Mission Community Services’ Engaged Community Members (ECM) program, partners with outreach and community members – including Mission Environmental Stewardship Society – to actively clean the community of Mission.
The community clean-ups cover Logan Avenue and all the surrounding areas.
According to a recent press release, the ECM program has been an “influential program” in the community. It has provided peer-to-peer outreach, informative sessions on accessing local resources, engagement with the community and the opportunity to develop interpersonal and vocational skills for marginalized or at-risk individuals.
One component of this program has been the community clean-up, which allows individuals the opportunity to engage with their fellow community members and help clean the community of Mission.
“Our objective is twofold: to maintain our commitment to the neighborhood (as seen in our Community Action Plan), and, most importantly, to empower those who are in the ECM program to play more active roles in their own lives while building essential skills. These guiding objectives are how we are impacting the community and creating real change in individual’s lives,” said Michelle Puffer, executive director of Mission Community Services.
Results from this program have shown empowerment programming surrounding those who are “difficult to employ” is successful in building meaningful relationships between this population and their community. One of these results has been from a previous member of the ECM program, who has gone from being homeless to having found meaningful work. Working together with local community members MCSS can change the lives of local individuals and positively impact the community.
ECM hosts monthly community clean-up events and invites all community members to join. If you would like to get involved, please email info@missionmcss.com or call 604-826-3634.