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Gimme Shelter
INTENTIONAL HOUSING SOLUTIONS
» Thursday 16 October 2008 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan HOME. Join us as
Luke Stack, Jim Meiklejohn, Shelley Cook and Geoff Greenwell discuss their involvement in housing
designed to meet targeted community needs.
» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Experts Advocate the Need for Special Housing
We're living in dark days for housing it seems. Only a year ago few knew what sub-prime mortgages were, and we were all living the dream of high-priced real estate. Now rain seems to be falling down on all those economic forecasts, and it's hard to imagine what the future holds for housing.
But there are some who choose to weather the housing storm no matter what the current climate dishes out. These are the people who focus their energies on "intentional housing" - housing specifically designed to meet targeted needs.
These organizations have a mission in mind - and it's that mission that the Okanagan Institute Express series explores Thursday, October 16 at 5 pm at the Bohemian Café with Gimme Shelter: Intentional Housing Solutions.
The event will examine the challenges intentional housing faces from financing to design, to community objections and execution. All four speakers bring real-life experience to the table. They'll provide inspiration on how to make the Okanagan a better place to live, and provide ideas on how to do things differently - even challenge the current belief that sees housing primarily as an investment, rather than shelter. Some would argue the result is a generation that has borrowed against their homes and are now witnessing the crumbling of that false structure. The featured speakers are:
 Luke Stack is the executive director of the Society for Hope, which he launched nearly 20 years ago in the Okanagan. Launched with his wife Anne, Stack set out to provide affordable housing for single parents. By 2006, their work was recognized province-wide when the society received the BC Non-Profit Housing Stack's leadership, the society has been able to build affordable housing that addresses a variety of needs - including transition, family and seniors housing. It currently manages 12 sites providing 345 units around the Central Okanagan. Stack is currently serving on the City of Kelowna's advisory planning commission.
 Jim Meiklejohn is with Meiklejohn Architects, one of the key firms in the Okanagan with more than $200-million in projects currently undergoing design. Meiklejohn obtained his bachelor of architecture from Washington State University and since then has established himself as a key player in the development of functional and aesthetically pleasing health facilities. Most recently he completed work on the newly unveiled Cardington Apartments - the 30-unit housing project on St. Paul completed in conjunction with the John Howard Society.
 Geoff Greenwell is the senior business advisor to the Okanagan Nation Alliance (the Tribal Council of the seven Okanagan Indian Bands). He's currently working on a project that will provide a new office headquarters on the Penticton Indian reserve along with much-needed employee accommodation - a new twist on the "Microsoft campus" concept. Greenwell is also a city councillor in Lake Country where he chairs the district's affordable housing committee. Born and educated in the U.K., he spent time working in the global energy business in the Middle East and Africa throughout the 80's and early 90's before arriving in Canada in 1992. Since then he has worked as a strategic planner and business advisor to large companies, government departments and various nonprofit organizations.
 Shelley Cook is the Executive Director of John Howard Society of the Central and South Okanagan. She brings to her position almost 20 years experience working with criminally involved and at-risk youth and adults on a community level including working in school-based and residential settings. Through her combined professional experience, her training and formal education, Cook is extremely well versed in the issues of poverty, substance abuse, mental illness and other complex health and social problems and the interplay with the criminal justice system. Through her involvement in committees and coalitions, local housing forums, as well as through work related to the operation of the Society, Cook has been become increasingly attuned to the housing needs in the community, particularly in relation to 'hard to house' individuals.
Gimme Shelter: Intentional Housing Solutions is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 62nd event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, architect Jim Meiklejohn, broadcaster Mari0n Barschel and others from a wide range of creative fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Where Enquiring Minds Gather. Okanagan Institute at the Bohemian Café A hearty feast of lectures, presentations, workshops and showcases celebrating our culture and community. Produced by the Okanagan Institute in association with Wheat King Publishing magazines: Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home. Express is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Publishing, UBCO-FCCS, and in support of Project Literacy Kelowna.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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