SideBySide Children’s Village Society was founded in 1986 as a grassroots response to deficiencies in the provincial foster care system characterized by frequent placement breakdowns and moves for children and youth, and the separation of siblings into different homes. The society operated under the name SOS Children’s Village British Columbia (Canada) Society before changing to its name to SideBySide Children’s Village Society in April 2024.
The tragic experience of a 15-year-old girl in B.C.’s foster care program prompted Louis and Gilles Bouchard, a Richmond, B.C. couple, to learn about the work of SOS Children’s Villages, a nonprofit organization that supports children who have lost parental care or are at risk of losing it with a focus on providing family-like care, education, healthcare, and emergency relief.
The SOS Children’s Village model was conceived in Austria in 1949 by Hermann Gmeiner a child welfare worker who wished to address the isolation and suffering of the many World War II orphans and homeless children who could not grow up with their biological families. Hermann Gmeiner’s exclusive focus was the need to help abandoned children and his model envisaged childcare based on the four pillars of a mother, a home, siblings, and a village.
His motto was “nothing in the world is more important than to care for a child”.
Louis and Gilles, with the help of others, and with the encouragement of the international branch of SOS Children’s Villages entered into an affiliation agreements with SOS Children’s Villages Canada. This affiliation led to the incorporation of SOS Children’s Village (British Columbia) Canada Society in 1986 with the purpose of establishing and operating an SOS Children’s Village in British Columbia.
By 1999 one house was opened by SOS Children’s Village (British Columbia) Canada Society and the site in Surrey rapidly grew into a village community for foster children and their foster parents. By December 2023 our village consisted of five spacious houses and five basement suites.
Our organization is unique in that we were and continue to be primarily self-funded through donations and grants. Since 1986 we have operated several charitable thrift stores in the Lower Mainland and as of 2025 we operate two charitable stores – Treasure Cottage in Steveston, Richmond and Houndstooth in Vancouver. These stores help fund our activities with net proceeds used for the maintenance of our village, expanding our program offerings for youth and children in care, enabling us to send children and youth on field trips, all while supporting our local communities.
Our affiliation agreement with SOS Children’s Villages Canada expired in January 2024 and our organization decided to not renew the agreement – this required us to change our legal name and, in April 2024, we adopted the name SideBySide Children’s Village Society. Notwithstanding our name change, we continue to believe in our society’s vision that every child and youth belongs in a family so that they can grow with love, respect, and security into self-reliant adults.
Changing our name to SideBySide Children’s Village Society has not changed our constitution and we continue to believe in our core mandates of providing a safe, inclusive village environment for all youth and children in care. Rather than confining ourselves to foster children and youth in need, we intend to pursue and expand our vision and mission to benefit any child and youth in need in British Columbia.
The isolation and suffering of orphans and homeless or abandoned children across the world sadly continues to this day we believe that SOS Children’s Villages work in those locations in the world where this isolation and suffering occurs remains as important and laudable as ever.
Foster and youth care, including program delivery, has always been challenging in British Columbia. The number of children and youth in need, each child’s unique support requirements, and the vastness of British Columbia are only three examples of the many challenges organizations like ours face to deliver housing and services to our most vulnerable. Unlike in Europe where the state permits delegation of guardianship over a child to organizations, the ultimate responsibility and guardianship of children in British Columbia rests with the provincial government making it challenging for us to deliver all-encompassing services to children and youth in need in a financially feasible manner.
The British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development is tasked with and does offer many services (especially to those who are vulnerable) and their families such as family support services, services for children and youth with support needs, intake and screening services, helplines and other after-hours support, resources and referrals, funding and benefit programs and specialized treatment for disabilities, mental health issues and substance abuse.
It is within this framework that we look to partner with the Ministry, key stakeholders, and other charitable organizations in British Columbia to contribute our own knowledge, expertise, time, and funds, to assist, supplement and/or to become responsible for the implementation and maintenance of certain programs and services.
We are excited and motivated to continue on our journey to provide services to children, youth, and their families in British Columbia. With our five houses and five basement suites on a pristine 2.5 acre parcel of land in Surrey, we have a well established campus ready for use as a focal point for the surrounding community and beyond.
Our unique Village model was inspired by Austrian philanthropist Hermann Gmeiner and the SOS Children’s Villages organization which he established to look after the orphans of the Second World War. Hermann Gmeiner’s belief was that a loving and trauma informed caregiver, a family-like atmosphere that keeps siblings together, a consistent home with subsidized rent, and a community of professional support staff create a circle of healing, hope, and belonging for children in need. Our services include counselling, youth programming, connection to Indigenous culture, and more, to support youth in courageously moving past barriers on their way to mental wellness.
These elements are evident in our Village, located in a picturesque area of Surrey, British Columbia where the need is most acute. Since its opening in 1999, the 2.5 acre Village site has provided care and support to local children in care and their families; helping to build on individual strengths and cultivate social networks to maximize each child’s opportunities for success. We recognize that the Ministry of Children & Family Development is overworked and underfunded, as are the caring professionals who work in its delegated agencies. We as a society have underfunded and overworked them for decades. Our society, through its Village model, took the lead in developing a successful framework of quality care for the troubled provincial child welfare system to emulate – setting the standard for the care of children and vulnerable youth in British Columbia.
Every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security
We empower children, youth and families in need to grow into caring, self-reliant people from the foundation of our core village
We offer a truly distinct model of care for children and youth. We are not only unique in our home province of British Columbia, but we are the one and only organization that has successfully adopted the Village model in Canada and have continued to do so for over 25 years. The success of our Village model separate us from provincial foster care systems, delegated agencies, and other organizations operating in British Columbia and Canada.
The very word conjures up images of peace, harmony, love, and safety. We build, and provide at subsidized rent, a home for parents, guardians, children, and youth to create a nurturing family structure where children’s basic needs are met. This stability allows them to open up to our healing and growth programs. Many children in our Village live there from toddler to young adult. We do not wish to compound past trauma with multiple moves from foster home to foster home.
A community of professional caregivers working together and supported by a core of highly trained, dedicated, and dynamic staff providing individualized, programming for the children and caregivers. Kids have expressed that their neighbours within the Village are like extended family and say that even though they are all different, they are all in alternative care and can share that with one another. They feel that they belong and that they matter.
We have a strong focus on keeping siblings in foster care together in the same home to grant stability, because sometimes a brother or sister is the only connection to family that a child has left. We believe that sibling groups are of primary importance in the healthy social development of children.
Since the professional staff at the Village are able to notice behaviour, they can address it and prevent it from escalating further into other issues. Our Village is integrated with the community and does not stand out among the residential area where it exists, and by extension enables us to also support families who live outside the Village in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Children in foster care have faced challenges that most young people could never imagine. We provide the services these children need to become emotionally healthy again. They need support and specialized counselling to move on with their lives – this should never be optional. Kids who live in the Village are never put on a wait list.
The park-like atmosphere of our Village helps heal its inhabitants, with caregivers looking out for each other’s children when they are playing outside. The services provided to the families – free of charge thanks to donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations – include cognitive behavioural therapy and art and play therapy. We believe mental wellness is vital, and we are trauma informed in all that we do.
Helping children achieve mental and emotional wellness is core to our model of care. However, like any parent we want to give these children every opportunity. Therefore, we provide recreational programs, camps, music lessons, academic assistance, and cultural engagement to help them become well-rounded and caring adults.
Located on the unceded traditional territories of the Salish Peoples, including the qicəy (Katzie), qʷɑ:nƛən (Kwantlen), and Semiahma (Semiahmoo) land-based nations.
Registered Canadian Charity #: 12993-5011 RR0001 | © 2025 SideBySide Children’s Village Society | Website by FirstPage Marketing
