CONNECT Parksville Officially Opened This Week

CONNECT Parksville welcomed the first two individuals to be supported on Tuesday this week.

Following a few intense months of recruitment, construction, orientation and a thousand other things, we received our occupancy permit at the eleventh hour on Tuesday.

“What a wild ride it has been,” says Patti Flaherty, CEO of CONNECT, who spent the past few weeks in Parksville and was a fixture at CONNECT Parksville over the weekend helping set up the first house. “I want to celebrate this milestone and thank everyone for their hard work. Our builders, designer, architects, the city, the fire department, have all pulled it together, but our CONNECT team especially has worked hard to get to this moment. We are so happy to officially start this journey supporting people in Parksville and will be changing lives for the better in this community for many years to come.”

On the Friday prior to opening, four members of the Snaw-Naw-As Nation blessed the building. They smudged every room at CONNECT Parksville and led a ceremony and shared a special message for the coaches and leaders who attended.

Blessing CONNECT Parksville.

CONNECT coaches and leaders hold red ochre in their right hands as part of a blessing ceremony with members of Snaw-Naw-As Nation.

Member of the Snaw-Naw-As Nation join CONNECT Coaches and Leaders for a blessing ceremony on Oct. 2.

For the weeks leading up to the opening, dozens of leaders and coaches from across our locations, as well as a person we support at CONNECT Saanich Peninsula traveled to Parksville to support orientation.

A group of Parksville coaches also travelled to CONNECT Lake Country as part of orientation and were able to join this year’s Loop The Lake event there.

Eli, who is supported at CONNECT Saanich Peninsula, spoke at CONNECT Parksville orientation about his experience with brain injury and living at CONNECT.

The CONNECT Parksville orientation crew on Sept. 23.

“I feel like our team has had such an incredible experience throughout orientation and so many important moments and conversations and wisdom shared by the broader team,” says Jocelyne Boileau, CONNECT Parksville’s Leader of Culture, People and Services. “It was pretty amazing to welcome the first people moving in and to feel like we were ready to walk this journey with them.”