CIF History

The process of developing the Consumer Initiative Fund (CIF) Committee began in 1995. The Executive Director of what was then the Greater Vancouver Mental Health System (GVMHS) approached a team of consumers who were working, as outreach people, with a Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) sponsored Committee on Regionalization. He asked this group if they would be willing to form a selection committee to review proposals by consumers. The successful proposals would be eligible for newly available funds designated for consumer and family initiatives. The original call for submissions went out in May of 1995 with a deadline of October 31, 1995 and reviewing went through November to mid-December.

There was a total of $125,000.00 to be awarded from the Ministry of Health (MOH)to successful projects. GVMHS agreed to provide meeting space and honoraria to the committee via the consumer advocacy budget. As befitted the intent behind the CIF fund, GVMHS imposed no structure or guidelines on the committee, and had no vision beyond merely awarding the dollars.

This initial committee (which had started as 10 but reduced itself to 4 persons) received and reviewed 35 proposals. After an initial shortlist was developed, the committee designed an objective tool that provided a scoring system for decision making. There was an outstanding issue of people on the committee who had also submitted project proposals but, as there was considerable pressure from Victoria to secure funding and a lack of leadership in the consumer community at the time, this was accepted.

In January ’96, interviews for each of the 20 short listed projects were done, using a set of scored questions developed by the committee. The Executive Director was invited to review the 20 short listed proposals and comment on the interview questions. There were no gaps between interviewee responses and stated proposal goals and all 20 proposals were accepted. Information was submitted to the MOH.

A staff member and a consumer committee member agreed to support and guide the new CIF committee. This partnership provided the committee members an opportunity to learn skills for interacting with a large funding body and the advantage of having continued access to GVMHS administrative resources.

The first formal meeting of the CIF committee was held on May 6, 1996 with 4 consumer members and the staff member. The first business of the committee was to:

inform successful incumbents
provide all incumbents with the choice of using a sponsoring agency or not.
get the funds out to each project

It was decided that individuals would contract directly with GVMHS. This underscored the need for a monitoring committee. The mandate of the committee was to empower other consumers to run their projects independently. The first annual workshop, in June 1996, worked on the development of a planning tool for monitoring and evaluating projects and a draft contract.

The committee has continued to meet on a weekly basis, developing policies and guidelines to ensure accountability, contractual agreements, satisfaction surveys, budget procedures and accommodation standards. The first newsletter came out in 1997 but was not a regular feature until 1999. An Evaluation Day was held in February, 1997 but a full report was not compiled. It did, however, introduce consumers to measurement tools and the need to evaluate projects annually.

The development of this Consumer Initiative Fund Handbook has taken place during committee meetings from 2002 – 2004. It is still a work in progress. The work of CIF program has become more evaluated and more valued within the mental health system. It is now run by a union staff member who is also a consumer and continues to provide opportunities to develop consumer community skills.

MISSION STATEMENT | HISTORY | ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

----------------------------------------

NEWS | ABOUT US | PROJECTS | RESOURCES

DISCLAIMER | SITEMAP

CIF HISTORY