The Central Okanagan Journey Home Society has raised $1-million of its $2.7 million fundraising goal.

鈥淲e continue to work diligently to establish our goal of funding the Journey Home Society for the first five years of operation,鈥� said Kyleen Myrah, chair of the journey home board, in a press release.

For the remainder of 2019, the COJHS board will focus on a thorough mapping of services available in the city, including a gap analysis to determine what is missing; establish the COJHS day-to-day operations; build connections with provincial and federal governments and tap into all available resources as soon as possible; and create education around who experiences homelessness in our community and why.

READ MORE: LIVED EXPERIENCE CRUCIAL

The society has also made headway in its structure.

鈥淭he outcome is that our board includes a broad spectrum of community and business leaders who are dedicated to contributing their energy into implementing the Journey Home Strategy. They are a reflection of our community 鈥� the community that came together during the Journey Home process and vowed to work together to reach functional zero of homelessness by 2024,鈥� said said Gaelene Askeland, Executive Director of COJHS, in a press release.

The new board members are Murray Bye, Josh Cairns, Ken Gauthier, Debbie Hubbard, Helen Jackman and Donna Jansons. They join founding board members Dave Krysko, Scott Lanigan, Diane Roy, Shane Worman and Chair of the Board, Kyleen Myrah, representatives from the Lived Experience Circle on Homelessness, youth advocates and a number of ex-officio organization representatives and liaisons, including Mayor Colin Basran.

For more information about Journey Home, visit info@journeyhome.ca.

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