BC Spinal Cord Injury Network

The BC Spinal Cord Injury Network helps make BC the best place for people with physical disabilities to live, work, and be active.

BC SCI Network and BC government representatives at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

What is the BC Spinal Cord Injury Network?

Formed in 2010, the BC Spinal Cord Injury Network (BC SCI Network) is comprised of five disability organizations working together to help make BC the best place for people with physical disabilities to live, work, and participate in the community. These organizations include Spinal Cord Injury BC, BC Wheelchair Sports Association, BC Wheelchair Basketball Society, The Disability Foundation, and the Neil Squire Society.

While each of our organizations is known for doing a lot with a little, we all recognized that we could do a whole lot more by working together. Through the complementary services that we each provide, the BC SCI Network is helping people with physical disabilities to overcome key challenges in their life by supporting physical and mental health and wellness, reducing social isolation, helping to find accessible housing, providing information on supports for daily living and other priority resources, increasing the confidence and skills to return to work, providing opportunities to engage in active, healthy lifestyles through sport and recreation, and providing support to be active and engaged members of communities throughout BC.

In 2017, the provincial government, through the Ministry of Social Development, provided the Network $5 million over five years to deliver more services to more people in more parts of the province. View our Strategic Framework to learn more about the BC SCI Network makes a difference.

Who We Serve

Although we share a common objective of serving people with spinal cord injury, each of our organizations serves a much broader range of people with different forms of disability, as well as family members, caregivers, students, athletes of all abilities, and others who provide support and care to people with disabilities.

The support we have received from the government has allowed us to create collaborative service delivery positions, to share office space, and to keep our staff members, which include 47 people with disabilities, employed and providing service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

This, in turn, enabled us to keep over 18,000 members connected, informed, and supported during the pandemic. In addition, it also allowed us to provide invaluable information resources and online support through 350,000 unique visits to our website-based services.

Our Impact

By working together, and with the support of the government, we have greatly increased participation in our life-changing services. Working with Indigenous partners, we have begun to co-develop programming for Indigenous persons with disabilities.

In 2021 alone, we served 18,343 people, welcomed 3,149 new members to our community, connected with 44,710 followers of social media, and received over 800,000 website page views from visitors looking for information, programming, and support on living well with a spinal cord injury.

Going forward, our collaborative services will focus on four priority areas of impact:

The physical and mental health and wellness of people with disabilities and their families
Access and inclusion
Participation by people with disabilities in BC’s labour market
Advancing Indigenous reconciliation and co-development of culturally safe and relevant services with Indigenous communities

Within these areas of impact, our work will focus on five overarching priorities:

Supporting the inclusion of people with disabilities in BC’s pandemic restart
Providing services that support meaningful participation and quality of life of people with disabilities and their families
Supporting the implementation of the Accessible BC Act
Increasing the efficiency and efficacy of operations through shared resources, knowledge, and infrastructure
Securing ongoing funding and resources

We’ve also had the privilege of hearing how our work makes a difference in the lives of our members throughout the province:

Kristina Sheldon

An SCI BC event marked the first time Kristina felt accepted after her injury, and from this event, more connections were made. Most importantly, it carried her back to a love she thought was lost—her music. An SCI BC peer introduced her to The Disability Foundation’s Vancouver Adapted Music Society (VAMS) which was crucial in helping her reconnect to music; from here, Kristina’s world started to open up.

“For me, it’s been music, but there’s also things like gardening, sports, movement or being in nature,” she says, “These [Network] programs provide the opportunity to learn from other people—they give structure and motivation to follow your interests and to heal in body and spirit.”
Read more.

Ean Price

Communication throughout the BC SCI Network has led tech company owner Ean to discover services he may have never found. The Disability Foundation’s Tetra Society, and the Neil Squire Society have provided adapted equipment and technology which help him in his work. Ean is a familiar face in SCI BC discussion groups where people talk about life and help one another.

When asked about his hopes for the British Columbian disability community in the next five years Ean stated, “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

“There are so many people that rely on these organizations,” he added thoughtfully, “I think that we are so fortunate that I almost take it for granted that these services are available.”

“There are so many people that rely on these organizations … I think that we are so fortunate that I almost take it for granted that these services are available.”
Read more.

Learn More

Visit the BC SCI Network partner websites:
Spinal Cord Injury BC
Disability Foundation
Neil Squire Society
BC Wheelchair Basketball
BC Wheelchair Sports Association

Read the BC government announcement of the BC SCI Network.

Download our Network infographic to learn more.

View our Strategic Framework.