Oak Bay, BC: In a unique partnership, Coast Capital Savings has provided Threshold Housing Society $380,000 to create transitional housing for youth at risk of being homeless at the society’s Threshold House, a newly renovated facility in Oak Bay.

At the official opening of Threshold House today, Coast Capital Savings President and CEO, Don Coulter said, “Our members believe by investing in youth we are investing in our future. Through our credit union’s Youth Get It Community Investment Program we are creating a future where vulnerable young people in our community have a safe and secure home, and are making an investment to building a healthy community that benefits all of us.”

“This facility would not be possible without partnerships,” said Mark Muldoon, Executive Director of The Threshold Housing Society. “Coast Capital Savings’ community vision is absolutely admirable. Housing vulnerable youth today goes a long way to preventing adult homelessness tomorrow!  Knowing we have this support from Coast Capital Savings for the next 5 years is key to moving forward with our vision for this house.”

The common room at Threshold House is being named the Coast Capital Commons. “It will remind our youth that they are not forgotten or alone,” Muldoon asserts. “In fact, there is a community out there that really wants them to succeed.”

Coast Capital Savings and the names of other supporters will be placed on a donor recognition quilt in the house. Each youth receives a hand-stitched quilt while at Threshold. “The quilt is our symbol that it takes a patch-work of people, organizations and big hearts to raise a youth,” Muldoon explained. “We are thrilled that Coast Capital Savings has shown leadership and foresight by giving local youth the opportunity for a new beginning—and hope—which starts with safe housing.”

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For inquiries, please contact:

Coast Capital Savings

Coast Capital Savings is Canada’s largest credit union by membership. A recipient of the 2015 “Outstanding Corporation” Giving Hearts Award, the credit union invested $5 million into local communities in 2015, focusing on empowering and engaging youth. Coast Capital is one of Canada's 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures™, a member of Canada's Best Managed Companies Platinum Club, and an Imagine Canada Caring Company. It has 50 branches serving its 532,000 members in the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island and Okanagan regions of British Columbia. Product innovations include Canada's first free chequing account from a full-service financial institution. To learn more, visit coastcapitalsavings.com.

Threshold Housing Society

The Threshold Housing Society has been offering transitional housing since 1992 to youth at risk of being homeless in Greater Victoria.  The age range served by Threshold is between the ages of 16 and 21 years. Transitional housing is a formative step toward independence for a youth who has been abandoned, aged-out of foster care, or has had to leave home because of abuse or neglect. Transitional housing is about offering a safe housing-situation for a vulnerable youth to become stabilized and to have the experience of a trusting community. Over the course of their stay, a resident is offered numerous resources to build the capacity toward self-reliance.  Threshold offers life-skills and transitional planning which teaches a youth to become a responsible renter, to budget, and how to look after themselves.  From day one, each youth that enters starts off with a plan to build a better future with the help of staff and the community.