Our Mission

To provide services and opportunities that enable people with disabilities to make a life, a home, and a place in the world.

Our values: At The Garth Homer Society we believe that everyone:

• Has the right to participate fully in the community
• Deserves to feel valued for who they are
• Gets to make informed choices about what happens in their lives
• Has the right to services tailored to their goals
• Has something to contribute to the community

Accreditation: Since the inception of The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) in 2002, The Garth Homer Society has had five successful terms of accreditation from the commission (2003, 2006, 2009, 2012 2015 and 2018). CARF is a private, non-profit organization that grew out of a need to promote quality programs for people with disabilities. Every three years, CARF surveyors visit us to see if we meet the standards for the employment and community services we provide. 

Garth Homer Society was one of the first 100 agencies accredited in BC after accreditation was first required. 

SERVICES

Lifelong support through individualized services Like all of us, people living with cognitive challenges have highly individual and differing needs, hopes, and abilities. And as with all of us, needs, hopes, and abilities shift over the course of a lifetime. With growth and learning, maturity and aging, and changes in health, people change. The goal of the Garth Homer Society is to provide highly individualized services which provide a lifelong continuum of support to people with developmental disabilities, no matter their age, stage of life, or particular challenges. In order to achieve this, our services are divided into three groups of flexible programs:

• Community Inclusion – Aimed at our higher needs clients, those with communication, behavioral or complex care needs, or who often need one-to-one support, these programs encourage the development of social skills and provide a wide range of community inclusion activities. 
• Geriatrics – Serving older clients, including those with dementia, these programs include health and personal care supports, as well as activities that support cognitive and functional maintenance. In the future we also aim to provide residential care for older adults. 
• Learning and Employment – Serving individuals with lower support needs, these programs are designed to maximize each person’s potential for independence, inclusion, and employment.
• Residential Services – supporting our higher needs clients, those with communication, behavioral or complex care needs, or who often need one-to-one support.

Activities coordinated at the centre and across the community are purposefully selected to meet the individual learning and developmental goals of each of our clients. Our activities provide opportunities for them to participate in and make a difference in the Greater Victoria community– to make a life, a home and a place in the world. We are working toward a service model in which our programs are merely the starting point for diverse daily activities. The Garth Homer Centre will be the accustomed place for clients to arrive each day to hang their coats, keep their lunches, meet their friends and check their daily schedules, before the day’s activities begin. Our programs are available on a part-time or full-time basis, five days a week. The society has its own vehicles, and transportation to and from off-site activities is provided by society staff.