Island Sexual Health (ISH) is warning it may be forced to scale back or suspend its long-running sexual health education program due to a major funding shortfall.
The Saanich-based non-profit said its program, which typically reaches more than 20,000 students in Grades 4 to 12 each year, has lost key financial support from the provincial government and can no longer offer its full range of services.
“We have been navigating a funding shortfall these past several years and, sadly, we have reached a critical juncture that threatens our programming for the 2025/26 school year,” said ISH education director Jennifer Gibson.
ISH’s educational program has been in place since 1986, offering “age-appropriate and evidence-based” education on topics such as puberty, consent, healthy relationships, contraception and gender identity, among other things.
According to Gibson, the organization offers the only service of its kind across several schools in Greater Victoria.
Until 2022, ISH received a provincial Community Gaming Grant that covered roughly one-third of its $295,000 annual budget. But everything changed after the Ministry of Health designated the organization a community health care centre, said Gibson. Since then, the organization, which also provides clinical services, has been ineligible for that education funding stream and has struggled to fill the gap.
“When we received that letter (from the gaming commission), I got sick to my stomach and my blood ran cold because I know the impact of our program is so robust and so great,” she said. “We have youth who, after the classroom presentation, will come up to us and say, ‘You literally have saved my life with this information.’ It's soul-crushing.”
Despite appealing the ministry’s decision, their efforts were unsuccessful. Now, they’re asking for fair treatment.
“There are other organizations that are structured very similarly to us… they're still receiving the funding, and we're not,” Gibson said. “We're just wanting equity in eligibility to apply.”
In a written statement to Saanich News, the Ministry of Health said the “ISH has transitioned into a Community Health Centre (CHC) under contract with the health authority overseen by the Ministry of Health,” but did not provide a rationale for ending the funding to the group’s education program.
The ministry added that the ISH CHC “is approved for annual funding of $4.3 million through B.C.’s Primary Care Strategy to connect people living in Victoria to the primary care services they need (and deliver) primary care sexual health services.”
Actively engaged with the organization's executive director, the ministry mentioned it was available to discuss potential solutions with ISH.
Although ISH has made cost-cutting efforts, including reducing staff hours and streamlining its services, the organization said it can no longer sustain operations under these conditions.
“We cut our educator hours down, we increased the fee to the schools, we tried to solicit more donations to offset this, and we essentially ran a deficit for the past four years, but we're at a point now where we literally cannot run a deficit,” she said.
As a result, three of the five staff will be permanently laid off on June 30 as the organization seeks new funding streams.
As the program nears its 40th anniversary, the organization is calling on the public and local politicians to help raise awareness and push for renewed grant eligibility.
Gibson said the funding cut comes at a time when demand for their services is at an all-time high, especially in an era where misinformation can interfere with young people’s sexual development.
“Our young people have access to information about sexuality anywhere, but it's not evidence-based, it's not accurate, it's not factual, and it's also not connecting them back to community service providers. And that's our organization’s (role).”
