BCLC Community Gaming Grant Helps Transform Access to Care

$250,000 capital project grant supported a much-needed renovation to better serve youth and their families

KAMLOOPS, British Columbia (April 16, 2025) – Christine McCracken, co-executive director with Encompass Support Services Society (ESSS) – which hosts Foundry Langley – knows what can happen when a community rallies together.

It’s one of the core reasons Foundry Langley opened its doors in 2022 – to increase access to integrated care and wellness services for youth, ages 12 to 24, and their caregivers in five core areas: drop-in counseling, substance use, primary care, youth and family peer support. 

“We had experienced losses of youth in the community,” says McCracken. “We wanted to come together and figure out how we could solution that for our community and for our youth. It was a group of like-minded service providers, businesses and local government who said, ‘We can do this.’”

"This" included rallying together to raise an incredible $2.5 million to build the Foundry Langley site – with $250,000 coming from a B.C. Community Gaming Grant for capital projects. These funds supported a much-needed renovation of the space in order to better serve youth and their families.

“We actually took the whole building down to the exterior walls and from there we rebuilt everything,” says McCracken. “The biggest piece for us was listening to the youth – what the space was going to look like, and it’s been developed into a vibrant place that reflects the youth who access the site.”

Encompass Support Services Society is just one of many thousands of organizations across B.C. supported by a B.C. Community Gaming Grant.

Every year, $140 million of BCLC’s net income goes back to the Province to be distributed through these grants to support a wide range of non-profit organizations in their delivery of vital, local and ongoing programs and services that benefit individuals, families and communities throughout B.C. 

“There is no doubt how much the Province of B.C.’s Community Gaming Grants program benefits the people of British Columbia,” says Pat Davis, president and CEO of BCLC. “Non-profit organizations – like Encompass Support Services Society – are an essential part of B.C. communities and these grants support their work to enhance the quality of life for so many.”

BCLC was established in 1985 to conduct and manage gambling on behalf of the Province of British Columbia. For the past 40 years, 100 per percent of it net profits have gone back to the Province to help build and benefit communities, like Langley. 

“What began as a small organization responsible for lottery games has since grown into a significant contributor to B.C.’s economy and communities,” continued Davis. “BCLC is proud that our business plays an important role supporting provincial initiatives that make B.C. a better place to live, and to help strengthen important community services, supports and connections.”

For Foundry Langley staff, those enduring connections and sense of community is what drives them in their work, every day.

“Foundry is really collaborative effort,” says Jesslyn Linden, manager. “It transforms access to care for young people and their families. We’re really able to come together as a community and wrap-around youth to give them the support they need.”

Each year, 100 percent of BCLC’s net income goes back to the Province and is distributed in many ways to benefit British Columbians, including $140 million that goes towards the Province’s Community Gaming Grants program to support non-profit organizations and initiatives like Foundry Langley.