperative Association and Vancity Savings Credit Union.
The Union Protein Project is a non-profit society and community partnership dedicated to addressing the shortages of nutritious food in food banks, specifically protein. Our work addresses the gaps in our society that lead to food insecurity and highlights the critical role unions play in tackling these challenges. We accept donations from unions, union members and other like-minded organizations and use those funds to subsidize the price of bulk protein orders so food banks can access them at an affordable price. This makes their dollar go further so their savings can be used on other essential items needed for their clients. In our last bulk peanut butter order, 45 pallets were distributed to 33 food banks around the province including areas like Burns Lake, Kitimat, Pender Island, Sooke, Prince George and more!
VALU Cooperative Community Projects is a non-profit composed of community engaged artists who use our artistic talents and skills for projects in solidarity and support of communities we work in. Our artists work primarily in Vancouver’s Chinatown in partnership with Chinese elders to strengthen community and reduce isolation. Our most recent collaboration exhibition is being shown at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton, Ontario in the Spring of 2025.
Wagon Wheel Housing Society is a grassroots organization on Salt Spring Island committed to ending poverty, hunger, homelessness and isolation. They started a laundromat in town when there was a gap for 6 years without one in the community. The laundromat is a community-run social enterprise and has become a community hub, uplifting space, and community resource.
https://dosomegood.ca/organization/wagon-wheel-housing-society-3173966
The west Kootenay Women’s Association are a feminist organization that has been celebrating, supporting, and empowering women since 1973 and now proudly serve the gender diverse community as well. We provide a safe space, support, free resources, referrals and engagement opportunities for all women and gender diverse individuals.
The Worker Solidarity Network (WSN) is a provincial labour advocacy non-profit that champions workplace justice alongside vulnerable, gender-diverse and racialized workers employed in low-wage sectors such as retail, hospitality and the gig economy. WSN runs programs that connect precarious workers to vital know your rights and unionization resources, educational tools, and community building supports. We conduct sectoral campaigns to remove barriers for marginalized workers and advocate for stronger workplace protections.
Founded in 1897, YWCA Metro Vancouver boldly envisions a just and equitable world for women, families, and allies. We advance gender equity alongside women, families, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people through advocacy and integrated services that help support personal, collective, and economic wellbeing. In recent years, we have focused on building safe, affordable housing across the region, and have become trusted advocates in the areas of child care, access to justice and women’s economic security and independence. We currently offer 77 programs in 132 locations in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.