The Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness
our mission:
To lovingly provide culturally supportive, affordable housing and services that end Aboriginal homelessness on Vancouver Island.
The Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society (ACEH) is a non-profit and registered charitable organization with a sole focus on supporting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples experiencing homelessness. The work of the ACEH is guided by the voices of Indigenous Street Family who share their immediate needs, lived experiences, and perspectives on solutions. Through building partnerships locally and island-wide, the ACEH works to identify and address systemic and structural barriers, share information, resources, and lessons learned, while also providing cultural supports, connections, and housing stability. The role of the ACEH is critical as the only Indigenous-led organization on Vancouver Island that has ending Indigenous homelessness as its sole focus. The ACEH has a vision to lead long-term systemic change to better meet the needs of our people living away from home and experiencing homelessness.
our vision:
Our way is to care for all our people, from the youngest to the oldest. We are all one. Some of our people living away from home are suffering, isolated, and homeless. We stand together to end homelessness.
“The water,
I left it all out on the water, I didn’t bring anything back with me”
our people
we are all one.
Our Way is to care for all our people, from the youngest to the oldest. We are all one. Some of our people living away from home are suffering, isolated and homeless. We stand together to end homelessness.
four pillars.
The Coast Salish Big House, supported by its four pillars, provides the framework for the ACEH’s strategic approach. In the ACEH’s work, each pillar represents a component of the organization, all which are of equal urgency. Together, they provide the structure for fulfilling our mission to end Indigenous homelessness across Vancouver Island.
The values and vision for the strategy is at the center of the House, providing the warmth, the fire that unites us in this work.
Directors
FRAN HUNT-JINNOUCHI
Executive Director
BRIELYN RAMSEY
Senior Managing Director
JULIA O’QUINN
Director of Programs
WADE HUNT
Director of Housing
WILHEMENA HARRY
Director of Community Relations, Protocol and Social Justice
Managers
TRACEY DRAPER
SpeqƏȠéutxw (SPAKEN House) Manager
SOPHIA HARPER
Kwum Kwum Lelum (House of Courage) Manager
SARAH UNDERDOWN
Xexe Pahlatsis’lelum (Sacred Cradle House) Manager
SHANA SYLVESTER
Youth House Manager
SHANNON HOPE
CAIS Island-Wide Development Manager
KATIE WALKUS
CAIS Manager (South Island)
MEAGHAN BROWN
Senior Manager of Health & Wellness
NIKKI WILKINSON
Land Based Healing Manager
VANDA WREDE
YEḴ,ÁUTW̱ (Place of Hope) Indigenous Justice Program Manager
KATE MITCHELL
Human Resources Manager
ZAHRA REZAI
Project & Administration Manager
governance
governance
The ACEH is governed by Indigenous peoples with representation from each of the three Tribal Groups on the Island: Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth, and Kwakwakw’wakw as well as Metis Nation. The Board of Directors provide leadership and strategic direction necessary to end homelessness within the Aboriginal population on Vancouver Island: to ensure that adequate resources are in place to achieve the strategy; to ensure that operational plans and budgets are implemented that achieve the strategy; and to provide timely communications to the community on progress in ending Aboriginal homelessness.
we gratefully acknowledge our funders and partners
we also gratefully acknowledge our past funders
With gratitude the ACEHS acknowledges the Lekwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees), Malahat, Pacheedaht, Scia’new, T’Sou-ke and W̱SÁNEĆ (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum) peoples on whose ancestral homelands and unceded territories we gather, live, and work.