Spring has sprung and our site has launched!

Hello this is Darcie McNeill, president of FSS, with some springtime news. Feeling really positive about the progress that has happened in the past couple months. We have connected our domain furnituresharehouse.ca to a website which explains the core concepts "Furniture Poverty" and "Furniture Bank Charity Organizations" to a new audience (Vancouver Island Residents) along with sign up forms for Referral Partner Agencies, Business Community Partners, Volunteers, and Future Furniture Donors to get updates on our progress regarding when we will be able to begin our furniture removal service and start to serve our first clients.

We have opened bank accounts with Coast Capital Credit Union and PayPal and have received our Charity Business Number from CRA. So now we're able to accept financial donations and are looking for grants we may be eligible to apply for. Finished verifying our identity with PayPal and this means we will soon be eligible to begin fundraising as a Canadian charity on the GoFundMe platform.

In March, FSS Vice President Scott Rumsby and I attended a small business meet and greet for start-ups at Victoria City Hall and received some helpful information from Small Business BC. We especially enjoyed meeting folks from the Immigrant and Refugee Association as well as the Inter-Cultural Association who were presenting there. We'll be in full-on networking mode all Spring, reaching out to social service agencies and the business community to build the multitude of relationships that are integral to our operations. So please, sign up using the form on our website if you're interested in joining our fight to end furniture poverty and want to help create a circular economy on Vancouver Island.