CIF Crisis Fund Criteria

To be eligible for a Crisis Fund grant, an individual must be:

• referred by a health care worker who knows them well
• a mental health consumer
• 19 years or older
• a Vancouver resident
• unable to cover essential costs due to a crisis (i.e., a situation that is unforeseen and/or out of the ordinary)

There are a limited number of crisis grants available per month.

Individuals are only eligible to receive a crisis grant (up to $75) once every 12 months.

The Crisis Fund is reserved to provide financial assistance when no other funding sources are available.

To refer a client, please contact:
Seema Shah, Project Manager
(604)736.2033 ext. 2239

Please note that all information is obtained directly from health care workers by phone.

What is a Crisis?

A CRISIS refers to a situation that is unforeseen and/or out of the ordinary for an individual and results in:

• an unexpected loss (e.g., loss of ongoing job or volunteer honorarium; temporary loss of ability to work due to medical reasons; etc.)

And/or

• A necessary but unexpected expense  (e.g., costs related to a death in the family; bed bug eradication; etc.)

A crisis does not include:

• Chronic mismanagement of funds and/or lack of financial planning (e.g., 5 weeks between PWD cheque issue dates)
• Situations of overspending on nonessential items/activities